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Topic: A primer on rockfishing with size and bag limits and how to stay within the regs  (Read 7204 times)

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Herb Superb

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Lingon

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Great post. Super helpful for the newcomer! Thanks.
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NowhereMan

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I'm looking at the 2014 regulations, and I can't find any length restrictions on bocaccio. Am I missing something?
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frankcezar

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Big thanks for posting this. I just bought my laminated fish ID card :-)


crash

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I'm looking at the 2014 regulations, and I can't find any length restrictions on bocaccio. Am I missing something?

Yup. You are missing that not only is there no longer a size limit, but the limit is now 3 fish inside the RCG!  I never fish for these and had no idea. Thanks for the heads up, OP will be changed to reflect current regs.
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crash

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This post is designed to have all of the information a fisherman who is unfamiliar with fishing our salt would need to catch rockfish while remaining legal and treating the resource with the respect it deserves.  Gearing up and safety are beyond the scope of this post but you are responsible for your own safety on the ocean, and there is great information available elsewhere on NCKA that covers this in detail.
 
Is the season open?

Fish and Wildlife, formerly Fish and Game (DFW), has a handy tool on their site to determine exactly what is open where you want to fish.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/fishing_map.asp

Once you have determined that rockfish season is open in the area you want to fish, you need to ascertain where the Marine Protected Areas are in that area.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa/mpa_summary.asp

How deep can I fish?

There are depth limits when fishing for rockfish, which can be found in the link above when checking if rockfish season is open.  For example, here in the Northern Management Area, you have to fish 120' or shallower.  If you have rockfish on board, you may not fish in waters deeper than allowed for fishing for rockfish even if you are fishing for a different species.  If you are in deeper water, you need to have all fishing gear out of the water.

** A note about barotrauma and descenders.

Just because you can fish down to a certain depth doesn't mean you should.  If you fish deeper than about 50 feet, you need to be prepared to send a fish back down to the depths unharmed. 

From wiki:

Quote
Fish with isolated swim bladders are susceptible to barotrauma of ascent when brought to the surface by fishing. The swim bladder is an organ of buoyancy control which is filled with gas from the blood, and which is normally removed by the reverse process. If the fish is brought upwards in the water column faster than the gas can be resorbed, the gas will expand until the bladder is stretched to its elastic limit, and may rupture. Barotrauma could be fatal, but rockfish are able to recover if they are sent back to depths of about 45 meters, shortly after surfacing. Scientists at NOAA developed the Seaqualizer to quickly return rockfish to depth. The device could increase survival in caught-and-released rockfish.

DFW has a booklet on best methods for returning a rockfish to depth:

www.nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345

If you do not have the means to send a fish back down, please fish shallow, inside of 50 feet.

What gear can I use?

You may use exactly one rod with no more than two hooks.  If you catch a rockfish when you have more than one rod in the water, you must release it.  Full stop.

There is no prohibition on the size of the hooks, and the hooks may be barbed.  You may use any type of bait or artificial lure.  Note:  If you catch a salmon on this gear, you have to release it.  It isn't salmon legal.

You MUST carry a net on board with a minimum opening of 18”.  You should also have some way to measure a fish that has a minimum size restriction.  Hawg troughs are probably the easiest and most popular measuring devices.

How many fish can I keep?

This can seem a little confusing, but here is the long and short of it:

You can keep 20 fish total per day.  The daily limit is the possession limit, with the notable exception of salmon where you are allowed to possess two daily limits so long as you are on shore and actually caught your daily limits on separate days.

Of the 20 fish, 10 may belong to the “RCG complex”, Rockfish, Cabezon, and Greenling.  Outside of the RCG complex, you may keep 2 lingcod,
3 CA halibut north of Pt. Sur, Monterrey County or 5 CA halibut south of Pt. Sur, and one pacific halibut.  Almost all finfish count toward this 20 fish limit, so be mindful if you decide to go perch fishing or something.

Inside the RCG complex, the following limits apply:

3 cabezon
3 bocaccio
10 other rockfish
10 greenling (recently increased)

For a total of 10 fish in your limit.


Lingcod are outside of the RCG complex and do not count against your 10 fish RCG limit!

Speaking of long and short, is there a size limit?

For some fish, yes.

Cabezon -    15 inches minimum
Greenling -   12 inches minimum
Lingcod -       22 inches minimum
CA Halibut-   22 inches minimum

How can I tell rockfish apart from one another?

This is important, because there is zero take permitted on canary rockfish, yelloweye, cowcod and bronzespotted rockfish.  You need to know if you have a copper or a canary, a vermillion or a yelloweye.

DFW to the rescue again:

www.nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=33817

There is a really handy laminated identification card that you should absolutely carry with you.  It is inexpensive and invaluable.  Buy it here:

unsafe link redacted


That should be enough to keep you legal.  Happy fishing, stay safe out there.

If you have questions, please put them here.  If you have any corrections, please add them here and I'll clean up the post.  Please include ideas for inclusion in this post in any response, I can incorporate information, updates, etc.  If any links are broken please let me know and I'll fix it.


Edited 6/11/13 to add CA halibut information;
6/12/13 for bocaccio size minimum and where to find depth restrictions on DFW website
8/11/14 for salmon possession limit and bocaccio limit increase and removal of size restriction update




« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 08:57:28 AM by crash »
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krusty

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I'm looking at the 2014 regulations, and I can't find any length restrictions on bocaccio. Am I missing something?

The limit for bocaccio is 3 within the 10 RGC limit. The size limit was removed in 2013.


NowhereMan

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Yup. You are missing that not only is there no longer a size limit, but the limit is now 3 fish inside the RCG!  I never fish for these and had no idea. Thanks for the heads up, OP will be changed to reflect current regs.

Thanks. I hadn't notices that the OP was from 2013...
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crash

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Updated for 2015
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To help me because I'm an FNG, I modify my Fish ID laminated card with a sharpie for each species.  I note "maximum quantity/ minimum inches".  Like for recent changes to Lings I changed the notation to 3/22". 
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crash

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That's a good idea. Some guys will write it on the back of their hawg troughs.
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krusty

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To help me because I'm an FNG, I modify my Fish ID laminated card with a sharpie for each species.  I note "maximum quantity/ minimum inches".  Like for recent changes to Lings I changed the notation to 3/22".

I used to carry that my first couple times out, until the wind blew it off my kayak.


krusty

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That's a good idea. Some guys will write it on the back of their hawg troughs.

I write the species name next to their minimum length on the hog trough. But this only works if you can reliably identify your catch.


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Great article, thank you
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