2005 Rockfish Reg Update...LOTS OF GOOD NEWS (some bad)

I have been beating the halls of DFG and the PFMC trying to get a handle on the regs for 2005.  We (GWKC) want to organize some get togethers in 2005, but its hard to do when youu don't know what the season is going to be!

After working my insider knowledge I have finally gotten to the right folks and hear is the scoop.  (Keep in mind all of this is tentative until April when the PFMC and then the DFG offically bless these)

The GOOD

The season will be a lot longer this year July through November...2 more moths than 2004!  Woohoo!

The ridiculous 1 ling at 30" is gone!  We will be back to 2 lings at 24"  

There is a chance of one month in the spring (April, May, or June) being open.  I have been pushing for April, to coincide with Abs reopening.

The BAD

Cabezon will drop to one fish, greenlings will likely see a reduction too.  I can live with this.


This is a big step in the right direction.  If and when the this goes before the commission we need to show in mass and give them love!

Thanks for the news scwafish, the ling rule changes are welcome for sure. I know a few people (ahem Joel ahem) had a real hard time catching a legal ling last season.

I think I only have patience to clean one Cabezone anyways  

I never broke 30 either.  No exageration, I must have released at least 50 fish between 24 and 29.999...Doh!

Well I only caught one and it was 30.00000000001 so I don't have much to brag about.

Hopefully something opens up in April or I am going to go crazy!  

Who needs more than one Cabezon if Lings are legal @ 24"?

I was pretty lucky this season and landed 2 legal lings.  





This guy (Chuck) slayed more than his share this season.

  That top one is just nuts man...

I have a top secret giant ling jig I can't wait to try out.

You guys definitely worked the big lings on that one trip...DAMN!

yup - no legal lings for me this year  

As far as the most consistent fisherman award - I think Chuck E. aka "Mr Clutch" has caught his share of BIG FISH this year.

Halibut derby winner
Keeper Lings
20 # salmon at Moss Landing
Threasher Shark at HMB

 

I agree with Joel, Chuck is the man.

I've caught (with his help landing) most of my big fish with him.  He's like a lucky charm.  Fish with that guy every chance you get.  Someone will land a big fish.

2004 we had a 5 month season, jan-feb and aug-oct.  It's just nobody went fishing jan-feb since we expected it to reopen in may when the weather is nicer.

So next year the season will be the same, at least for lingcod, but rockfish may be open for 6 months starting july.

The cabby thing is a major bummer since they're the #1 fish off bean hollow/pescadero.  Cabbies are also, IMO the tastiest of our bottom fish, no question.  Lingcod are the least tasty.  I guess DFG feels the cabbies are more valuable to the live fish industry than to us since tonns of cabezone landed have gone up an order of magnitude with the live fish industry.  Probably more cabbies were kept this year than last, because people weren't landing many keeper lings and had to scratch more to bring home the fillets.  So perhaps in another year or so it'll bump up again with people eating more lingcod.

Since boat based spearfishing will be open year round, I'll probably work on that this spring.  Especially once abalone reopens.  A guy took a 30lb ling freediving at fort ross last time I was there, seems like he might be on to something.  That way I won't wimp out on diving for the abs after fishing either.     You also feel alot more confident out in the water with something that's a little more wicked than a blunt butterknife.  

Lingcod are the least tasty.

I disagree in a big way.  Cabbies are one of my favorites too, but ling is the king IMHO.  The rest of the rockies are a grade down from either of these.

Lingcod have more of a 'fishy' taste than the other bottomfish.  My least favorite though are greenlings.  They can make those bony buggers 0 fish for all I care.  

Lings are tasty...  Someone told me the cheeks are supposed to be really good, but I couldn't taste the difference.  It just seemed a bit more stringy than the fillets...

Has anyone confirmed that spearing RF is open to divers?  I'd love to make a run down to carmel for some early season Rockies.

Cabbies definitely have very delicate meat of the RCG family.  Greenling are very delicate too except they are SUPER BONY, therefore I toss them back.  
To me its a toss up between a cab a ling, but given that you typically get more meat from a ling, I'd lean in that direction.  I too believe the texture of all the other's is not quite as delicate as these two fish.

One of my least favorite fish on the table is halibut.  Its ok cooked (a little too dry and bland), but I like it better raw.


Stuart

They've pretty much never closed spearfishing unless the quota for a species is reached.  They generally shut down the season when there's an emergency with lingcod, cabezone, greenlings, canary RF, ect.  So they can close down a specific species and the spearfishermen just dont shoot that type of fish, whereas the boat guys are shut down entirely because we can't discriminate what we catch very well.

This may foment a revolution in spearfishing and diving in central california.  I found spearing to be fun before all this BS, I just don't have a dive partner.  I'd be happy to get in on a carmel trip, or act as a guide at fort ross.  I really fear we're going to lose many of these areas to MPAs soon, so we aught to exploit them to the fullest before they're lost forever.