Oregon Cabezon Closed effective 7-21-12

Get out there Friday for your last chance at an AOTY upgrade!
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/finfish/groundfish_sport/index.asp

So the new regs this year kept the cab harvest open another 3-4 weeks? 💩

Clearly the Cabezon are low in numbers, I only had to release 5-6 of them on tournament day at ORC.

Clearly the Cabezon are low in numbers, I only had to release 5-6 of them on tournament day at ORC.

Might have something to do with the protective regs.  Imagine the dent in the population that happened when you could keep your full limit of cabbies instead of just one a day.  I've never seen so many big cabs either.   I wouldn't mind a bit if they raised the ling minimum from 22" to 24" too.

Lowering the bag limit is good, I just don't think that closing the season is necessary. 

Raising the minimum size limit on lings would probably be good too.  There is a 24" minimum in WA Area 4, and I like it.  Makes for lots of C&R, but I prefer quality fish vs. quantity fish. 

Its quota driven.  When the take limit has been reached it closes.. Its decided by fisheries managers, and I'm not saying its perfect or they have all the answers but somebody has to draw a line in the sand someplace.  Otherwise it ends up like the fat kid at halloween, who scarfs up all their huge haul of candy in one sitting and then cries when their bucket is empty.  I applaud managing these fish for the long haul instead of scarfing up short term gains just because right now there is lots of  "candy" in the bucket. 

Well stated Pelagic. Sustaining populations for the long term means we will hopefully get to fish for them for a long time instead of closing down to repopulate the species.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

I realize it's quota driven.  Both the bag limit and the quota are designed to increase stocks.  I'm saying I feel the quota is too low or not needed. 

Of course, I have limited experience in Oregon, and perhaps Depoe is not representative of the entire coastline, but from what I saw, there were a LOT of cabezons caught.  Personally I released at least 5 of them and only caught 2 lings (1 released) and 2 rockfish (1 released).  The previous day I caught a ling and released 2 cabbies in about an hours time.

I spent some time talking to an ODFW biologist out at PC one day, and he told me that the quotas are "regional", and decided on by "international"  consensus. I use quotation marks, because I don't know how big the region is, nor how many nations are involved. Point is, the quota isn't very local, so some areas may have plentiful stocks (North & Central Oregon coast), but if lumped in with depleted areas, the quota will seem low to those with plentiful stocks.