Saltwater fishing enthusiasts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and North Coast are getting their gear ready for the opening of rockfish and lingcod season in the North Central Zone from Pigeon Point to Cape Mendocino on June 1.

Meanwhile, three other fishing zones opened on May 1 - the South Central-Morro Bay Management Zone from Point Lopez to Point Conception, the South Central-Monterey Management Zone from Pigeon Point to Point Lopez and the Northern Management Zone from Cape Mendocino to the Oregon Border.

Fishing for an array of rockfish and big lingcod is expected to be excellent throughout coastal reefs when the season opens in the North Central Zone. Even better, DFG Deputy Director Sonke Mastrup, at a public meeting in Ukiah on Saturday April 26, announced that the proposed Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Areas in the Shelter Cove, Fort Bragg, Eureka and Crescent City areas are cancelled for this year.

“In response to RFA's petition to the Office of Administrative Law, the DFG realized it had no local support for these area closures on the north coast,” said Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreaitonal Fishing Alliance. “However, North Coast fishermen are not out of the woods yet because the rockfish season will shut down early if we continue to impact yelloweye rockfish and other overfished shelf rockfish at the rate we did last year.”

The RFA sent its petition to the Office of Administrative Law after the DFG issued a press release announcing the controversial closed zones without going through the necessary regulatory process and procedure needed to change regulations. “The DFG claimed it was an emergency, even though it didn’t meet the standards of an emergency,” said Martin.

Martin noted that over 60 anglers from the Fort Bragg, Shelter Cove, Eureka, Crescent City and other areas attended the meeting to oppose the creation of the new marine conservation zones.

“The opener on the Mendocino County Coast on June 1 will be fantastic,” Martin forecasted. “Anglers should nail lots of big lingcod and rockfish while using a variety of bars, jigs and swimbaits. One of my spearfishing buddies captured an 18 lb. lingcod this weekend.”

The DFG proposed actions that anglers can take to limit impacts upon yelloweye rockfish. I urge all anglers to head this advice if they want to avoid an early closure like last year and fish until the end of the season on November 30 from Point Lopez to Cape Mendocino and on December 31 from Cape Mendocino to the Oregon border.

First, fish as shallow as safely possible. Yelloweye do not occur inside 15 fathoms. Starting May 1, the new depth restriction will be inside 120 feet from Pigeon Point to the California-Oregon Border.

Second, educate our fellow anglers, especially the private boat fleet at North Coast campgrounds, on rockfish identification. We cannot land yelloweye or canary rockfish. “Peer pressure works,” said Martin.

The primary goal of the shallower depth restriction is to reduce the bycatch of yelloweye and canary rockfish.

“California continues to be concerned about protecting overfished species,” said Marija Vojkovich, DFG marine region manager. “In order to help assure the federal harvest guidelines are not exceeded, anglers are currently not allowed to keep any yelloweye or canary rockfish they catch off California coast. This shallower depth restriction will help to prevent incidental take.”

DFG approved the in-season regulation change to conform to similar action taken by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) on March 14, 2008 for federal waters. The regulation change will not affect waters south of Pigeon Point in San Mateo County.

“Yelloweye and canary rockfish are federally designated ‘overfished’ species that by law must be protected until the stocks are rebuilt to sustainable levels,” according to the DFG. “Population estimates show that yelloweye rockfish stocks are at less than 18 percent of their historical levels and may require more than 50 years to rebuild.”

Each year, the PFMC sets a “harvest guideline,” or the amount of bycatch allowed during the stock rebuilding process for overfished species. By law, the number of yelloweye or canary rockfish caught off California may not exceed the harvest guidelines.

Both harvest guidelines were exceeded in 2007, despite an early season closure. Bycatch occurs when anglers unintentionally catch prohibited yelloweye or canary rockfish while fishing for other groundfish, sometimes causing injury or death.