Irishrover;n606926 said:
I wish they would allow bottom fishing out beyond the 30 fathom line and past the 40 fathom line all summer. That should take pressure off those near shore fishing areas. I would love to run out to Nehalem Banks aka the shale pile and fish for suspended yellow tail. The problem with doing that now is Nehalem Banks is 20 some mile due west of Tillamook Head, so you have to run up from Garibaldi or down from Astoria. That is a long run to make in bad weather months. July, August or September would be a much safer time to make that run.
Opening the 40 fathom line earlier out of Newport Depoe Bay area would also have taken the pressure off those near shore black rock fish areas. During the summer those black rock fish get hammered by charters and sports boats alike. I'm guilty of doing that because I'm blocked from fish beyond 30 fathoms for rock fish. Last year the went all the way into the 20 fathom line. I know these are not ODF&W decisions, they come from NOAA Marine fisheries. ODF&W does a good job within the confines of the rules dropped on them by NOAA. Now might be a good time to pull the fly rod off the wall and hit some streams for trout. Gulfstream thank you for the information, it's appreciated.
that totally leaves people like me out of the fishery management equation. I've never been out past 20 fathoms and I bottom fish all year at 2 locations in CoosBay plus a few days each year nearshore to Sunset Bay (Simpson Reef), I sit at water level and pedal. Being out in nature fishing isn't just about retaining limits, a great day for me on CoosBay is retaining one lingcod under 30 inches. In Oct-Nov, I had planned to fish CoosBay several times for lings, perhaps I would have retained a total of 2 from say 4 days out and never even hooked a rockfish. Maybe I would have hooked another CaliButt or even jigged up a chinook...but because of the charters and powerboats loaded with the max # of people taking limits of Blacks all year, I now would be required to release a tasty teal 26" lingcod, perhaps the only fish I hook in 5 hours hunting them, despite the fact that my fishing presents zero risk to rockfish. F-that.
They should have cut the black limit to 3 back in June or July, when they first detected that fishing pressure and catches were running high. Then, if we were still getting close to the quota for blacks, they could have closed just them with enough quota left to account for some losses from people still allowed to fish for lings and cabs (that are well below quota according to my discussions yesterday with ODFW.) I understand fisheries management is difficult and requires compromise and balancing demands, I am still on "Team ODFW" and wish they had more resources but they blew this one for me. cheers, roger