FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29TH

ODF&W has a program of tagging black rockfish to learn more about the species. Black rockfish are one of the few rockfish anglers are allowed to keep under current regulations. Most rockfish stocks are considered depleted and are restricted to "taking", commercial and sport. The program uses volunteer anglers to catch and tag the fish.

Some members of the LVH Fishermen's Club signed up as volunteers to help catch the rockfish. It seemed the least we could do to help compile species information to promote health fish stocks. It would only mean a day here and there of fishing the ocean out of our busy schedule. Wayne Hill, Frank Stout, Wayde Dudley and Mike Samples are 4 that I know of who joined in this noble effort. Wayde, Frank and Mike got the call for Thursday, 2/28 and enjoyed our first day of "tag" fishing.

ODF&W charters for 20 trip a year to tag 3000 fish. I am not sure what boats they charter but our trip was with Robert Waddell, captain and owner, on the Misty. The boat is 52 feet long, 16 wide and is comfortable for 12 to 14 people. There were 2 deck hands and 2 ODFW people on the trip. The ocean had 10 foot swells on 14 second intervals which is just a gentle rise and fall for most people and quite comfortable. No wind waves to make the boat pitch and roll. Frank was the only member of the excursion to succumb to sea sickness. He caught a few fish but then had to sit out the rest of the day which was too bad. We left the dock near Rogue Brewery at South Beach at 0700 and returned at 1500.

Troy, ODF&W, explained how the program worked as we were getting underway. We were to only tag black rockfish so all other fish caught were to be released. The fish had to be longer than 30 cm (12 inches) to be tagged. You unhooked the fish and holding it by the bottom lip took it to the back of the boat. A table was set up with a scanner to check for previous tags. After scanning the fish was laid on it's back in a fish trough and numerous conditions were observed and recorded, a tag was inserted under the skin just below the chin, the fish was re-scanned to record the tag and then released into a holding pool next to the boat. Any fish that did not swim down after awhile was lowered down in a cage to get them to depth. These fish have an air bladder that expands as they come to surface and it must deflate before they can comfortably swim down. The location of the fish is recorded by a Garmin GPS unit connected to the scanner. Each tag has a unique number so the fish is identifiable if it is caught and scanned. All information as to size, conditions, angler, date, etc. is recorded on paper. It got pretty busy at times as the fish usually bit in groups. The largest fish recorded that I heard of was 50cm (20inches) which is a big black rockfish. The group caught 279 fish that were tagged and released so probably caught well over 300 fish for the day. I saw one ling cod that must have been close to 4 feet that went back in. It was a great day and the weather cooperated with us. My back and shoulders are sore but it was worth it and I look forward to the next trip.

Wayde