Rockfishing Techniques?

OK - I know how to catch big lings and cabs - but for some reason lately I've been more interested in catching big rockfish on my smaller set-up. (6.6' MH Quantum Tournament Series IM8 w/Shimano Corvalus300).

What are some of the techniques you guys use when specifically targetting rockfish as opposed to lings and cabbies?

I've tried various shrimp fly rigs (both squid tipped and raw dog) but have yet to get a bite on one. (I honestly haven't given it nearly the effort I put into fishing big grubs and FT's though.)

My RF set-up now is a 3-hook shrimpfly rig with the bottom two hooks removed and a megabait for a sinker.

Thanks for any info!

Rockfish seem to like 4" scampis above all else, usually root-beer, but sometimes white.  (tinsels work well too)  Swimbaits are considerably less effective in general and I rarely use them.

 For big ones, fish deeper than 35'.  I find I have the best luck at 45-60ft for big reds.  Deeper than 60' I end up with smaller fish being belly-up - so go with a 6" scampi if you go out farther to help keep your average fish size up.  In water less than 35', you'll get an occasional fat grassie, but most of the shallow-water fish are smaller sorts.  

Reds may be photosensitive and so you might try deeper if it's bright and the water is clear, and shallower if it's cloudy and there's a plankton bloom.  If you catch a canary, move 30 yards to get off the school.

Dustin,

Besides using spectre w/ a mono leader, I use these twin tail scampis that I've bought from Gus', they're made from a more durable rubber and don't get torn apart like swimbaits.

I've found the paddle tail of swim baits and soft body = torn up baits.

Also, I'll use a heavier leadhead to cut down on angles, you'll want to be fishing as straight up and down as possible + the bigger the scampi the bigger the fish.

I slay them with a megabait in 2.5 and 3.5 oz (pattern 18).  Having watched others use it though with less success, it takes a little fishing finesse. I use nothing else anymore.

I've tried various shrimp fly rigs (both squid tipped and raw dog) but have yet to get a bite on one. (I honestly haven't given it nearly the effort I put into fishing big grubs and FT's though.)

I wonder if shrimp flies must be fished at some speed (greater than can be maintained on a 'yak)  to be effective.  My wife, mother, and I cleaned up with unbaited shrimp flies on a party boat on the 3rd; while the blue rockfish we caught weren't really big'uns, we caught *a lot* with those shrimp flies -- I must have had four double-hook ups, and my mother had six double hook ups.  We were doing slow trolls with the current mostly.

If you really want to load up on them, with no regard for size, use a high-low rig with short droppers to 2/0 octopus hooks and put squid heads or 1/2 tubes on each hook.  Use a 6oz bank sinker on the bottom and bonk it against the bottom - that's the dinner bell.

The latest shrimp flies I've purchased have 7/0 hooks -- hopefully they'll help pull bigger rockfish than the ones we used on our last party boat trip.
...

The skipper on the Rapid Transit gave me a hard time for throwing little rockies back on my 7/3 trip.  

orspace wrote:

I wonder if shrimp flies must be fished at some speed (greater than can be maintained on a 'yak)  to be effective.  My wife, mother, and I cleaned up with unbaited shrimp flies on a party boat on the 3rd; while the blue rockfish we caught weren't really big'uns, we caught *a lot* with those shrimp flies -- I must have had four double-hook ups, and my mother had six double hook ups.  We were doing slow trolls with the current mostly.

I think the maximum hooks to fish rockfish is 2...tell me if I'm wrong....

You're not wrong.

And Orkspace wrote - "4 double hook-ups", meaning that he had a double hook-up (one fish on each of two hooks) four times.

Back in the day, when fishing deep water for rockfish, it wasn't uncommon to have a rockfish on each of your six hooks (double three hook shrimp flies) and a ling on your hexbar. In a good spot it only took three or four drops to get your (then) 15 fish limit.

Those were the days Rockhopper!!
15 rockies (no matter what species) and 5 Lings.  There were no depth restrictions and it was a 365 day season.

I dont recall when things started to tighten up, but it doesn't seem that long ago.  Maybe 10 years ago, if that?

I got my share of rockfish, but I really had to plead with my dad to stop for rockfish.  He and his fishing buddies didn't care for it much.  It was "too much trouble" to clean.  What a bummer for me.

Stuart

Those old regulations really decimated the rockfish populations, not to mention the impact that the commercial fishery has had.

Personally, I'd like to see a short season like this year, a 5 fish limit and a 60 ft depth restriction.  I'd also like a size limit to insure that those fish caught had a chance to reproduce before they died, but because of their touchy airbladders, that's really not an option.

Unfortuneatly, the charter boat captains would cry bloody murder if the limits got down that low.   As far as I can tell, the charter boats can't make a profit unless they charge at least $50 per person.  I personally would never pay $50 for 5 small fish which I'd probably end up catching in the first hour or two.  So 10 fish it is, with crazy regulations that don't work and that few people even understand.   I know too many people that go out on a charter, catch their ten fish, have them cleaned, eat a couple fish that first day and then stick the rest in their freezer until they're freezer burned and have to be thrown out.  What a horrible waste!

Personally, I really enjoy catching rockfish.  I enjoy their diversity; you never really know what you have until it comes up.   I do keep rockfish to eat, but I find that after about 4 or 5 nice fish, I'm keeping more than I can use in the near future.  This is also why I really like rockfishing from a kayak.  Kayaks are perfect for fishing nearshore in waters less than 50 ft where catching and releasing rockfish does little or no harm.

Ever wonder why spearfishers and shorebased fishers are allowed to go after rockfish year round?  It's because they were succesfully able to show that they had relatively little impact on the fishery.  I think we need to figure out a way to do the same for kayak fishers.

I completely agree. There seems to be much more in common between spearfishing/shore fishing and kayak fishing than other motorized types of fishing. This is why I do it, can be obssesive about it, and feel it is the future of inshore coastal fishing, at least during my lifetime. Excellent post.
-Sean

The primary reason for the closure is to protect canary rockfish, which are generally found in water deeper than 40ft.  Spearfishermen can simply not shoot them, so they can fish year round, shore anglers can't fish in 40' of water, so they aren't likely to catch a canary, and it's shallow enough that barotrauma isn't an issue.  

Kayak fishing, we're as indescriminant as any powerboat, and we can easilly paddle deep enough to cause barotrauma in our catches.

Spearfishing is as fun to me as rod/reel fishing, so I don't really care about the closures.

With the canary rockfish in mind then, I suppose the best case scenario we could hope for (as kayakers) would be a depth restriction of less than 40' instead of a complete closure? Of course this would hammer the shallow zone so it probably would be a bad idea.
Personally I can't complain since the regs this year (in my area) are relaxed from what they were last year (this year more lings, reduced min length, longer season to fish). I'm not one who needs or wants a freezer full of 20lb bags of rockfish fillets. I just hate having to decipher the regs each season and the lingering paranoia that I might miss something.
-Sean

I'd prefer if it were open year-round so that I don't feel compelled to freeze a fair amount of fish to cover the months when we don't catch much.

I don't think the regulators can push boats in much closer, they'd start hitting washrocks and stuff and result in damage/death.  I'd think that moving them in to 70' or so would reduce barotrauma significantly, but they do want to limit take in general too and it's good that the new sea angler can't go on crab/rockfish combo trips.