ROCKISH

[gvanzant]

The one fish limit on the "super groupers"(salmon grouper) is producing some interesting trips for my fishing group. We have one GPS bearing on the Southeast Bank that produces giant fish, some to 10 lbs. The depth is only 280 feet deep and never fails to give up some grumpers. Whatever that DFG test is that determ ines the fish stock, I wonder if it's accurate. In all my years of fishing for the super groupers, this year is unbelievable. We do not meter any fish on the depth finder and simply stop on the GPS reading and crush the fish in one drop. They are jumping in the boat but obviously the trips are over quickly. I wonder if that test is truly accurate?
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[tubeN2]

Hey George. It's good to see you back on the boards again.

The Bocaccio count has always been off since they put a 1 fish limit. I have several spots in N. La and parts of Ventura County that prove the same results.

When I go out on the Sporties with a boat load, we can usually count on staying only 10minutes at a spot to prevent unnecessary slaughter of the extra Groupers.

As with the Sculpin counts(Fish and Game addmitted that their data was incorrect) they are now reviewing the Salmon Grouper information.

I am working close with on of the DFG Biologists on some Tag & Release trips. I as well as others keep making mention to him about the numbers of the Groupers that are down there. He was only in slight disbelief but set up a "Grouper Only" trip with us.

6 of us hammered out 85 groupers( 2 hooks each) in 22minutes and 41seconds. He was then convinced about the numbers. These Groupers ranged from 4lbs all the way up to 12lbs. All 85 were taken for study by the biologist.

Maybe they will start to listen to us anglers once in awhile. He said that they might open the Grouper up to 2 each by 2008.[cool]

It's nice that they already adjusted the Scullys to be open while the Rock fish are open instead of waiting till October.[]
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[JapanRon]

Hi gvanzant,

Went on one of the DFG trips on the Premier and 99% of fish were returned to the water unharmed from 250+ depths even after being weighed, measured and recorded! The guy doing the deflating was good and the system is viable.

A buddy broght his bladder deflator kit the next rockfishing trip and tons of fish got the 'treatment'. Problem with my buddy was...... that he was so busy saving fish, he had little time to fish himself![]

If people really wanted to walk the walk concerning contrdicting the rockfish stock mis-information I believe is prevelant... for one thing ... they could record the fsh sucessfully returned safely to the water with the deflator, showing we have even bigger stocks and adding further overwhelming numbers to actual fish stocks.

But who on any boat is gonna take the effort to do the deflation of fish we know good and well would survive with proper care!?! Let's see all the hands raised! [laugh]

Not saying you yourself don't stop fishing once you've caught that one salmon grouper........ when you don't have a deflator. I don't .... but should ..as most anglers ought.

In the end ... the DFG guy on our trip recorded tons of fish, as did TubeN2's, being caught. I'm wondering if the raw data gets 'lost' or 'gets eaten by the dog' before it gets crunched. []

JapanRon
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