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37 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, November 27, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 2, 2004 Ocean anglers catch their limit of rockfish By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Looking back, it was too good to be true. A flat August ocean. Clear water, plenty of bait fish. The black rockfish seemed to be everywhere and close enough to shore that anyone in a tub that floats could reach them. And they were not your garden-variety groundfish. Big, thick black rockfish averaging about 2½ pounds. A full half-pound more of flaky, white flesh than the average fish of just five years ago. The lingcod seemed to be everywhere, too. Easier to catch than any time in years. For the middle two weeks in August, Oregon’s recreational ocean anglers did more than put major dents in the black rockfish and lingcod quotas. They gobbled them up as fast as a rockfish can snap at a jig. "For two weeks, the catch skyrocketed like crazy," says Don Bodenmiller, marine program director for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Advertisement "Angling effort went up," Bodenmiller says. "The catch went up. The average size went up. The water conditions were perfect and the fish were biting like crazy." It all will end abruptly tonight, and, not because the fish won’t be there. Oregon’s rockfish-crazed public has caught its collective legal limit, triggering an unprecedented groundfish angling closure for the remainder of the year. Fishing for black rockfish, lingcod and greenling is banned in the ocean, off the beaches and in the estuaries tonight until January. Only salmon, tuna, halibut and a handful of other species will remain open to fishing under separate quotas and seasons. There are two stories here. One is how Oregon got here. The second is where will it go. Bodenmiller began warning anglers about a mid-season closure as early as March. The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council allocated 342 metric tons of black rockfish to Oregon recreational anglers. Bodenmiller expected that the new summer fishing closure outside 40 fathoms would turn anglers closer to shore where they were likely to catch more black rockfish. That clearly happened. But he didn’t expect a calm spring and lackluster summer ocean-salmon fishing would fuel anglers’ interests, generating 15 percent more groundfish trips than last year. But it still all looked OK through July, with about 100 metric tons left in the black rockfish quota. Then the rockfish catches went crazy, with 65 metric tons caught and kept by anglers — mostly in the second and third weeks. Everything became crystal clear to marine fish managers when they reviewed the most recent catch data last Friday. They set up an emergency conference call Monday, and by that afternoon they ordered this Friday’s closure. "It was like, what happened?" Bodenmiller says. "Fishing just took off." But even the numbers inside the numbers are weird. In 1997, for instance, the black rockfish harvest was 343 metric tons — just 1 metric ton more than this year’s quota — and anglers caught about 386,000 black rockfish that year. This year, anglers hit the quota by catching about 100,000 fish fewer fish. The fish simply are bigger and healthier than before. "It’s ironic to the anglers," Bodenmiller says. "Catch rates are up, size of the fish are up, and we’re closed." The irony will be harder to swallow next year if something doesn’t change. The PFMC already set Oregon’s recreational quota for black rockfish at 332 metric tons in 2005, and Oregon still has a maximum daily rockfish harvest of 10 as part of the marine aggregate limit. Clearly, a repeat of this year’s catches in 2005 will trigger a closure even earlier than this year. "Something has to be done or we’re not going to have the year-round fishing," Bodenmiller says. One option discussed Monday was cutting the black rockfish maximum to six fish a day — something charterboat skippers have resisted because the 10-fish limit brings the anglers on board for roughly $80 apiece. "You can’t sell a trip when that bag limit gets too low," Bandon charterboat operator Wayne Butler says. Based on 2003 catch data, a cut to six black rockfish would curb overall harvest through August by 17 percent. Only 15 percent of the black rockfish are caught September through December, so, theoretically, a six-fish limit this year would have kept fishing open the entire year. Again, a peek inside the numbers reveals who would win or lose by such a change. Creel checks show the anglers took home, on average, five black rockfish per bottom-fishing trip. Theoretically, then, a six-fish daily cap would not hurt the average angler’s average day. But the creel surveys also show that 41 percent of angler trips yielded more than six black rockfish. Either anglers hammer them, or they don’t. This year, they hammered them. In doing so, the recreational anglers knocked themselves right out of the water. The question is whether Oregonians want year-round fishing or a chance to catch 10 black rockfish. This year proved they can’t have both. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities