[ODFW-News] Limited sport fishery for bottomfish opens outside 40 fathom line

[ODFW News]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 	
For more information call 800-720-6339 
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us  


For immediate release	Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Limited sport fishery for bottomfish opens outside 40 fathom line

NEWPORT - A limited sport bottomfish opportunity outside the 40-fathom
line will open Oct. 1 to Oct. 31. This season was negotiated by Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife through the Pacific Fisheries Management
Council to allow a harvest in the Oregon marine zone. This fishery
primarily will be for yellowtail rockfish. It also offers opportunities
for other species, such as sablefish and various flatfish. 

Anglers are reminded that they are prohibited from retaining lingcod,
cabezon, greenling and all rockfish species other than yellowtail. The
fishing for these species closed earlier this year when the sport
harvest reached federally-mandated caps on several important
species."We want to get the word out, especially to private boats,
that fishing for yellowtail rockfish is different from fishing for
nearshore rockfish," said Eric Schindler, fisheries biologist for the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Resources Program.
"These fish are a schooling rockfish found in the middle of the
water column. Anglers going after this fish shouldn't hook many other
rockfish species if they target yellowtail by fishing well off the
bottom."
The daily bag limit for yellowtail rockfish is 10.

Inside 40 fathoms, fishing for surf perch and flatfish species - such
as starry flounder, Pacific sanddab, and sand sole - is scheduled to
continue through the end of the year. Fishing for yellowtail rockfish is
not allowed inside 40 fathoms.

For a list of waypoints for the 40-fathom line please see the listing
in the ODFW's Marine Resources Program Web page at
www.hmsc.oregonstate.edu/odfw/regs/recregs.html.

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