Rockfish, Bottomfish Reg Changes Coming To OR Coast Sept. 6
THE FOLLOWING IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
Beginning Sept. 6 when fishing from a boat during the recreational bottomfishing season, retention of China and copper rockfish and cabezon is prohibited, and the daily general marine fish bag limit is reduced to four fish. Lingcod remains a two-fish bag limit. Yelloweye and quillback rockfish remain prohibited.
An increase in ocean friendly days this year and higher catch rates of fish per trip let many anglers have a very successful year bottomfishing. The in-season bag limit reduction and harvest restriction on China and copper rockfish and cabezon is needed to remain under Oregon’s recreational harvest quota for nearshore rockfish.
Catching these fish from shore is infrequent, contributing a very small amount of mortality and is excluded from the retention closure, although ODFW encourages releasing these fish uninjured.
The longleader fishery remains open for mid-water rockfish species. Anglers participating in this fishery can continue to harvest 10 rockfish. For the 10-fish bag limit to apply, anglers must fish seaward of the 40-fathom regulatory line, use longleader gear only, and are limited to the 10 allowed rockfish species.
No other rockfish, flatfish, or lingcod may be kept during a longleader trip which can be combined with a salmon, albacore tuna and Dungeness crab trip. Anglers are reminded they cannot combine longleader fishing with Pacific halibut on the same trip beginning Sept. 1.
Use of a descending device to release rockfish is required when fishing outside of 30 fathoms and is recommended at any depth for fish that are not able to submerge on their own.
Information is available online for recreational bottomfish seasons, along with rockfish identification tips and an ID quiz.
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