ODFW release – On Friday, December 16, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission finalized the 2023 recreational bottomfish season and regulations. Bag Limits – General marine fish bag limit -5 fish: New in 2023. No sub-bag limit for China and copper rockfish. China and copper rockfish are a regular part of the 2023 general marine bag limit; Cabezon- 1 fish sub-bag limit; Opens July 1, 2023; 16-inch minimum size. Lingcod- 2 fish, 22-inch minimum size; Flatfish- 25 fish; Longleader gear fishery- 10 fish, of 10 midwater rockfish species only, and must use longleader gear outside the 40 fathom regulatory line. Yelloweye and quillback rockfish remain prohibited. Depth Restriction – New in 2023- Open to all-depths year-round, no seasonal depth restriction. All other regulations remain the same as in 2022. An updated stock assessment on copper rockfish and the continued rebuilding of yelloweye rockfish are the reasons for these changes. ODFW will be monitoring yelloweye rockfish impacts closely throughout the season, and may need to put a depth restriction in place inseason if impacts become too high. Beginning in 2023 new mortality rates will be applied for all rockfish species when descending devices are used, previously they were only available for canary and yelloweye rockfish. ODFW staff have been working with staff from NMFS to develop the rates and get approved by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. ODFW dockside samplers will be asking about the use of descending devices for all rockfish species released. This data will be used in our inseason tracking to provide a “mortality credit” for all rockfish species released with descending devices starting in 2023. Additional information on the recreational bottomfish fishery can be found on ODFW’s Recreational Groundfish Webpage.
