Is it time to reduce Rockfish limits?

I think its time and actually way over due to reduce the daily bag limit on rock fish. My background is I have been fishing these waters Bodega Bay and up north sense the mid 1960's diving, spearfishing, Kayaking and fishing from the beach and rocks. There is just to many of us. We all love to fish I don't want to sound like a snotty tree hugger. I too like to harvest the oceans and teach my sons to do the same but there are so many boats and kayakers now its just getting over run/fished.
Oregon has 7 daily bag limits I think Calif should do the same. I would rather keep 7 nice fish than 10 tiny or small fish any day.
The only ones I can think of that would have a cow is the Party boats I can see them screaming out against this , who would pay 150.00 to catch 7 small cod.
Anyway slam me if you want but there are going to be more and more fishermen and less and less nice size fish....Am I wrong?

I look at it as "sport fishing."  Target the larger fish, catch and release the small fish.  I don't need to limit out every trip.  Lowering the limit would have little impact on my fishing.  I could live with a smaller limit.  (Hey, it makes limiting out a lot easier!)

I'm not taking sides on retention limits.  I'm from Oregon.

About over-harvesting = smaller fish, 'though, where I live, the area was over-fished by the commercial fleet for years until they voluntarily stopped, and after more than a decade free of commercial fishing, the area is only now beginning to show signs of starting to recover.

We have a joint NOAA/university-sponsored research station in town.  They measure these things, and yes, the fish are smaller than in other areas not too far away.  Rockfish are 29% smaller on average, greenlings (sea trout) are 16% smaller, and there are very few legal-sized lingcod (22" in Oregon) to be found, most are in the 12-20" range.

It does happen.  I don't know what the solution may be.  Should recreational anglers take on the entire burden?  Would that be enough to help?

Catching more of the poachers would definitely help. Especially the ones that keep shorts of all fish types 

Catching more of the poachers would definitely help. Especially the ones that keep shorts of all fish types 

That would work except there is no rockfish size limit.

The only ones I can think of that would have a cow is the Party boats I can see them screaming out against this , who would pay 150.00 to catch 7 small cod.
Anyway slam me if you want but there are going to be more and more fishermen and less and less nice size fish....Am I wrong?

No. You are right. Like you I've fished the Sonoma Coast since the late 1950's till now and the large rock fish pupulation has dropped dramatically. There was a time when no one had fish finders or GPS to locate reefs close in or far out. Fish had a better chance of remaining hidden and surviving. And yes. Party boats would scream but with a 65 foot vessel, think Sea Angler here, that can fish in 20 knot wind and big seas with 30 to 40 fisherman guided to every GPS marked spot on the ocean, they take more than their share.

I can't remember the last time I actually kept 10 fish. I'm ok with it.

I dunno...I don't think lowering the limits would help fish mortality much. On the party boats people would just be tossing back more fish with barotrauma that would float away to die. Mandating the use of descending devices would help, I'm sure.

No I don't think its the almighty answer but something is better that doing nothing. Most anglers I talk to boaters, kayakers in general agree 7 would be fine.
Fish and Game is sometime knee jerk reaction and sometime slower than crap to change I can only surmise that its the party boats that are stopping it.
All fish caught from rocks can be thrown back and I send a lot of fish back if I am in shallow enough water and all lings and blues and blacks go back too.
I just don't want to see it get as bad as the abalone in Sonoma and wait till its panic stage. The no kelp has me worried too the the fry fish have no place to hide and grow there in open water and super easy prey. I dive too so under water right now looks like a burned out forest.

I don't think I have EVER kept a limit of rockfish.
I keep what I'll eat in a day or two, that's it.
Since my teens I've practiced catch and release before it was even a catch phrase.
My friends thought I was crazy. I even had one friend's dad, after I released a 15lb striper, tell me if I ever did that again I was no longer welcome to fish on his boat.
It just made more sense to me to keep the factory up and running rather than to deplete it's resources.
I also have no need to 'keep the refrigerator stocked' either.
So lower bag limits or greater size limits wouldn't bother me a bit.
I'm tellin' ya, kayak fishing was WAY more productive in the 90's than it is now.....
WAY MORE!

Catching more of the poachers would definitely help. Especially the ones that keep shorts of all fish types 

That would work except there is no rockfish size limit.

You need to spend some time at the cleaning table after sunset.  Powerboat fishers with undersize lings, zero limit fish.

Lower the limit.  Teach people actual ethics.  Do things that push our culture toward being conscientious as a rule - we need to revere these species before they're gone.

Hell yes.

haha certain people know my position on this fish. Call me a snob.
Although Verms still have a certain place in my heart. Lol. 

Rockfish limit used to be 20. Don't put the blame solely on partyboats. Many people don't fish very often and do provide an occasional fish fry for their families.

In all honesty, I wouldn't mind a smaller limit on Rock fish.  AND I would love for there to be a law that prohibits commercial fishing.  Me personally have never and will never purchase fish or any seafood from a store. I understand that that would in-turn affect hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs but sport fishing will never in a million years affect the numbers if we were to prohibit commercial fishing.  I've seen first hand 60 pound King salmon caught commercially and thrown overboard dead.  If we were to just say goodbye to commercial fishing it would greatly increase the amount of poaching but our oceans would finally be able to catch up on years and years of Raping.  When I was 13-14 my grandparents and I would limit out on Coho everyday we went out, we could drop a shrimp fly rig down with 5 flys and have 5 fish on before you flipped the bail.  I would kill to be able to fish like that again.