First problem........parking-area/beach-closure......next, fish-finder fail......and then……………......

[dos ballenas]

Originally Posted by bolocop

Venting is not recommended and it makes sense not to poke a hole in the air bladder.

What I have done in the past is make a recompression tool. I used a long-shanked hook and pressed in the barb. You attach the weight to the eye of the hook and attach the line to the bend in the hook. Yes, you use the hook upside-down.

You then hook the rockfish through the lower lip and drop everything in the water. At about 100 ft, yank up on rod and the fish will be safely recompressed.

No floaters, those are your trophy fish of the future.

Well said!

Venting used to be recommended. But recent research has shown that venting is actually very bad. Venting pops the swim bladder which lead infection and death.



Recompression is the way to go..... aka dropping the fish back to the depths from which they came. Several recent studies have shown that the majority of rockfish that are dropped back to depth survive. One such study tagged dozens of large cow cod and vermillion rockfish out at the 43 fathom spot. Several of the tagged fish survived and made large movements... one fish that was tagged at the 43 was then recovered off Newport beach!

There are many different types of recompression devices available. Or you can make your own by crimping the bar down on a 3/o hook.




That said... I advise the original poster to learn how to ID rockfish.... the ocean whitefish is one of the most common species and easily identifiable.... if you can't ID an ocean whitefish you have a lot of learning to do!