CALIFORNIA COAST - Now is the open season once again when Grunion Runs bring lots of fun. If you are game for catching the slippery silver fish that wiggle their way into the sand to lay eggs, you have a narrow window of opportunity to partcipate. The little fish that come ashore to spawn in the sand are edible, and similar to smelt. Many like to clean them and cook them in casseroles or fry grunion up in a pan. Living along the California coast from Baja to around Santa Barbara, grunion spawn from around late February through early September. However, there are only 26 days in 2011 that you are allowed to catch them and several have already passed.

When can you catch them, and what's the catch? On Monday, March 7 the grunion are expected to be on the beach from 10:25 p.m. to 12:25 a.m. Then there's a 12 day break and they return to the beach again March 19-22. After that, you will have to wait till June to fish for the grunion again.

The catch in catching them is that you have to buy a license, can only use your hands to catch them, and can't dig holes in the sand to trap them. If you are going for the fun, do return the fish back into the sea again if you don't plan to eat them, experts advise. Here's the full grunion run schedule for 2011.