Marine zone reduced bag limit

[troutdude]

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

NEWPORT, Ore.—The daily bag limit for general marine fish (rockfish, greenlings, skates, etc.) will be reduced from 5 to 4 beginning July 1.

“Participation in this fishery has been really good so far this year with effort higher than even record years seen in two of the past three years,” said Lynn Mattes, Project Leader, ODFW. “Reducing the bag limit to 4 fish on July 1 is necessary to keep black rockfish, other nearshore rockfish and yelloweye rockfish catches within annual limits.”

Cabezon retention also opens on July 1 with a 1-fish sub-bag limit (meaning that of the 4-fish marine bag, no more than 1 can be a cabezon). Bag limits for lingcod, flatfish and the longleader fishery remain the same.

Anglers this year made 40,619 bottomfish trips through May (17,750 in May alone), compared to 24,080 for January-May last year, which until 2018 was the highest effort year on record. Angler effort is only expected to increase as summer fishing peaks.

Last year, recreational bottomfish closed on Sept. 18 after the annual quotas for several species were met early, the first in-season closure since 2004. The closure disrupted coastal charter businesses and anglers. (Typically, recreational bottomfish fishing is open all year, though effort significantly drops off after early fall.)

ODFW has been working to avoid another early closure this year by providing effort and catch rates at more frequent intervals and modeling impacts of various bag limit scenarios.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission heard testimony from coastal sportfishing businesses before deciding on the 5-fish bag limit when it set regulations back in December, with the understanding that in-season adjustments could be necessary to keep the season open through the end of the year.

Get the latest on marine fishing regulations and opportunities at https://myodfw.com/recreation-report/fishing-report/marine-zone

 

[Irishrover]

The good thing is coho opens on the 30th of June. That should give folks another species to target. Nearshore halibut is open also and that is where we are headed in the morning. The other fishery that should help take pressure off nearshore rock fish is the long leader fishery. It is open out past the forty fathom line and the limit is 10 fish. I've set a couple of rods up for that and plan on giving it a try.

 

[rogerdodger]

I have confidence that ODFW will continue to make bag limit reductions as needed to avoid having any sort of total closure. As a near-shore kayak fisherman, I have absolutely no problem with even lower limits, a 1 ling + 2 rockfish limit would be just fine with me and most jetty and small private boaters, a total closure is unacceptable, this is a RECREATIONAL bottom fishery, decisions about it need to be made based on fishermen, not businesses.

 

[troutdude]

a total closure is unacceptable, this is a recreational bottom fishery, decisions about it need to be made based on fishermen, not businesses.

x 2.

 

[4labs]

Funny how they count "trips" compared to "catch" so amount of fish caught means nothing. I wonder if they count trailers in a parking lot ? I never tell them about released fish cause that goes down as a dead fish but that doesn't matter because they add that to the "catch" anyhow. So go to CA and the bag is 10 + 2 lings . Something wrong with this picture.

 

[rogerdodger]

Funny how they count "trips" compared to "catch" so amount of fish caught means nothing. I wonder if they count trailers in a parking lot ? I never tell them about released fish cause that goes down as a dead fish but that doesn't matter because they add that to the "catch" anyhow. So go to CA and the bag is 10 + 2 lings . Something wrong with this picture.

I think there are a few more details in the CA regs that change how many of us view it- bottom fishing from any floating object is only open 8 months each year (May 1 to Dec 31) and there is a sub-bag limit of 3 black rockfish, 2 canary rockfish, and 1 cabazon.

So the way I see it, during the 2/3 of the year that people in CA can even bottom fish from a floating object, they can only keep 3 black rockfish and 2 lingcod, any additional catch needs to come from other species that are not present in many near-shore and estuary areas.

ODFW staff recommendation this year was 2 lings and a marine bag limit of 4 fish with the 1 cabazon after July 1 as basically the only sub-bag restriction. That is what we are at now and I'll take that all year every year over what CA has.

Plus, Oregon has a 10 fish bag limit bottom fishery, open all year now, boats just need to go out past 40 fathoms, use a defined weight/leader set-up, and they can load them up all day long....

 

[4labs]

So now trips count as limits. Since when do trips over ride actual counts. Do they consider trips against rock fish when you go crabbing? how many trips result in less than a limit. Coos to the ca border are the only true 30 fathom fisheries with brookings and coos getting the most pressure and the long line is great but how many can really do it. I have a 24ft boat and wont t go 8-10 miles out when you can stay in in less than 2 miles. Their suppose to be rockfish totals not trips, were have you seen that before to calculate the number of fish caught. I don't get it. I agree with the sub-species that was a great decision but this trip thing was never mentioned by odfw at any meeting that I heard of .



ok sorry about the rant.. a few too many beers after a hot day. Thank god they didn't shut it down , my freezer is still void of a good supply of white fish.

 

[rogerdodger]

So now trips count as limits. Since when do trips over ride actual counts. Do they consider trips against rock fish when you go crabbing? how many trips result in less than a limit. Coos to the ca border are the only true 30 fathom fisheries with brookings and coos getting the most pressure and the long line is great but how many can really do it. I have a 24ft boat and wont t go 8-10 miles out when you can stay in in less than 2 miles. Their suppose to be rockfish totals not trips, were have you seen that before to calculate the number of fish caught. I don't get it. I agree with the sub-species that was a great decision but this trip thing was never mentioned by odfw at any meeting that I heard of .



ok sorry about the rant.. a few too many beers after a hot day. Thank god they didn't shut it down , my freezer is still void of a good supply of white fish.

I think the 'trips' info might have 'tripped' you up. I see that in the PR as a 'here is an example of why we are eating up our quota too fast'. Have you seen the catch estimates and quota used data?

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/finfish/groundfish_sport/estimates/docs/species.pdf

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/finfish/groundfish_sport/estimates/docs/quota_used.pdf