FYI, The WDFW is proposing changes to the lincod season so that the season is in august instead of may (see link).

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/do/oct03/oct3103c.htm

I think the proposed change in Lingcod Seasons is a very bad idea for the following reasons (this is what I sent to WDFW):

1) It essentially eliminates opportunity to fish on the sound during spring months. There are no salmon seasons in may. Lingcod season fills this gap.

2) Changing seasons on lingcod to protect rockfish is silly. If the 1 fish limit on rockfish is not sufficient protection, then close retention of rockfish.

3) If you want information on rockfish retention, institue a punchcard system like for sturgeon, salmon, and halibut. Changing seasons so salmon checkers can check rockfish is at best a half measure.

4) I think the stated justification for this regulation change is weak. What reason do you have to think the current super restrictive rockfish seasons are not working? They are a very slow maturing fish and will undoubtedly take decades to rebuild stocks. This seems like over-reacting to a problem that took decades to fully manifest(with intensive sports and commericail pressure) and will take decades to solve (with current low fishing rates).

5) I think radical changes in regulations only serve to further alienate the sporting community from the WDFW. The rationale for this change seems suspect. If the WDFW wishes to maintain good relations with the fishing public, then regulation changes just to suit the convenience of WDFW should be avoided.

I urge those of you with strong opinions on this to email your comments to : jacobesj@dfw.wa.gov

Geoduck

Geoduck, I too think this is a silly change.To me its a cop out .The lingcod fishery would not sustain itself.

Geoduck,
Thanks for your posting, here's my comments to WDFG.

To WDF&W

I am a (former)shallow water Puget Sound rockfish angler and would question the logic of changing the ling cod season to later in the year, to protect Puget Sound rockfish without seeing documented justification.

Ling cod are normally in shallower water in the spring. The current May-June season in Puget Sound waters occurs normally at the end of the spawning and nesting season for Ling Cod.

My experiences in shallow water fishing, 30 feet or less, is that currently the rockfish population in Puget Sound is very low and has been for several years.

In areas that once held rockfish, it is unusual to catch one, while the same areas now have fairly healthy Ling cod populations.

If rockfish are taken incidentally, it is possible to release them unharmed in shallow water.

Since larger Ling cod move to deeper water after spawning, any incidental rockfish taken at these greater depths are likely not to survive being released due to to internal injury to the swim bladder and other organs, which occurs due to decompression from being taken from two atmospheres or deeper. (about 60 feet).

Moving the season to later in the year may compound the rockfish population problems rather than improve them.

Unfortunately sport and commercial fishing for has resulted in the dramatic decline of rockfish populations in Puget Sound.

I gave up my commercial bottom jigging license and testified at a hearing that resulted in the closure of commercial rock fishing in Puget Sound many years ago. Even at that time, the rockfish population was going into a decline from over harvest by sport and commercial fishermen.

If anything could help bring rockfish populations back to Puget Sound, it would be regulations that set a limit on the depth that these fish may be taken from.

I seem to recall that there was some sort of limitation on sinker weight use a few years ago to help in salmon fishing management.

Closure of commercial dragging in known rockfish habitat, if not in effect should be.

Active education of shallow water catch and release techniques on rockfish may do more than closing the seasons or limiting retention.

This would in my opinion be more effective that eliminating any retention. The current 1 rockfish limit does not encourage fishermen to seek rockfish. Allowing retention of 1 rockfish at least allows an fish to be legally retained if it is injured by being brought from depth.

Sincerely,

Doug Wilson

i would've liked to been able to fish for rockfish in the south sound...too bad that was before my time, and it seems to be getting worse for some reason

I checked the link and did not see where the season would change from May to August. It did say no rockfishing when not open for halibut, ling ,
or salmon.

There are still some around Chum ya just have to find them .I release most of them only kept 4.

Jerry it's #10

Here are all the proposed changes

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/regs/proposals/2004final_proposals.pdf

Rule 10 outlines changing the lingcod dates to august 1-sept 15 for lingcod.

I would have to ask.... Are they still allowing drag-trawling in the sound? I heard they do, but just not for targeting Rockfish. If this is the case, we all know that the bottom draggers capture EVERYTHING in their nets.... That would be the first thing to halt.... OF course the "educated idiots" at WDFW have never done anything with common sense IMHO.....

MC

so called edumacated wdfw wonders why license sales are dropping. Gee could it be to many stupid rules on sportfishermen that have not and do not do a damn thing to actually help the fish.

ya thats really smart to let divers take any size. Them pukes make me sick talk about abuse of the resource! I have seen divers come up with 7 lings on a rope and go down for more! State did nothing, in the now closed orchard rocks area.

ya lets start selling herring roe to japan. Thats an even smarter one! sure lets take the herring out of the food chain and see what happens to the bottomfish.

Oh but the smartest thing they have done which people seem to have forgotten already is the three year state sanctioned experimental fishey for true cod in agate pass.
lets take all of these millions of true cod coming here to spawn in the sound out of the food chain and see what happens duh. Do you think that maybe just maybe that them billions of baby true cod just might have been a key source of forage for other bottomfish. The fish and game department has no one to blame but them pitiful selves! This is B.S there job is to insure we have fish to catch in the future but it sure seems to me that they enjoy taking kickbacks from commercial lobbyist instead!

Is it possible to email comments or must they go by snail mail?
I also think this is a mistake. The depth fished in the summer would be much deeper than in the spring. It would once again reduce the number of day available to fish. I would hate to see every guy out chasing pinks or silvers stop and take a stab at a ling. There are not alot of legal lings out there and the mortality of releasing them (or keeping them illegally) would be tremendous. I like the idea of keeping this fisherys seperate to keep the pressure down and (I hate to sound like a fish snob) keep the fishery for those who wish to take the time and make the effort to go after these fish as their main target instead as a stop off durring the salmon season.

Baddawg.

The email address for the guy in charge of rule changes is in my first post at the top.

Sebastes is dead on on this. No way the rockfish servives the release from the depths you fish lings in that propsed time frame. In the early 70's when it was legal to target the big fish in the few days each summer month,it was common to drag up several rockfish also from that 180 - 220 depth. I wonder who thinks this stuff up. Obviously not someone who has first hand knowledge.

yes, constantly changing seasons without true conservation reasons is imo stupid and will have seriously negative impacts to the sport fishing economies on the impacted ports. there is no economic benefit to combining seasons. during salmon season people will be there to salmon fish, and while i'm sure they'll be happy to be able to also catch and keep some lingcod, it would make better economic sense to keep them separate so some income will come from the lingcod fishing earlier in the year.

we constantly deal with this on the north coast when dealing with halibut issues. to me, it's clear that the state just wants to simplify things to make things easier while destroying the sport fishing infrastructure. looking at the 2004 halibut regulations on the north coast make that clear. changing a historic opening date (and let's not forget that these decisions are made during the fishing season, which makes it impossible for most stakeholders to attend meetings) and then having an open ended date in june is pure insanity for the communities that depend on halibut fishing revenue. changing days to pick good tides may sound great in principle (there's still no guarantee on the weather thank god) but during times of shorter seasons due to more fishermen, should the state be actively trying to shorten this quota managed fishery. time on the water equals opportunity, and let's just pick a set time for the june fishery (tides will be good some years, bad other years). some damn consistency in regulations would be nice to see from the department (especially considering that conservation is not an issue here.)

i'm aware of the budget crisis, but when the crisis subsides, it'd be nice if we had some fishing opportunities and the infrastructure that supports fishing is still around.