Looking for C&R Rockfish (other than Blacks)

I've caught blacks, blues, chinas, yellow-eyes and canary rockfish at Pacific City.  I haven't caught one myself, but the first Oregon Rockfish Challenge was held at PC in 2008 and won with an 8 lb vermillion.  The vermilion, yellow-eyes and canary rockfish are often found deep, suffer from barotrauma so they aren't great candidates for C & R fishing. In fact, canaries and yellow-eyes are protected.  As for the blue rockfish, I can't explain why they show up some times and not others, but smaller baits like shrimp flies are the key as they are less likely to attack a larger jig then some of the other rockfish species in the area.   China rockfish are found on the bottom in what is normally cabezon habitat but lately it seems the cabs get to the lure first.

I carry an extra rod with a heavy lead and release clip. I send down the red and orange fish every time. Thanks for the tips.

Hey upland,  this thread got me thinking about some other species / places to fish in oregon and washington that you might not have gotten yet this year.  If you have caught all of these species, or have already fished or considered and dissmissed any of these locations, then just ignore      

Newberry Craters:   getting late in the year, but i would think in a weekend of fishing you could manage at least one kokanee.  Plus a good shot at atlantic salmon and brown trout.

Deschutes river:  Fished it in June several years ago.  Forget the name of the access pt, but it was off the hill above Madras, back in a little ways.  Fished it for about 7 or 8 hours, with a 1/4 oz panther.  Casting upstream mostly to get the lure as deep as possible.   Probably a little less flow this time of year, but being dam controlled I dont really know?  Anyways, I caught columbia redband trout (dont know if you are counting subspecies or not  )   and several bull trout. Also caught several nice large whitefish.  I actually was impressed with the fishing considering how many people hit that section (luckily mostly fly fisherman, dont think that is the best way to catch fish out of a big river myself ) landed 58 fish that day, several over 18 inches. One bull trout with a very quick measurement on my rod butt, was approx 25 inches.

Columbia river south jetty :   I have fished it several times over the years.  Have always used clam or gulp alive sand worms.  They stay on the hook so much better than anything else ive tried.  They love store bought frozen shrimp too, but very diffecult to hook one before they steal your bait.  Tried squid, but have never had luck for surf perch with it.   Always do the best from about 50 yards or so on either side of the lookout tower, right where you park.  Ive tried further out, on both sides, with very little luck.  I did catch a sand sole on the river side once.   Generally red tails,  but have caught walleye surf perch there a few times and even a few silver surf perch were mixed in a huge school of walleye surfperch one time.

scappoose bay:  lots and lots of rough fish. peamouth, chiselmouth, mottled scuplin, goldfish (yes there are some giants in there, usually a big school moving around)  common carp, golden shiner, prob others I dont know about.  Also, decent shot at white crappie and pumpkinseed if you fish hard all day.  Somewhat of a chance at warmouth and green sunfish, just havent seen much of those the last 2 years.

Frog Lake/ res.  Always get the two mixed up, on which is called which. The one up 3 lynx road, on the hill above harriet.  Bro fished it earlier this summer, dunkin playdough and casting panthers.  Caught a bunch of nice rainbows on the playdough.... and a real nice brown trout on the panther.  Not sure if they are still in there this late in the year, or if they have all moved into the conduits to head down to bigger water.

mouth of the spokane river: Believe its called the three rivers area.  My cousin lives in spokane and ive gone over there to fish with him several times.  Claims if you dunk a night crawler or piece of cut bait at night off any of the docks, you will catch a burbot.  Also, I dont know if you have good ice before DEC st, but alot of the lakes up there have good ice fishing for burbots too.  Some lakes, I know loon for sure, also have land locked coho in them, and a pretty easy fishery for them.

Several lakes in western washington:  Seems like most of the little lakes between olympia and seattle are full rock bass.  Just search rock bass on this forum, or others, and you should find it easy to catch a couple.

Plenty of quick day hikes could get you into brook trout anywhere in the cascades.

I am also planning on heading back to redondo beach on sunday, the 21st, with my dad and my youngest boy.  You would be more than welcome to tag along.  I dont know that I could show you anything different than you were doing before. Maybe the rockfish just need alot of bait in the water to get going ?    I have a pretty good idea of where we caught the english sole at , if you spent a good chunk of time dunking bait way out there, i would be surprised if you didnt catch at least one.  They are pretty easy to identify, they have a crazy pointed head, at least compared to the other right eyed flatties.

I've got a lot of those species but a few would be new. I'm at 71 species so far. I was shooting for 50 for the year so I am already far and above where I wanted to be. At this point I think I am just going to cruise into somewhere around 75 to 80 species if I get more that is great but I doubt I will.

You can check out my website for a complete list of the species I have caught this year (many of them from a kayak). http://www.bigfishingyear.net/

I still should pick up at least one more rockfish species once 40 fathoms opens, a Cabezon, Chum Salmon, White Crappie, Channel Catfish, and at least one other flatfish or ratfish from the sound.