Bottom fish catch estimates through April 1.

[rogerdodger]

It is still early in the year but I'm not seeing us OFF to a good start.

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

 

[4labs]

The yelloweye est. is what disturbs me the most. As I have been told by others the fish you release are counted as a dead fish and added to the counts. Guess the descender device doesn't matter

 

[rogerdodger]

The yelloweye est. is what disturbs me the most. As I have been told by others the fish you release are counted as a dead fish and added to the counts. Guess the descender device doesn't matter

actually, they apply a 'mortality factor' based on data showing what percentage of released fish end up dying. same sort of approach gets applied to other fish based on the 'fishing effort', for example, check the Cabby data so far, they don't open until July 1, so all that quota we have used up is just the estimated mortality from people catching lings and rockfish....what I am seeing in this data is that the fishing effort so far this year has been high, if that holds through the summer, ruh roh scooby, we got a problem.

 

[Irishrover]

Rodger you are onto something here. I read those number and my jaw dropped. I sure hope salmon and tuna take some pressure off the rock fish. If this rate continues it might not be a full year of bottom fishing. Next years season will be effected too. Thanks for the informative post.

 

[4labs]

Last yr I told myself to wait until Sept. and combine my salmon and rockfish trips into one
That didn't work

 

[rogerdodger]

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.

 

[Irishrover]

The shortened salmon season and lower quota have tended to add more pressure to the pursuit of rock fish. Years ago fewer people fished for the "bottom" fish. Salmon was king of the offshore fishery. Then in 1994 the central coast was shut down to the retention of salmon, bottom fish became the target and folks realized that it was a great fishery. Salmon stocks have been on a rollercoaster ride every since. The last really good year was 2009 off the central coast. The quota for coho was 110,000 hatchery fish. There was a three fish a day limit and the season went through the summer. Last year was the quota was 19,000 hatchery coho and the season ended on July 31st. I'm all for doing what we need to do to protect near shore rock fish. With the advance in electronics targeting rock fish has become a lot easier. I remember using land marks to locate the reefs then came loran C, followed by GPS. I like that three way split but charters will maintain they are just transport vessels for recreational fishermen.