I recently had the opportunity to participate in a fantastic research program that is a big first step in solving California's current rockfish mismanagement issues. The program, funded by the California Groundfish Disaster Relief Program, sponsored by the Sportfishing Association of California, and with the cooperation of the Department of Fish and Game, charters sportfishing boats across Southern California to tag and release nearshore rockfish, sheephead, cabezon, and lingcod. The principal goals of these trips are to collect data on these species, and to pump money from the disaster relief fund directly back into the sportfishing community. It's a win-win situation: the sportboat captains and owners are helped financially through these seasonal closures, and the biologists benefit from the years of fishing experience of the captains and fishermen.

Monday through Wednesday of last week the Stardust from Sea Landing in Santa Barbara was chartered for these excursions. Capt. Jason Diamond brought the scientists to some of his favorite shallow-water rockfish spots, including Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands, as well as up the coast at St. Augustine. In the three days of fishing, biologists Ed Roberts and Ed Miller tagged and successfully released 405 rockfish! The trips were so successful that on Wednesday they chartered the boat again, for Friday that week. Wednesday night I learned of the trip from Adam at the Sea Landing office, and jumped on it immediately.

Friday morning we departed at 5 a.m. and headed for the west end of Santa Cruz Island, with the intent of finishing the day around Carrington Point at Santa Rosa. As you may know, Carrington Point is one of the areas designated to be closed off as a marine reserve, so I was particularly excited to get one last chance to fish one of my favorite rockfish spots, and the area where I caught my first legal lingcod. As it turns out, the reserves have been put on hold, and are now on the agenda for reconsideration at an upcoming Fish and Game Commission meeting in Sacramento. We hope the commissioners, as an entire body of 5, will decide to defer the Channel Islands closures into the Marine Life Protection Act process, which is working to set up a network of reserves along the coast.

As we pulled out of the harbor we were greeted by flat calm seas and clear skies. Even mid-channel, the seas were glassy and flat, with minimal swell. I was treated to one of the most beautiful sunrises over Santa Cruz I have seen. Throughout the day the wind never made it over 5 knots. The conditions were absolutely perfect, and we had high hopes the fishing would be, too. With 12 anglers on board, Capt. Jason set a goal of 200 clean releases for the day, a goal that seemed lofty at the time, but would soon come down to Earth in a big way.

We started the day on the west end of Santa Cruz Island and fished in 75-90 feet of water along a ridge off Fraser Point. The current was ripping, but the fish wanted to chew. Immediately we were hooked up to black and yellow rockfish, kelp rockfish, gopher rockfish, lingcod, and sheephead. Every now and then we would drift over a spot of copper rockfish, and five or six would be brought aboard, along with the occasional johnny bass (olive rockfish), treefish, and blue rockfish. As each fish was brought aboard, biologists Ed and Ed would record the fish's fork length and physical condition (swollen eyes, distended stomachs, etc.), tag it, and release it using a bait scoop to get the fish down below the surface. Fish waiting to be tagged and released were put into a trashcan filled with seawater for holding.

It soon became apparent that the day would belong to the lingcod, as they were out in force. Almost half the fish caught were lings, which ranged in size from 15 inches up to an 11 lb. lingasaur, with most in the 20-26 inch range. Nearly every sardine dropped down would come back either with a ling or with serious chew marks. Every spot we fished, at both islands, had lings on it. The overflow trashcan would occasionally have three or four lingcod in it, waiting to be measured and released. Every ling caught was successfully released, thanks to their lack of a gas-filled swim bladder.

After a successful morning at Santa Cruz, and with well over 100 fish tagged and released already, we made our way over to Carrington Point. We set up in 90 ft. of water, and I immediately hooked up using my "knocker rig," a scampi tail on a round leadhead, tipped with squid, with a sliding sinker above to add some weight and knock against the leadhead to create some noise. This fish turned out to be a 5 lb. vermilion rockfish (in 90 ft. of water, remember!), but unfortunately it didn't make it back down. Jason noted that though reds aren't the best at surviving the pressure change, part of a fish's ability to survive capture and release is how the fish behaves in its given location. For instance, the vast majority of the rockfish we caught at Santa Cruz made it back down without a problem, in the same depths as we were fishing at Santa Rosa. Jason explained this by noting that the rockfish in that particular spot at Santa Cruz are always running up and down a ridge, changing depths constantly. Thus, they are better at dealing with the pressure change inherent in bringing a fish to the boat from the bottom. The rockfish at other spots, however, don't change depth frequently, and therefore are less likely to survive when caught. From a physiological standpoint, it takes a relatively long time for a fish to regulate the amount of gas in its swim bladder, especially when compared to the amount of time it takes to bring a fish in from 90 ft. of water. However, in theory, the fishes' behavioral differences allow for varying degrees of tolerance of a slightly expanded swim bladder. This knowledge of fish behavior on various spots that Jason and many other sport boat captains have is just one example of how science could benefit from this program and others like it in the future.

This spot at Carrington Point had a ripping current, and wasn't producing as expected. We did pull some more nice reds, chuckleheads (copper rockfish), lingcod, and blues off the spot, but not nearly at the pace of the morning's action. The day was getting late, and we were still short of our 200 fish goal, so Jason brought us to another spot at Santa Rosa, that he considers his "trip saver" spot. He always has success at this spot, and uses it on occasion when other spots just aren't producing. As soon as we set the anchor and got baits down, the reds and lings began hitting the deck. In a flurry of action, we easily rounded out the 200 fish goal with nice big reds, lings, and a monster, 10-plus pound cabezon. This tally didn't include the few fish that died (a few reds, coppers, blues, and olives), which was less than 10 percent of the total caught. Those that died were kept and taken to the lab to remove and analyze their otoliths (ear stones). We caught, tagged, and released 11 different species, comprised of the cabezon, black and yellow rockfish, sheephead (to 8 lbs.), lingcod (to 11 lbs.), kelp rockfish, gopher rockfish, treefish, olive rockfish, blue rockfish, copper rockfish, and vermilion rockfish. Also not included in the total were 3 tagged lings that we recaptured, a few blacksmith perch, a pacific sandab, and at least 40 or 50 whitefish from 2 to 6 lbs., all of which were released. Also keep in mind that every fish was caught in under 100 ft. of water.

This was, without a doubt, the best rockfishing trip I have ever been on, not only in terms of the conditions and fish caught, but also in that I was helping contribute to science and hopefully eventually end the current management crisis we are currently experiencing. We all owe a big thanks to project supervisor Dr. Doyle Hanan, the Department of Fish and Game, the Sportfishing Association of California, the biologists doing the field work, and the sportboat landings, captains, and owners, for this cooperative effort to better understand these nearshore species in the hope of learning how to better manage them. As Ed Roberts noted on the trip, this project is not the end-all study needed for effective management. It is, however, an important first step towards appropriate, constituent-based resource research and management.