Jigging fun 1/8/17

[King Saba]

Spent a half day on the water today and jigged up some nice fish. 49 of them but who's counting right?

Most of the day was like this:



With a few by catches that swam back down no problem






Even had a few doubles because I let the jig sink for too long.

Threw everything back and by the time I decided to keep a fish for dinner the short bass were so thick that my jig could not connect with a legal.

[rhyak]

Nicely done man, Pulling on some sand bass and getting some by catch while at it.

Found the most recent DFW Q and A very interesting had to do with targeting halibut up north when the season is closed for rockfish but regardless could play into effect for the so-cal guys.

Think the answer personally is pretty poor, but this was it.

Question: I want to fish for California halibut from a boat out of Tomales Bay near Bird Rock or Elephant Rock or go out of the Gate. I used to fish for them whenever herring, squid or anchovy would come in to spawn during the winter or spring. The halibut would lay in wait as the forage fish came through, usually from January through April or May.

I haven't done this kind of fishing for a long time (years in fact) because no one wants to go out there in the wintertime when no one else is fishing and we are absolutely alone at sea. My fishing buddy wants to go but is worried that we would be cited for targeting lingcod or rockfish. I told him that as long as we were not keeping anything except the halibut, we would not be cited. We wouldn't be doing anything wrong. But he repeated that he was worried that we would have no protection against being cited because we were out there during the closed groundfish season.

Can we be cited for targeting groundfish as long we do not keep any incidentally caught groundfish? Or, how about steelhead or Pacific halibut or canary cod or anything else that you are not allowed to keep? (Jerry Z.)

Answer: You know that the sandy bottoms are where the halibut hang out. You indicated fishing the Bird Rock and Elephant Rock areas, so keep in mind there are a lot of underwater rock outcroppings there. That's where the rockfish and lingcod hang out.

According to local California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lt. Jim Jones, incidental catch is not a violation. However, once you do catch a species that is prohibited, it's recommended that you leave that area. If you continue to fish and catch fish you are not targeting, you could be cited.

If you are fishing during a closure (such as now) and start catching lingcod and rockfish, even if you are fishing catch and release, you could receive a citation for targeting those fish, depending on the situation

[surfisher]

What kind of jig were you using? Looks like a slow pitch or something of that sort?

[King Saba]

Originally Posted by rhyak

Nicely done man, Pulling on some sand bass and getting some by catch while at it.

Found the most recent DFW Q and A very interesting had to do with targeting halibut up north when the season is closed for rockfish but regardless could play into effect for the so-cal guys.

Think the answer personally is pretty poor, but this was it.

Thanks! I agree, that is a poor answer. I was fishing in a fairly shallow spot <100' so the Johnny Bass were a surprising by catch. The majority of the fish I got were sand bass with maybe at most 10% of my catch being rockfish. None of those guys had any barotrauma so fish mortality was out of the question.

Originally Posted by surfisher

What kind of jig were you using? Looks like a slow pitch or something of that sort?

Slow pitch it is.

[rhyak]

Agree with you poor answer to the question, I don't see a problem what so ever with your trip. Especially with the depth you were fishing not causing any injury.
Great report man.

[Orca Winfrey]

Awesome job! Wish I could have joined you. I think johnny bass should be legal since their name contains the word "bass". After all, they're not called johnny rockfish.