Hook spacing above the bottom.

[LingFace]

Suppose I am fishing inside 30 fathoms, will I catch more kinds of rock fish if I put my hooks at 3 different positions above the sinker up to 30-40 feet above the bottom. Are different retainable fish suspended at different depths like that or would I just have one hook catching whatever was schooling in that spot. Or would I be getting negative feedback from the game warden?

 

[rogerdodger]

You are likely to catch the same mix of rockfish nearshore regardless of depth. When you conduct 'normal' bottom fishing starting Jan1, 2018 (5 fish limit plus 2 lingcod, all depths Jan-March and Oct-Dec, inside 30 fathoms April-Sept), your hooks can be (and you can catch fish) at any depth you want.

The longleader offshore fishery (with hooks required to be at least 30' OFF the bottom) is required to avoid catching (and releasing) Yelloweye rockfish that stay near the bottom and are common at >40 fathoms. You can only retain rockfish commonly found out there: yellowtail, widow, canary, redstripe, greenstriped, silvergray, and bocaccio. 10 fish limit, no lingcod.

 

[4labs]

Depends on structure I stick with a simple shrimp fly setup on most outfits and adjust the weight according to depth 6,8 or12oz with the biggest white split tail on the bottom for lings. In shallow water under 60ft I use a lead jig like a p-line on the bottom. Don't think anyone cares about spacing just overlimits. One favorite is a lite spin outfit with just a single white hoochie and no weight just the hook and let it drift in the current, have caught some monster canary' and vermillion that way plus its a blast on a spin outfit .
Also I know nothing about long leader fishing since I never fish deeper than 180'

 

[Irishrover]

I have found that black rockfish use the full water column. So you would be apt to still be in them with a hook spread as you mention. I'm trying to understand how one would reel up a rig like that. Seems if the hooks were spread out over thirty feet as in every 10 feet or so it might cause a problem unless its a hand line. On the longleader set up the bottom hook is at least 30 feet up the line from the weight but the other two hooks are in close proximity to each other. That allows one to reel in the line to the hooks and float. When fishing from a boat, knowing the area you fish and having a fish finder is very helpful. When I bottom fish I generally work a reef. I float over a reef and watch the finder, when it comes alive with fish I drop my gear down to them and fish the school. This is inside the 30 fathom line so a reef might be 25 to 35 feet down and the sea floor at 90 to 100 feet. It's sort of like stalking the fish rater than waiting for a bite.

 

[wils]

If you are using a meter to find your "rock", then you should be able to see at what depth the fish are congregating. Many times a mere change of 10' in depth of your bait will make the difference between a good day and a really long day.