Depoe Bay bottomfish report - 1/29/2019

It's not every day you get calm seas in January!  3-4 foot long period swell and an easterly breeze that chilled out by late morning.  Water temp of 50 degrees.  The lingcod bite started off terribly slow.  They seemed to wake up later in the morning, but even still, I was expecting a better bite on larger fish.  I sorted through a dozen of them before settling on 29 and 32 inchers.  Those two lings seemed pretty large compared to the ones I saw the PBers cleaning at the fillet station.  The blacks were thick, and were easy pickings on a jigging spoon.  I also CnRed a couple blues, couple kelp greenling, and four cabezon.

Speaking of cabezon, the star of the day was a 27 inch cabbie who had me fooled for a big ling all the way to the surface.  A new PB cab!

Getting out in January was a rare treat, that's for sure.  I've now fished Depoe Bay every month of the year except for December.

That is awesome that you got out.  Even today's window looked pretty small.  Looks like a great day on the water.

Great pics. Today looked terrific, so I’m jealous.

right on, nice cabby!  I came really close to going out of Sunset Bay Tuesday but swell prediction just a tick too high down here, went with lower CoosBay instead and was not disappointed....

Thanks guys, it felt great to get the Revo back on the salt for a bit!  And come home with fresh ling and rockfish  .

I forgot to mention that the first buoy (aka 1/2 mile buoy, bell buoy) is missing.  Until it's replaced, you need to line up with the whistle buoy when transiting the channel through the bay.  It's not a big deal, but I often use the first buoy as a reference point for my drift speed/direction.

Thanks for the report! Looked like a good day to be out on the water.

Fred "True" Trujillo

Nice report. Were the other cabezon pretty big, too? I'd never caught one until last year but caught five in my two salt water trips, all out of season. They must be doing well out there.

Thanks for the report! It's amazing how many cabezon are there in Depoe bay, the limits and short seasons must really be helping the populations.

#amayesing

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Consider me jealous. I need some salt therapy. I'm still looking for my first >2ft. cab.

Nice report. Were the other cabezon pretty big, too? I'd never caught one until last year but caught five in my two salt water trips, all out of season. They must be doing well out there.

Thanks for the report! It's amazing how many cabezon are there in Depoe bay, the limits and short seasons must really be helping the populations.

One of the other cabs was 22-23 inches.  The other two were maybe 20 inches apiece.  Good-sized fish, but they were dwarfed by that 27.

Depoe has a history of producing huge cabs.  It's helped by the tight restrictions on cab retention, but I think the area also provides prime growing conditions for cabs that puts it a step above other areas along the Oregon coast.  I had a trip last February where I landed several monster cabs up to 26 inches.  And most of the ORC events are dominated by huge cabs.  On the one hand, I feel like the restrictions on cabezon could be loosened a bit to allow for more retention...but on the other, it's really cool to have the increased opportunity just to tangle with a monster cab every now and then.

Nice report. Were the other cabezon pretty big, too? I'd never caught one until last year but caught five in my two salt water trips, all out of season. They must be doing well out there.

Thanks for the report! It's amazing how many cabezon are there in Depoe bay, the limits and short seasons must really be helping the populations.

One of the other cabs was 22-23 inches.  The other two were maybe 20 inches apiece.  Good-sized fish, but they were dwarfed by that 27.

Depoe has a history of producing huge cabs.  It's helped by the tight restrictions on cab retention, but I think the area also provides prime growing conditions for cabs that puts it a step above other areas along the Oregon coast.  I had a trip last February where I landed several monster cabs up to 26 inches.  And most of the ORC events are dominated by huge cabs.  On the one hand, I feel like the restrictions on cabezon could be loosened a bit to allow for more retention...but on the other, it's really cool to have the increased opportunity just to tangle with a monster cab every now and then.

We were catching a lot more big cabs near Simpsons reef in 2018 also. Commercial fishing for Cabazon is open year round with a limit of 1,000 pounds per 2-month period. https://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/regulations/commercial_fishing/gfregs/index.asp#Nearshore2

In 2018, the recreational quota for cabezon was 16.8 metric tons, and the commercial quota was 30.2 metric tons.

Good job clayman! Thanks for report.

Wow, very nice. Totally jealous!
This whole government shutdown has me in a funk. 5 weeks of no pay. Now we are back to work and getting paid, but I took on a second job during the shutdown and now I am trying to do both with the uncertainty of federal budgets.

I just want to go fishing dammit!

In 2018, the recreational quota for cabezon was 16.8 metric tons, and the commercial quota was 30.2 metric tons.

And I believe the rec quota was hit in less than two months. We weren't able to retain them at AOTD and it was just in August after the July 1 opening. Pretty wild really.