WDFW sturgeon regs got adopted

[Mike Gilchrist]

I was at the Council meeting yesterday afternoon and this morning and there were a few things that impact those of you to the south.

They approved a regulation change to allow C&R of sturgeon after retention to match Oregon.

They changed the possession limit in marine areas 1 through 6 to one days possession instead of two. So no keeping extra fish in the boat from the day before any more.

They made "boat limits" legal anywhere you can fish with a saltwater licence except for gamefish.

New limits for areas 1-4. Lingcod=2, Rockfish=10 but only 2 can be either Canary or yelloweye

There is now a minimum mesh size for crab pots. If you bought one of those combo crab/shrimp pots, sorry.

Thats all for the regulations.
Other things that were mentioned:

The gillnetters want a guarenteed 50% share of the non-tribal salmon share and are upset by the increase in number of guides.

The WDFW has sent letters to the tribes requesting that they allow user groups to participate in the north of falcon allocation discussions. Their would be rules governing the participation of the users. The tribes have not replied yet.

The columbia river tribes have had some good communication with the state and the state believes that they are trying to resolve allocation issues once and for all so other problems can be focused on, like habitat. (remember, I am repeating what was said)

Rockfish info:

Rockfish/life expectancy/time to 50% maturity
Black/20/7
Canary/75/9
Yelloweye/118/21
Copper/55/6
Quilback/32/6
Brown/20/5

Some tips, don't fish deep for rockfish if possible as you will be more apt to catch Canary or Yelloweye. These stocks are really depressed and please avoid catching them if possible. There are plenty of Black rockfish to catch in the approx 50 ft range.


This was not discussed but mentioned. With the new electronic licence system, they are looking into a way to tie the licence into punch card return. This means that you won't be able to buy a licence if you didn't turn in your last years punch card.

[rob]

The punch card and e-license system would give them some real numbers. I don't think many people turn them in.