Comparing 2022 to 2023 after the rockfish depth change

Dock Totals 12/17 – 12/22: 257 anglers aboard 14 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 6 bluefin tuna, 1 bonito, 52 calico bass, 1 halibut, 6 lobster (29 released), 13 rock crab, 1192 rockfish, 120 sand bass, 27 sculpin, 60 sheephead, and 78 whitefish.

Saltwater: Between a fast-moving storm and upcoming holiday preparation, it was a slow week for the fleet. Even so, rockfish, calico bass, sand bass, and sheephead bit well for the bottom-fish trips, while bluefin were stubborn for the one boat out looking. Concerning rockfish, the season comes to a close on 12/31 and doesn’t reopen until April 1, 2024, at least at this point with no new releases from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) concerning the 2024 groundfish regulations. If assuming it will be a repeat of 2023, on April 1, it will open at all depths, then be restricted to over 300-feet on September 16 through the rest of the year.

So, how did the new groundfish depth regulations fare against previous years of no deeper than 300-feet? Let’s take a look. First, we need to identify the species listed as groundfish. ‘Rockfish’ is a general term and includes for nearshore species, statewide; black, black and yellow, blue, brown, calico, China, copper, gopher, grass, kelp, olive, and quillback rockfishes. Shelf rockfish includes canary, chilipepper, dusky, flag, greenblotched, greenspotted, greenstriped, harlequin, honeycomb, Mexican, pink, redstripe, rosethorn, rosy, shortbelly, silvergray, speckled, squarespot, starry, stripetail, tiger, vermilion, widow, and yellowtail rockfishes. Slope rockfish includes aurora, bank, blackgill, darkblotched, redbanded, rougheye, sharpchin, shortraker, splitnose, and yellowmouth rockfishes, and Pacific ocean perch. That’s a lot. But, in Southern California waters, we tend to get mostly starry, vermilion, chilipepper, Mexican, and olive rockfishes, treefish, and bocaccio. Protected or no-take species are Bronzespotted, quillback, and yelloweye rockfishes, and cowcod.

Looking at the totals per landing for each year gives us an idea of how the different depth restrictions for 2023 affected the overall catch when compared to 2022. As the reports rarely separate each species, we’ll look at the overall count. Also, lingcod are often the ‘prize’ species on rockfish trips, so we’ll look at those, too. This is only for trips up to 3-days in length, as the longer range trips do not all commonly report their numbers.

The dock total on rockfish from season opener on April 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022 for Fisherman’s, H&M, Oceanside, Point Loma, and Seaforth landings is 80,028 rockfish caught and kept. Lingcod, though not always reported separately (thus the low number) by all landings, totaled 759 for the same period. As we are not quite to the end of the year, I’ll be comparing from April 1, 2023, through today, December 23, to get the general idea. Total rockfish caught for 2023 was 143,730 kept, and total lingcod caught and kept was 453.

As lingcod prefer depths from around 80-feet to 330-feet, we can see why the numbers dropped with the 300-feet and less depth closure beginning in September through the end of the year. The new depth restrictions made for a much better year in counts and size of fish caught, as the depth beyond 300-feet being closed allowed for a thriving deep-water biome for them with no pressure. The depth restriction at 300-feet was first enacted to protect cowcod, and though they are still protected, the recovery of the species has been good enough to allow access to those deeper waters. This also relieves pressure on the inshore biospheres which should improve those areas during the latter half of the season if restrictions remain as are now going forward.

Whitefish and sheephead are not counted as rockfish but are often caught on those same trips. Sheephead tend to inhabit shallower water near kelp beds, but I have caught them to well over 150-feet. Ocean whitefish thrive in water from the kelp edge out to 500-feet or so. The total catch for sheephead and whitefish, respectively, in 2022 was 3,622 and 17,381. For this past year, 3,169 sheephead and 13,439 whitefish. So we see little effect on sheephead overall, but the ocean whitefish numbers dropped substantially. As sheephead are often caught on trips to the kelp edge for calico bass, that can explain their number being steadier, and that whitefish were still being caught during the closure of 300-feet and shoreward, but less prevalent, is shown in the dip in their numbers for this past year. So, all in all for our endemic non-migratory species, 2023 was a much better year for anglers than 2022.

So, how about those glamour fish? The migratory species that get our blood moving and anglers hollering ‘hookup!’ Well, that has a lot more to do with their changing annual patterns. We’ll look at the two most commonly caught tunas; yellowfin and bluefin, and the jacks; yellowtail and dorado. The 2022 yellowfin catch total was 32,348. For bluefin, 44,201 were caught. 83,335 yellowtail and 81,550 dorado were caught in 2022, which was a standout year for both species. 22,836 yellowfin, 67,867 bluefin, 15,616 yellowtail, and 27,379 dorado were caught this past year. Though bluefin fishing has been great for the past several seasons, this season has been tops. But for the rest of our common pelagic species, yellowfin, dorado, and especially our beloved California yellowtail and the exotic dorado, 2023 was a much slower year than 2022 for the San Diego 1 to 3-day fleet.

Either way, the pelagic fluctuations will continue year to year and season to season, as life out there is a balance of currents, tides, temps, available bait, and pressure. For our endemic fisheries, it looks very good now and going forward due mostly, given the massive amount of pressure, to good management. For pelagic species, it’s always a coin toss given the coming and going of the patterns that drive them. Hope everyone had a pleasant and fishy Christmas, and here’s to an excellent fishy 2024! They’re out there, so go get ‘em!