Good news, bad new

According to NOAA-Fisheries, in their northen range lings mature at a larger size. Keying harvest length to length at maturation (in different regions) would be important.

I've seen a number of fisheries crash, in different locations. It's a lot more fun to see them recover. The Methow R. was closed about 7-8 years ago due to ESA listings. It was reopened a couple of years later (due to efforts of the local fly club) for a short C&R season each year. Wow, what a difference! I now release several state record cutts each year!

Here in CA they're 23 or 24% of their alleged virgin biomass, which is why they're supposed to recover from 'overfishedness' in the next couple years.  Since the big females are found in deep water for all but the mid-winter months (where they're closed) the big females are effectively almost fully protected, along with the nest-guarding males.  Since that deep water may never open again due to the rockfish, we'll probably be up to our eyeballs in lingcod soon.

we'll probably be up to our eyeballs in lingcod soon.

Bummer

MolBasser