On Oct. 1, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will lift some restrictions on bottomfishing, allowing anglers to fish at all depths and halibut anglers to retain bottomfish.
The restriction were originally put in place to reduce the incidental bycatch of yelloweye rockfish, which is considered overfished by the National Marine Fisheries Service
Since July, ODFW has required anglers fishing for bottomfish to stay inside of the 20-fathom line. In addition, since the Central Oregon Coast nearshore halibut fishery reopened on Aug. 13, anglers have not been allowed to have both bottomfish and Pacific halibut onboard at the same time.
“Those efforts were successful enough in limiting yelloweye bycatch that we can open bottomfishing to all depths on Oct. 1 and not exceed our federal yelloweye harvest guideline for the year,” said Lynn Mattes, sport bottomfish and halibut project leader for ODFW. “We also can go back to the normal rules for the nearshore halibut fishery.”
Yelloweye rockfish generally live in deeper waters so bringing the fishery inside 20 fathoms protected the rockfish while allowing anglers to continue to fish for other bottomfish such as black rockfish and lingcod. Additionally, yelloweye rockfish released from shallower than 20 fathoms have a lower mortality rate.
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