I am all in favor of doing whatever we need to do to protect our rockfish. In fact, I beleive that, as usual, we did too little too lete. But what galls me are reports like the one yesterday telling us the commercials are killing literally tons of rockfsih and wasting the majority of what they catch. Those wasteful practices need to stop!

Reason for action: On March 1, new federal rules for bottomfish became effective in coastal waters. WDFW has adopted identical rules that become effective May 1. The change is needed now to minimize differences between federal and state rules, to meet the conservation goals of the new rules and provide for additional fishing opportunity for lingcod in March



Other information:

1. Close bottomfish fishing in yelloweye rockfish protection zone. It is unlawful to fish for bottomfish in the area enclosed by the following coordinates:

48°18'00" N latitude; 125°18'00" W longitude; then east to 48°18'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then south to 48°11'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then west to 48°11'00" N latitude; 125°11'00" W longitude; then south to 48°04'00" N latitude; 125°11'00" W longitude; then east to 48°04'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then south to 48°00'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then west to 48°00'00" N latitude; 125°18'00" W longitude; then north to 1st coordinate.

1. Daily bag limit for rockfish in Areas 1-4. The daily bag limit for rockfish is 10, of which no more than one can be canary rockfish. No yelloweye may be retained.
2. Aggregate bag limit for bottomfish in Areas 1-4. The aggregate bag of bottomfish is 15 bottomfish of all species combined, including sublimits of no more than 10 rockfish (no more than one canary and no yelloweye) and no more than two lingcod.
3. Lingcod seasons. The season for lingcod in Areas 1-3 opens March 16. The season opens in Area 4 April 16, as has been the case in recent years.

I often wonder if the guys at Neah Bay that bring back "coolers full" of bottom fish can eat them all.

Fish & Chips baby! It goes quick.

Never wasted a bit of it....couple trips a year.....done.

All I gotta say about bottomfish is that the South Jetty fishery is screwed. Some people who fish there don't leave til they limit out on rockfish in summer or lingcod in spring.

I too eat a lot of rockfish from Neah... One of the great things about fishing out there. Nothing wasted, even the carcasses go in the crab pots. THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH TAKING FISH HOME TO EAT.

We sporties could take full limits home way more than we already do and not have 1/100th the effect of one trawler running for one trip...see the "depressing report" post
I love ling, and I spearfish for 'em, and I can usually kill one in the thirty pound plus class, But I know how old they are, and I don't" limit out" in fact I usualy try to stay within the bracket the fishermen have, But every two or three years I will get one big one and have a feast...Its what we teach in the underwater hunting class...sustainable harvest, Its a tough concept when the fish live as long or longer than us. But I have found most divers (most of whom are non sportsmen) understand very quickly and have incredible amounts of respect with a little education....wish I could figure out how to educate the masses

Gosh darn, long lived fish like lingcod and yelloweye rockfish for example are such difficult fish to properly manage under our current regulatory system. Even the Johnson Strait stocks between the B.C. mainland and Vancouver Island are depressed. San Juan Islands has a bottomfish recovery program... These things speak out louder than words. I have a question about spear diving: Why do spear fishermen take large fish? I could understand if you have several mouths to feed or if you aren't able to get out and fish very often, but it seems like spear fishermen should be some of our best stewards since they can control what they take from the water. Instead of allowing the yelloweye fishery to continue I think that certain natural resource agencies should obtain the power to shut down specific fisheries.

Like I said in my previous post RH...I try to stay within the bracket(size) that the fisherman have...I don't, except rare occasions, take a big ling. And most divers I know won't either. In the last four years I know of 8 20lb+ fish that were taken by the divers out of our store...I am sure there may have been a few more but usually there are quite a few pics...

...and from what I have seen most divers are very aware of what is going on down there. And are very concerned.

And I really wonder what the difference is between me taking 20lbs of fish in one fish and someone else taking 20lbs of fish in several over the course of a few weekends. I do have a freezer. I don't waste it, But I can't take a big fish because I took the responsibility to not crank out 8 or 10 little me's( the world is ever grateful ). I still eat less fish over the course of a year, Obviously I am not taking spawning age fish...very very rarely

Kudos to ya man, thanks for clarifying. Didn't mean to sound like I was attacking you.

spear divers around here suck

Glad to know you too!!!!!

JohnDeep,

How many dive shops in this area still have big fish derbies for lings? I know some still do. I would say that pretty much encourages the harvest of large fish. Any ling over 20 lbs is a female.

Why would you want to eat a 40 year old spawner female anyway? The younger 8lb barely legal fish are much tastier, and have much fewer worms. A biologist showed my partner and I how to tell male from female based on the vent. We now try to only keep smaller males.

Let the big girls live to spawn again please.

I know you can tell the difference between and 8 pounder and a 30, even in 50ft of water. The slot limit should pertain to divers as well as anglers.

Ike

Last punch to a dead horse

Ike
None that I know of, if you know of someone doing it go talk to the owner and at least open up some dialog...You would be suprised how easy it is to change minds with ACCURATE information...
There are many males over 20 lbs.
As far as eating a 40 year old female...read my previous posts.
And yes I can judge the size of a ling even at 140' at the bottom of the narrows stanchions, and if you can show me a way to measure one before I harpoon it I'm up for it...but because that is pretty much impossible the daily bag limit is cut in half for spearfishing instead of a slot limit and divers are pretty much left the responsibilty to not take too many spawners. From the feedback I have gotten from from the fish counters we do a pretty good job overall...

spear divers suck

flyfisherman suck...arrogant f---'s

actually I gear fish most of the time, spear fisherman are little mincie f----rs

Oh my!, Great googely mooglely. I have seen way to much abuse by divers on ling cod. I have seen with my own eyes divers at Blake Island, Orchard rocks and Neah bay coming up with many many fish over there limit. What a sick twisted group of individuals. Spearfishing an aggressive fish like that, ooooh! what a challenge (not). Now fly fishing for lings is definetly the sporting way to go! keep up the good fight rockfish!

rock n micro;
Maby you should call me the next time you see them sper gys I LIKE SNAGIN.
HEH HEH HEH

I snagged a diver once, It wasnt a pretty sight. I was dragging the bottom with a 20/0 treble hook for squid jigs I warned the diver I wasnt going to stop. He was after the same thing. He learned the hard way when I say something I mean it. Its not like I followed him around with my rig either, he swam right to where I was dragging! ********!