PC report 8/6

Headed out with amb on Thursday to try and fill up the freezer a bit more. Overall, I'd say it was pretty slow. Weather was fairly nice, just a bit on the inconvenient side. It was pretty calm for a good chunk of the morning with only a slight breeze out of the south. amb headed in around 9, then it was dead calm for a good half an hour. I found a nice drop off around that time that went from about 75 ft. to about 100 and the bite started picking up for me. Unfortunately, the wind also decided to pick up around that time. Pretty much blew me right out of a great rockfish bite. Pulled up a couple blacks, a canary, what I felt was a yellow eye, and a smaller rockfish that I wasn't able to put a name to. Retreated to the shelter of the rock since my favorite side of it was now blocked from the wind and finished up with a couple of blacks from there. Wind waves ended up reaching at least 3 feet I would say so NOAA was a little off, but hey, it happens. No lings!
Met a nice guy on the beach who said he had been lurking the site for a while and was down on the beach testing some kayak gear. Sorry for not remembering your name, but hope you sign up soon!

Allen with his china rockfish




A little help with the id on this one?


DOUBLE!


After review of my card, I decided this was a yelloweye. How'd I do?


And a canary... right?

A little help with the id on this one?

Yellowtail rockfish

After review of my card, I decided this was a yelloweye. How'd I do?

Yep, Yelloweye.

And a canary... right?

Yep again, Canary.

I think the second is a Vermillion, but never having caught one, I couldn't tell you - looks like the fin edges are black - the ID book that I have indicates that the chin would be rough on a Vermillion, and smooth on a canary.

Don't know about the first one - I want to say Boccacio, but again, never seen on in real life.  The head shape is what I am looking at.

After review of my card, I decided this was a yelloweye. How'd I do?

Yep, Yelloweye.


Yep again, Canary.

So Brian, the giveaway in the pic that it is a yelloweye is that the body lacks the dark mottling that all of my id guides say a Vermillion will have?  I can't tell from the pic if the eye is obviously yellow.

And sweet catch.  Surprised you didn't have any cabbies or lings

Thanks bsteves!

I gave up on NOAA long ago and use magic seaweed now.  They give you way more detailed info.  Nice fish the one looks kind of like a Widow Rockfish but i'm really bad at ID'ing most of them.  I really wish I could get back out there tomorrow and sunday but summer halibut is open so it's off to the chicken ranch this weekend.

it's off to the chicken ranch this weekend.

Can I come?

The rough maxillary and chin on the vermilion is a very useful way to distinguish it from the canary and yelloweye in the field (in pictures.. not so much).

Here are some vermilion, yelloweye, canary id guides..

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/pdfs/canary_id.pdf
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/newsletter/pdfs/mmn1207pages67.pdf

Bsteves is the fish ID master.. that's his job. It's good to have a bonafide fish nerd on board.

So that third is a yellowtail? I got a few of those last time I was in OR. When the light isn't behind them they look like blacks but just a little lighter in color. So do we have to hold them up to the light to know if they're yellow tails?

Z

Sean,
How big was that yellowtail? I don't think I've seen one before.

Yellowtail rockfish tend to be a bit long and skinny relative to black rockfish and as you can see in the photo, they have yellowish fins.  Black rockfish also have a more rounded anal fin.

Oh, and yellowtail rockfish can get to 26" long (black rockfish to ~24").

Brian

Yellowtail are legal to keep, correct?   

Yellowtail are legal to keep, correct?   

For us in Oregon, when it comes to rockfish, if it's not a canary rockfish or a yelloweye rockfish it's pretty much okay to keep.

NIce job guys. Quite a mix there.

I heard the bite was red hot here today, i was working on the Grumman. Gonna hit it tomorrow...