Albacore Tuna Captain - Lingcod Improving?

Born to be Wild · 06-04-2003, 08:29 PM

Albacore Tuna Captain,

Me and my friends have noticed what seems to be a drastic improvement in the lingcod fishery this year both off the rocks and fishing out of a boat.

You are out there on somewhat of a dailey basis and was wondering about your opinion of the fishery there off of Newport. Size and/or quanity.

Thanks,

Dan

Fishplay · 06-04-2003, 08:55 PM

The lings are plentiful. I think the last two years have shown great improvements. Still a lot of shorts but hey they grow up to be fine eaters.

Albacore Tuna Captain · 06-05-2003, 06:20 AM

The ling cod have made a great comeback and thanks to the quick action of ODFW. A few years ago it was becoming evident that the lings were being overfished. Commercial fishermen were taking every size they caught along with the sport fishermen. The size requirement and the reduction is limit went a long way to improve on this fish. However, I think we need to look a little further at the size restrictions on keeping the large females. It makes no sense to keep a egg laying female of the size that isn't really that good to eat. Whenever I catch a really big ling on my boat, I try to empress on the fisherman of what he has caught and try to convince them to put it back. This doesn't happen very often. Many fishermen just want to take that trophy home and don't care what kind of an impact it has to remove the brood stock. Anyway, the ling cod stock is recoverying very nicely and we should have some really good fishing in the years to come.

WP · 06-05-2003, 08:19 AM

Thank you Mike for that effort! It has not been my experience that charter skippers would try to get customers to release large legal fish. The effort you are making in that regard is laudable. Keep up the great work. We need to encourage the ODFW to consider a slot type limit again. Fish over about 15-20 lbs are not very good eating and make significant contributions to sustainig the species.
JMNSHO
WP :smile:

fish assassin · 06-05-2003, 08:50 AM

While commercial fishing out of Pacific City there were several of us commercial
guys that would release anything over about 20 lbs. A lot of the commercials
are *also* very conservative about taking the brood stock.

I've taken this ethic with me to Depoe Bay, but have changed the size I
keep from a maximum of 20 lbs. to a maximum of 15 lbs. This, however, is
usually not a problem because of the way I fish. I mostly catch the smaller,
aggressive males in the 5.5-8 lb. range.

-assAssin-

DriftR · 06-05-2003, 08:54 AM

Albacore Tuna Captain,
Congratulations on your conservation of a dwindling resource. Pretty soon if more don't follow your lead we will end up being without recoverable stocks of lings. Just a suggestion. Would it be worthwhile to have a little certificate or form printed off your office computer stating "Congratulations to _____ ______ he/she released a ling cod __/___/03 esitmated weight _____pds and length of _______ inches. Conservation of our ocean resource is successful today because of this angler."
Or maybe a polaroid picture with the anglers catch with date, estimated weight and length noting that it was released unharmed. Might help to encourage more people to think about conservation instead of harvest. Just my 2 cents worth.

Straydog · 06-05-2003, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DriftR:
Albacore Tuna Captain,
Congratulations on your conservation of a dwindling resource. Pretty soon if more don't follow your lead we will end up being without recoverable stocks of lings. Just a suggestion. Would it be worthwhile to have a little certificate or form printed off your office computer stating "Congratulations to _____ ______ he/she released a ling cod __/___/03 esitmated weight _____pds and length of _______ inches. Conservation of our ocean resource is successful today because of this angler."
Or maybe a polaroid picture with the anglers catch with date, estimated weight and length noting that it was released unharmed. Might help to encourage more people to think about conservation instead of harvest. Just my 2 cents worth.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Excellent suggestion and hats off to those of you doing it right!!

[ 06-05-2003, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: Straydog ]

CAPT KUJO · 06-05-2003, 09:41 AM

I've been diving off PC a bit lately. I can assure you the few reefs I have visited this year are 'loaded ' with small to med size ling. I have been concentrating on taking underwater video of Oregon Coastal reefs instead of packing a speargun around for food. So I have some "ling" video this year which is pretty impressive.

CAPT KUJO

South Paw · 06-05-2003, 09:46 AM

Hey! do you thing the greater impact on the improved fishery was reduction in commercial fishing or the sport fishing limits?

South Paw · 06-05-2003, 09:49 AM

Kujo, I'd love to see the some of those home videos the ones of disney Land weren't so hot but these should be great! All kidding aside it would be very kewl to check them out.

corrirod · 06-05-2003, 10:00 AM

Great suggestion DriftR!

Kujo, those videos would make a great video addition to one of the TA meetings! Please, please, please?

skein · 06-05-2003, 10:11 AM

Driftr, GREAT IDEA!!!

I remember doing just that two or three years ago and the skipper of the charter boat made kind of an "attaboy" fuss because I had chosen to release a "keeper" and how important it was to get that fish back into the system. It kinda embarrassed me, but looking back, it did make an impression on the others.

I'll have to go back and tell him I want my dog-gone certificate! :grin:

Great idea, Driftr.

Skein

Born to be Wild · 06-05-2003, 12:49 PM

South Paw,

It was the commercial fishery namely the draggers that impacted the lingcod fishery. I had felt we would see imediate improvement after the commercials were cut back and apparently that is what is taking place.

Unfotunately when a species is overfished commercially the sport fishermen have to pay the price also. But now I feel things are under control. Actually I am satisfied with the way our marine species and our salmon are managed locally these days. I'm sure there is room for improvent however.

I think the slot limit was a good management tool also. I pushed for that way back in the days when Jerry Butler was running the marine fisheries for ODFW. Some of my friends do like to keep the big cows but I don't.

Some of the local charters weren't in favor of the slot limit before it took affect but I think almost all of them learned to appreciate it after the fact. I think most of the local charters would welcome it back.

I talked to Jeurgan the captain of the Tacklebuster a year or two ago and he said he wished they would have kept the slot limit. He told me he enjoyed explaining to his customers the value of releasing the large spawners.

Something to keep in mind for future meetings. If I remember correctly when I asked Don Bodenmiller about doing away with the slot limit on ling's, he told me that he was hearing at meetings up and down the coast, the majority wanted to do away with the slot limit.

Dan

[ 06-05-2003, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: DepoeBayDan ]