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[Rodney]

Starting February 1st, 2007, new rockfish conservation areas will be in effect throughout British Columbia. It is your responsibility to check which areas are designated as rockfish conservation areas before you go fishing.

The new rockfish conservation areas can be viewed on this webpage.

Finfish angling by line is prohibited in rockfish conservation areas. The only activities permitted are:

• invertebrates by hand picking or dive
• crab by trap
• prawn by trap
• smelt by gillnet

To learn more about the rockfish conservation areas, please go to this webpage.

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/070104_1.html

[lucky]

a very sad day for those of us who like to target bottom fish from time to time, the conservation area in the Indian arm has tripled in size, why not just close the retention of rockfish indefinitely if they are disappearing. When I used to target rockfish we would hardly ever fish the same spots twice, now there are not many spots left outside of the conservation areas so I'm guessing those spots that  you can fish will get pounded till there are only rockcod left in the conservation areas. I'm guessing that we will probably see a day when the whole Indian arm will be a conservation area. Is there any science behind this? or is this just to silence the animal rights crowds? I have fished bottom fish all over the Island and in my opinion the stocks of rockfish and lingcod in the Indian arm are doing just fine, also there aren't that many people that specifically target them there due to the one fish a day limit.

[charles]

When I was doing egg mass count for Lingcod while diving for Vancouver aquarium, we did see the number of egg mass counts drop year after year...  Rockfish like yellow eye snapper grows a lot slower than Lingcods (average 4oz a year from some study)... 

now you do the math...

And with Lingcod, the survival rate is quite high with proper release.  Lingcod does not have the swim bladder like cod fish.  Even with the proper air release and combine with slow bringing the fish up which I doubt anyone does that here, the death rate is still very high.  And almost always a dead rockfish if fish over 60 feet of water...

And I actually think the ban is good.

[FISHIN MAGICIAN]

a very sad day for those of us who like to target bottom fish from time to time, the conservation area in the Indian arm has tripled in size, why not just close the retention of rockfish indefinitely if they are disappearing. When I used to target rockfish we would hardly ever fish the same spots twice, now there are not many spots left outside of the conservation areas so I'm guessing those spots that  you can fish will get pounded till there are only rockcod left in the conservation areas. I'm guessing that we will probably see a day when the whole Indian arm will be a conservation area. Is there any science behind this? or is this just to silence the animal rights crowds? I have fished bottom fish all over the Island and in my opinion the stocks of rockfish and lingcod in the Indian arm are doing just fine, also there aren't that many people that specifically target them there due to the one fish a day limit.

It's obvious to me Lucky, if you think Indian Arm Rockfish and Lingcod are doing just fine, you've not really sure exactly what a healthy reef or rockfish bearing structure looks like when it's in it's natural element and balance.

Case in point---Bamfield area---Ucluelet---if you're not fishing the Banks out in the middle of nowhere..you're not going to catch GOOD size rockfish...and by good size...I mean BIG rockfish.

DFO just doesn't pull regulations like this out of their hat.  Personally, I believe it's long overdue...and should have been done 25 years ago.

[lucky]

It's obvious to me Lucky, if you think Indian Arm Rockfish and Lingcod are doing just fine, you've not really sure exactly what a healthy reef or rockfish bearing structure looks like when it's in it's natural element and balance

  Having fished all up and down the island for many years I'm pretty sure I know what a healthy reef is.  And you really cant compare the island and the Indian arm, the islands rockfish populations are dwindling due to years of over commercial fishing and by catch. As long as I can remember there hasn't been commercial fishing in  the arm, I believe the populations are doing well because of what I catch, lots of small medium and large fish, and this area does not receive the recreational pressure that the bamfields and renfrews receive. Its a very rare occasion that I see others out there jigging cod, its not worth it for most people to pay ramp fees gas etc. to catch one fish.  Like I stated earlier if these stocks are in such dire straits why not close the retention all together? makes more sense than a conservation area," from a fishermans point of view" but from an environmentalist animal rights point of view these conservation areas are great!

[FISHIN MAGICIAN]

It's obvious to me Lucky, if you think Indian Arm Rockfish and Lingcod are doing just fine, you've not really sure exactly what a healthy reef or rockfish bearing structure looks like when it's in it's natural element and balance

  Having fished all up and down the island for many years I'm pretty sure I know what a healthy reef is.  And you really cant compare the island and the Indian arm, the islands rockfish populations are dwindling due to years of over commercial fishing and by catch. As long as I can remember there hasn't been commercial fishing in  the arm, I believe the populations are doing well because of what I catch, lots of small medium and large fish, and this area does not receive the recreational pressure that the bamfields and renfrews receive. Its a very rare occasion that I see others out there jigging cod, its not worth it for most people to pay ramp fees gas etc. to catch one fish.  Like I stated earlier if these stocks are in such dire straits why not close the retention all together? makes more sense than a conservation area," from a fishermans point of view" but from an environmentalist animal rights point of view these conservation areas are great!

Hmmm...

It would seem then Lucky, that if one area gets fished out, you go to the next area and fish there where they are in more abundance.

It used to be that fishing for Rockcod was a total joke---and few people actually bothered..a few lings a season for fish n' chips and that was it.

I was discussing this issue with Dad, and he says it used to be that there were plenty of rockcod in Howe Sound, and now you have to TRY and TRY HARD to get just a couple of decent fish with which you could have a 2 piece fish n' chips.

I'm all for these rockfish conservation areas.

I've been out for winter springs 3 times in the last 2 weeks, and incidentally I've seen guys jigging for flounder in English Bay--3 and 4 guys a boat each time---hmm...I wonder how many flounder they're going to jig out of there? Won't be long before there aren't any.

Besides, these regs are a total joke anyways in my opinion. In most of the areas around the coast where RCAs should exist, they just plain don't. Particularly around fishing lodges. That tells you what is really behind these regulations.

I've fished a few clients on the coast at different locales who wanted to limit out on ground species..and I remember fluking into 1 particular reef that no one appears to have fished----unfortunately, not before we went and fished 1400 years worth of rockcod, ling cod, yelloweye, etc.

Needless to say, I never went back to that reef, and as guides we committed to leave those special areas alone.

When we were done that, next is was onto Halis.. next thing----it was half way through the trip and they couldn't fish for anything other than salmon. What a joke!!!!!

RCAs are necessary and imperative to preserve stocks.

Hopefully there will be more and expanded RCAs in the future.

[Rodney]

Back to the top as the areas come in effect today.

[JiG_Head]

this post is directed to me lol jk... Thanks for the headsup rod.

damnit... i guess ill have to start learning how to fish for salmon -_-;