Salmon fishing has been taking the headline news space lately. But rockfish season opened Sunday, May 1, and that adds to our ocean fishing choices in the Monterey Bay. This is great news if salmon fishing is slow: People can switch to rockfish to fill the coolers with fresh fish.
The season started Sunday from Pigeon Point to Point Conception for rockfish and lingcod. The bag limit for rockfish is 10, plus fishers may take two lingcod on top of the 10 rockfish. Anglers should be careful to release any canary, cow cod or yellow eye rockfish, as they may not be kept. In the 10-fish bag limit, only two may be cabezon, greenling or bocaccio rockfish. Bocaccios must be at least 10 inches long, cabezons must reach 15 inches and greenlings must measure no less than a foot. Anglers may use only two hooks and must fish in less than 240 feet of water. Lingcod may be viewed as a prized catch and must measure 24 inches.
The regulations and species identification charts can be downloaded at www.dfg.ca.gov. If you plan on heading out for rockfish, I’d advise you do a review of the regulations first.
“The local reefs look healthy,” Ken Stagnaro reported, “with large stocks of rockfish showing.”
Stagnaro had planned to run a trip aboard the Velocity on the opening day for rockfish. “I think I will be running up to lingcod territory — New Year’s Island, that is.”
Capt. Jim Rubin, aboard the Becky Ann, reported, “I am delighted that we will have the choice of salmon or rockfish. I am already booking rockfish trips and have had some charters consider switching from salmon to rockfish.”
It has been nice to see the interest in fishing this season. The Santa Cruz Harbor might take some time to recover fully from the tsunami, but the launch ramp and local businesses are in full operation and are accommodating boaters.
Mike Baxter has fished in the Monterey Bay Area since he was a boy and has been a licensed charter boat captain for more than 15 years. Contact him at
ca************@ya***.com
. He also hosts a fishing show on radio station KSCO (1080) from 7:06 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through September.
