DIY Rockfish descender

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Now that Rockfish season is closed, we should all not only be releasing rockfish by-catch, but ideally getting them back down to depths so they don't just get eaten the birds.

They grow slowly, so let's protect the fishery and get the by-catch back down to where it has a good chance at survival.

DFW/NOAA has this guide, but it includes only commercial products and DIY rigs that require specific preparation: http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa....kfish_down.pdf

Here's a simple approach that you can make with gear you almost certainly have with you on the water, so you have no excuses. (Although rockfish will survive much better if you have something ready to go before they get to the surface).

It's pretty simple. The easiest version requires line, a snap swivel, and a hook (plus pliers to crimp the barb if it isn't barbless). The second version doesn't require a snap swivel, but is a little harder to tie.

First, take a length of heavy line (I used 50lb mono), and snell your hook, leaving a very long tag end. You can use any snell, but if you know how to tie a uni-knot, using the uni-knot snell is probably easiest. Otherwise consider looking up an "easy snell knot." Too keep the inverted hook upright, you will need to wrap the whole shank of the hook, so it will require many more turns than if you were just trying to keep the hook on the end of your leader.

Tie a loop (I use a surgeon's loop knot) in the tag end (i.e., the end closest to the bottom of the hook).

Tie the standing end (the end closest to the hook eye) to a snap swivel. I suggest a palomar knot.

Now you've got a rig which, like the commercial Shelton Fish Descender, you can connect (via the loop) to a snap swivel on you pole and add weights to the snap swivel. Like the SFD, you can even put a rig below the swivel so you don't need to reel up to start fishing again if you are fishing/releasing deep.

You can do all of this, even if you aren't using snap swivels, by snelling the hook upside down a ways up your leader. It requires a bit of adaptation, since the tag end goes through the hook eye last rather than at the beginning of the snell, but it's not hard to make it work. Then you can tie whatever you want (e.g., dropped loop) in the tag end below the inverted hook (assuming you left the tag end long enough.