NOT CURRENT INFORMATION

THIS TAKE AND SEASON INFORMATION IS OUT OF DATE DO NOT RELY.  IT WILL NO LONGER BE MAINTAINED, AS OTHERS ARE  POSTING CURRENT AND UP TO DATE INFORMAION

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.

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Regulations/Fishing-Map

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.

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/MPAs/Network

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 180' or shallower for most of the season, and then there is no depth restriction in November and December.  This varies widely by area so be sure to check the link above with the map, click on your area that you want to fish, then look at the rockfish depth restrictions. 

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:

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:

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345&inline

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.  You may retain 3 CA halibut north of Pt. Sur, Monterrey County and 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 sub-limits apply:

4 vermillion rockfish
1 copper rockfish
1 quillback rockfish


For a total of 10 fish in your limit.

Note that the sub-limits change in most years so you need to keep up to date.


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 yelloweye, cowcod and bronzespotted rockfish.  You need to know if you have a copper or a canary, vermillion or yelloweye.

DFW to the rescue again:

Red colored rockfish:

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

Black vs. Blue rockfish:

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=95080

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

https://www.rockfishidentification.com/

The old popular charts are available again, by following this new link, which traildad discovered last year after a couple years of the charts being unavailable.

NOTE - DO NOT FOLLOW THE OLD LINK - IT GIVES A VIRUS WARNING

Amadeo Bachar, a friend to this site, has an ID chart as well that is really well done.  You can buy it here:

https://studio-abachar.myshopify.com/collections/tackle-box/products/pacific-northwest-fish-id-guide

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 increase in bocaccio limit and removal of size restriction update
3/11/15 for black rockfish sublimit, increase in lingcod limit and note regarding unavailability of rockfish id chart
3/2/17 for removal of bocaccio sublimit, changing of canary and black sublimits, reduction of lingcod to 2, change in depth restrictions, and fix links to DFW sites and publications.
3/8/19 for change to lingcod limits south of 40.10, change of canary sublimit, and fix links to ID charts.
3/8/21 for implementation of vermillion sublimit and removal of all other sublimits. 
4/21/22 for change in vermillion sublimit and introduction of sublimit for quillback and copper.

Nice job, Doug!   

You might add California Halibut info.

Thanks for the handy info Doug.

Nice report.  Do you know when the DFW added the Bronzespotted Rockfish to the can't keep list?

Looks Great, saved as a favorite!

Nice job, Doug!   

You might add California Halibut info.

Are CA halibut routinely caught when fishing rockfish?  I don't fish down south much, but I always caught them on sandy bottoms in San Diego back in the day.

CA halibut, limit 3 north of Pt. Sur, Monterrey County, 5 south, minimum 22" total length.

Nice report.  Do you know when the DFW added the Bronzespotted Rockfish to the can't keep list?

I don't know when.  I never caught one, we don't see them this far north.

Just ordered mine from that site!

   Thanks!

~Bill

Thanks for the info, I picked up a laminated id chart as well to have for references.
John

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

Depth limits for SF is 180' and 240' for central. Sand dabs have no bag limits. Thanks Doug.

Great post thank you

Ordered my folding Rockfish ID chart.  THANKS!!!

Oregered a wall chart & folding chart yesterday .... came in today!!!!

Good stuff!!!!

~Bill

The depth limits are annoying cause why say that we can keep 3 bocacio when all the big ones are in water deeper than depth restrictions.  Same goes for chili peppers which I would also like to catch sometime.

I believe bronzespots were added to the no-take list 3yrs ago. But they are uncommon north of Conception in water shallower than 200ft. Have only heard of 1 citation issued for possession of a bronzespot, and that was in socal. 

Nice Doug, can we get a sticky on this please