Halibut reopen June 19 - Saturday, June 21

Born to be Wild · 05-23-2003, 01:52 PM

May 23, 2003

2003 Pacific Halibut Fishery
All-depth Recreational Pacific Halibut Fishery will re-open for Thursday, June 19 through Saturday, June 21 out of the ports located between Cape Falcon and the Florence north jetty

Sufficient poundage remains after the May recreational fishery for an additional three days of fishing on June 19, 20 and 21, 2003 for Pacific halibut in all-depth waters between Cape Falcon and the Florence north jetty. Halibut from this all-depth fishery can only be landed into ports located north of Florence.

http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/odfw/fin..._regs2003.html

Lepper · 05-23-2003, 10:29 PM

The Spring quota between the Florence north jetty and Humbug Mountain was taken during the May 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 fishery

How would they know?? I didn't see a single fish counter....... I think they are just doing an educated guess.....

Nofish · 05-24-2003, 05:01 AM

Lepper,
I think they do take wildass guesses when it comes to landing quotas which is too darn bad. Probably had a person there for a couple of hours one day and then extrapolated from that.

Is there anything off Port Orford inside the 30 fathom line? I guess we wait until early August. Nofish

Pete · 05-24-2003, 06:05 AM

Deck hand volunteer here. Iron stomach, strong back, good company, share costs, own gear ... sign me up!

Lepper · 05-24-2003, 11:50 PM

nofish I was talking with a commercial guy yesterday and got some wind of a few things.. I Am going to try it and give it a try.. and it is well under the 30 fathom limit... :smile:

dave

tailchaser · 05-26-2003, 06:05 PM

I honestly can not believe this crap.

First of all, we're supposed to be within the same tonnage as the northern areas for halibut. We never wanted it and fought to get our own region because they're underfished here dramatically compared to the Northern ports and then this?? Now they've split us up and I can't hardly sit here and type. They're getting an earful from me tomorrow. I saw a max of 30 boats on friday and I can't imagine there were many more on the two other days because of weather. At least half of those launched from PO and there wasn't a single fish checker to be found. Something's up here and I feel for the sorry soul I get on the phone tomorrow.

I think I need to check the website to make sure of all my facts before I really rant in the morning.

tc

Nofish · 05-26-2003, 06:20 PM

Dave,
Good luck with the shallow water effort. I have a commercial buddy that used to fish black cod out of Port Orford. I will have to pick his brain for ideas. Stay tuned...Bob

Nofish · 05-27-2003, 04:31 AM

Tailchaser,
I'd be interested in hearing what they say about filling the all depth halibut quota...especially how they were able to derive a landing figure without using shore checkers.

bait boy · 05-27-2003, 05:27 AM

according to the sheet you got an allocation of 14609 Lbs of fish. average weight 30Lbs = 487 fish divided by six days = 81 fish per day divided by approx 30 boats = 2.7 fish per boat

even if you change the weight to 25 Lbs the average per boat is still right at 3.2 fish per boat

Not a bad WAG for them, but still hard to swallow when there are no fish checkers.

Born to be Wild · 05-27-2003, 12:37 PM

Here is an email that I got from Don Bodenmiller (ODFW) today in regards to some of the ifish questions:

Dan,

Due to budget constraints we were only sampling in Charleston and Winchester Bay. The catch estimates from those two ports took the quota. We heard of a few boats also out of Bandon and Port Orford. The catch on charters alone out of Charleston and Windy Bay was over 9,000 pounds of the 14,900 taken. They got out all 6 days with a catch per angler of one fish and average size of 34 pounds in the round.

Don

Ask and you shall recieve. Then fire away if you don't think somethings right.

Dan

Born to be Wild · 05-28-2003, 03:39 PM

A little further explanation from Don:

Dan,

It was the south-central coast (Florence north jetty to Humbug Mt.) that
wanted the separate quota from the north-central area (Florence north jetty
to Cape Falcon). The rationale was that in some years the weather on the
south coast prevents fishing in the spring season while on the north coast
they get out and take the entire quota. In general, prior to this year and
since this was implemented in the mid-1990's, the south-central coast has
had the same or more spring days than the north-central coast.

The two major factors contributing to the quota attainment on the
south-central coast are that the charters got out and were successful on
all days and the average weight was considerably up from 26 lbs. in 2002 to
34 lbs. in 2003.

Don

I've been trying to find out if they know or what they know regarding the migration of Pacific Halibut. I will post it on the migration thread if I hear anything interesting.

Dan

[ 05-29-2003, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: DepoeBayDan ]

BOTTOM TIME DIVER · 05-28-2003, 06:33 PM

The scoop from: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Contact: Anne Pressentin Young (503) 872-5264, Ext. 5356
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us Fax: (503) 872-5700

For Immediate Release Wednesday, May 28, 2003

All-depth halibut season gets three extra days between Cape Falcon and the Florence north jetty

PORTLAND - The recreational halibut season in all-depth waters will be open for three more days June 19-21 between Cape Falcon and the Florence north jetty because the quota was not met in May.

Halibut taken during this fishery must be landed in ports north of Florence. The spring quota between the Florence north jetty and Humbug Mountain was met during the May season.

The daily bag limit is the first fish 32 inches or longer. The annual limit is six Pacific halibut.

The recreational all-depth season also is slated to open Aug. 1 or Aug. 2 between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain. An announcement will be made in early July about the August fishing day.

The recreational halibut fishery between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain remains open seven days a week in waters inside the 30-fathom curve. It is scheduled to close Oct. 31, 2003, or when the quota is met, whichever occurs first. The halibut fishery also is open seven days a week in all-depth waters north of Cape Falcon and south of Humbug Mountain. However, the all-depth fishery north of Cape Falcon is approaching the allowed catch.
###

Information and Education Division
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
(503) 872-5264 ext 5528

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Lepper · 05-28-2003, 07:53 PM

TC you give them an earfull? Just a wandering what they said.. I still feel like we got shafted!!

Born to be Wild · 05-29-2003, 12:29 AM

Lepper,

Not being sarcastic, but I don't know why you would feel you got shafted unless you were against the separate quota. Sounds like that usually works in your favor though down south.

If you disagree with the separate quota then you and others need to go to the meetings and get it changed back.

There was no catch recorded or estimated for Port Orford or Bandon. They were given the big goose egg even though they knew there was some boats fishing out of there. The quota was reached by Windy Bay and Charleston alone and mostly by the charters as Don stated.

If I was a small boat halibut fisherman I think I would try to get the season dates changed. I asked ODFW years ago why the season was held during a notorious windy time of year and was told the charters over the years had pushed it there so as the smaller private boats wouldn't be able to fish as much and not use up as much of the quota.

I have heard that from 2 or 3 different ODFW employees over the years now.

I think that kind of sucks because even the charters have to cancel sometimes due to the wind and when they don't they often times get there butts kicked out there. Not to mention making it more hazardous for the smaller boaters.

Maybe April or June would be a better time for the season. Doesn't have anything to do with biology as it does for crab.

Dan

tailchaser · 05-29-2003, 06:39 AM

I recieved an email from an Ifish member who's an ODFW resource in Newport and he filled me in on a few facts that need to come to light. For one, they split the quota (in which it's something we've always wanted) but no one knew of this until now that it closed. However, the great part of this is the fact they used historical records on catch % of normal years. Well just so happens it's not until the last 5-7 years or so that this fishery here has really been targeted by charters and more people. This turned out to be 8% of the total catch allowed from Florence to California. Did we get the shaft, hell yeah we did. This was never brought up in public forums or published that I knew, my dad knew (and he's on the gov. committee on fisheries) or any of the sport fishing shops in town. If that's not enough, the charters alone bagged nearly 3/4 of the allotted poundage from only (4 boats) even without checkers getting everything and because the weather was too rough for most sport boats. We have to thank our local ODFW Don Boedmiller on this one, he's the one that made the call and did us this great justice.

I guess be careful of what you wish for. While the rest of the state is fishing for flatties once again, we'll be bottomfishing or some great thing until they outlaw that too. Sorry to sound sarcastic but I don't always agree with the decisions our ODFW make some times. Without public comment I don't believe one person always makes the best choices for the good of everyone involved. In this case it was dramatically underestimated and I'm left with an open halibut tag that I was required to purchase. Basically, my feelings have changed a lot in this respect that I'm tired of fishing these rough ass days becuase I'm forced to in the time frames allotted, I'd almost prefer not to do it and go to alaska and stock up once a year. That being said I want the damn thing taken off of my required tags I have to purchase because I'm not going to buy a tag I'm not given the chance to fish for in a safe manner. I'm not the only one that feels this way because much of this fishery is geared towards charters anyhow with the rough ocean and no fish is worth losing my life over. If that's the way it's going to be then fine, give me a choice if I want to purchase a tag and go for it.

Ok I'm done ranting, but some changes need to occur before my feelings of this states regs comes around with a different attitude. I'm going to give it one more try this year during the off season to change some things the right way and I know that Steelheader's is already behind me, so we'll try, but I can't promise anything.

tc

Lepper · 05-29-2003, 08:30 AM

There was no catch recorded or estimated for Port Orford or Bandon. They were given the big goose egg even though they knew there was some boats fishing out of there. The quota was reached by Windy Bay and Charleston alone and mostly by the charters as Don stated.

the charters alone bagged nearly 3/4 of the allotted poundage from only (4 boats) even without checkers getting everything and because the weather was too rough for most sport boats

Again. I say we got SHAFTED!

tailchaser · 05-29-2003, 02:57 PM

Pilar, I'm not raging mad at Don, but in the end someone made the decision and it turned out to be him. I'm disappointed in the fact no one was involved in this, or if some kind of public hearing was held, no one around here knew about it. I have been on the phone every night so far about this to locals in the know and it's a surprise to everyone. I didn't say anywhere that he was out to get me, but he has to stand by the decision he made and I plan on asking him his reasoning why he did just that. I don't plan on doing it rudely either, but there are some very direct questions that several of us want to know. I think one of the guys was going to invite him to the next steelheaders meeting so he has a chance to explain himself and the ruling. Right now it doesn't look good without some reasoning.

In the end I'm not flaming over this, but I feel like we definitely got the short end of the stick for no reason. Year after year these issues come up and it's weakening my drive to fish for them to say the least and everyone agrees on several things but it's never changed a darn thing. I'm just tired of seeing the dog and pony show on meetings and public forums but haven't seen a darn thing come of it. This time I'll be a bit more vocal about it and if that doesn't work politically, well I guess I'll learn how to catch more springers in May instead.

tc

Pilar · 05-29-2003, 03:15 PM

TC, it's like you are describing a different ODFW than the one I have seen. I can see if there are any opportunities for public input regarding season setting and/or allocation. It has been my experience that if we (Sport Fishers) show up at the right meeting, we can make things happen.

If you seriously want to change things then lets do it.

Thanks for saying something. Call or Email Don and talk to him about it.

Popeye · 05-29-2003, 03:51 PM

TC, There IS something you can do about it...There will be a meeting in Newport in August (I don't know if the exact date has been set yet), and I, for one will be there! I went to the one in Newport earlier this year to set the dates that were sent to the Halibut Commission for consideration (which by the way, were all approved)I had also hoped, at the time, to be able to express my thoughts on all of the regs for halibut, but was told that the meeting for that, will be in August. Don also seemed to me to be a guy on our side, but it IS up to us to let him know what we want. Hope to see you there

Bruce

tailchaser · 05-29-2003, 06:02 PM

Let me know the dates and I'll plan on it. I'm not an ODFW hater by any means, but sometimes the rules need some tweaking to make them work properly, kinda like the no yelloweye or canary's on board when there's a halibut? And then only one is allowed otherwise. For one the fish is dead when it gets to the surface, so you'll be feeding the seagulls, and two who in the right mind is going to go that far to catch a single rockfish? I still haven't figured that one out, but put that one on the list also of needing an explination. Anyhow, I'm game for advising some changes on how this can go smoother for everyone.

tc

Born to be Wild · 05-29-2003, 11:31 PM

Well in that sense you did get shafted. By the wind! As I said a couple replies back, I would fight for a season opener change. That's why it is in windy May I have been informed, to keep you guys off there. You eat away at the quota.

Appears that the separate quota normally favors you south coast fishers. But if it doesn't, get it changed back. If the south coast quota is disproportionate to the north coast quota, cry foul and fight it, or simply go back to the combined quota and change the season timing.

If I was involved in the halibut fishery and fished a small boat, I would get organized with the kickers or trailer sailors and get the season changed to a better time. There are a lot more of you than there are charters.

I don't fish them so it is not my battle.

I know it's a drive, 2-2&1/2 hours for you down there in Bandon and Coos, but there is an alternative of you coming up this way and following some ifisher's out to there hunting grounds in June.

Dan

Pilar · 05-29-2003, 11:43 PM

Tailchaser, sorry you feel like you got the shaft.

I would get to know Don Bodenmiller a little better before you assume that he is out to get you. If I had to pick a guy at ODFW to represent my interests as a sport fisher, I'm thinking that Don would be it hands down.

Maybe the time I have spent talking to him at various meetings regarding near shore management were a fluke but I get the sense that he cares about sport fishers and the resource.

Give him a chance TC. Call him and discuss the situation. He might surprise you and solve your problem.