Neah Bay Inshore Bottomfishing Rule Change

After we lost our year-round inshore bottomfishing in area 4 due to yelloweye impacts, many of us questioned the opening of deepwater bottomfishing prior to june 1.

WDFW has decided to push the all-depth bottomfish fishery to prior to may 1 this season and even on halibut days there will be no retention of rockfish in water deeper than 20 fathoms.  this should keep us fishing in our shallow water spots without worrying about early closures.  now we just have to push to make sure the labor day closure does not become the new norm regardless of yelloweye impacts.

kudos to everyone who stood up against the short deepwater fishery impacting our year round shallow water fishing.

chris

Do you have a link for this?

I sent several suggestions myself specifically requesting they eliminate retention of bottomfish (other than halibut of course!) on Halibut days.

Do you have a link for this?

I sent several suggestions myself specifically requesting they eliminate retention of bottomfish (other than halibut of course!) on Halibut days.

shoot me an e-mail at topwatersATmsn.com and i'll forward you the PDF file i received.

chris

Yeah, I got the letter in the mail yesterday.

Email sent.  Though I may have a copy in the mail as well, didn't get to check it yesterday.