The recreational offshore longleader gear fishery daily bag limit lowers from 15 to 10 fish as of Sept. 5 to avoid overharvesting canary rockfish. A record estimate of 1,500 recreational longleader fishery trips were taken in July and decreasing the bag limit is needed to avoid exceeding the 62.4 metric ton limit on canary rockfish. Good weather and a first-time bag limit of 15 fish per day that began March 1, saw high rockfish harvest.
Christian Heath, ODFW’s Halibut and Recreational Groundfish Project Manager said the spring daily bag limit increase provided anglers incentive to participate in the longleader gear fishery and now it’s time to pull back to the traditional 10-fish daily bag limit. The longleader gear fishery targets healthy midwater rockfish stocks such as yellowtail and widow rockfish. To participate in the longleader gear fishery, anglers must be outside of the 40-fathom regulatory line and have a minimum of 30 feet between their weight and the lowest hook with a non-compressible float above the hooks.
This helps keep the gear away from more bottom-dwelling yelloweye rockfish.
The 10-fish bag limit applies to 10 species of midwater rockfish only (yellowtail, widow, canary, redstripe, greenstriped, silvergray, chilipepper, blue, deacon and bocaccio rockfishes). Other bottomfish, including lingcod, are not allowed with longleader gear fishing.
Check the 2023 ODFW longleader article for more information, a gear schematic and frequently asked questions.
