4labs;n611654 said:
Last yr I told myself to wait until Sept. and combine my salmon and rockfish trips into one
That didn't work
"Bottom fish early and often" is my motto this year, Plus I hope like heck that the long leader fishery becomes popular, including with charters.
as for the descending devices, it is my understanding that because they increase survival rates for released rockfish, requiring them allows the marine scientists to apply a lower mortality rate for released rockfish, which means things would be even worse without them, for the fish and those of us that want to chase them all year.
a bit of background on how we got here- the catch/mortality quotas for some of the fish have been trending down slowly over recent years while the bottom fishing effort OFF Oregon has been increasing steadily, the two trends crossed over late last summer.
I personally think it might help to split our quota 3 ways: commercial, charter, and recreational. I just don't know if that is even an option.