Fish id please
 

What type of rock fish is this?

I just got the DFG fish id book in the mail yesterday.
Looks like a copper rockfish to me, and a very young one.
Can grow to 26+ in.
Where did you catch it? Looks like a pier.

I believe Rookie is correct.

its a very tasty rockfish

Looks like a baby Calico....

Thanks for the id i didnt catch it some one i know did and i thought it was a baby calico at first to. And it was at IB pier.

Sugar bass?

Calico aka kelp bass...I've never heard of anyone catching rock fish from a pier....but I've heard about and seen WSB caught from a pier and the shore...

Kelp bass has a slight forked tail fin compared to this one. Also, the anal fin is different, and the markings around the eye. The illustrations in the ID book are very good.

You can buy prints from the illustrator:
http://www.abachar.com/

Iv caught a rock fish off ob pier befor.

Anythings possible i guess... I had a huge lobster on the end of my line once while fishing in Sail Bay (Mission Bay). I still bet a beer that's a Calico...:biggrinjester:

Brown Rockfish

major diff between down south and up north...as long as there is structure/kelp around a pier up north they are everywhere. same with the jetties. lived in monterey from 07 to last summer and spent many days fishing from shore as well as the Stillwater pier next to pebble beach and the coast guard jetty. black and yellows, brown, black, blue, grass, gopher, greenlings, cabezon, lingcods all from pier. Actually lost a 30+ inch lingcod on stillwater pier using a live striped perch about 9-10 inches long.

I'd say it's Kelp Rockfish. They are usually more brown, but I have seen ones that were greenish like that around breakwaters and piers, and that is definitely what it looks like to me.

Here's another pic of of one...
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8...lprockfish.jpg

Here's yours...
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/a...1&d=1299288143

People sometime missidentify Kelp rockfish as Brown rockfish but Kelp rockfish have more light, tan, or sand color mottling then browns, with less reddish brown. They also hang out in shallower water then most other rockfish so they are the most likely rockfish to catch form a pier. I see these all the time as I get a ton of them in my hoops when I'm lobstering in 30 to 40ft of water.

Jim

It's a Rockfish.

Look at the length of the Anal spine.

The Bass does not have such a long spine.

Marlin...Swordfish....Bit right through that piano wire?...

Dont tell me my buisness again boy!

Damn...I concede to kelp rockfish....Looks like beers on me:cheers1:
You sure its not the bastard son of a kelp bass and rockfish? :biggrinjester:

People sometime missidentify Kelp rockfish as Brown rockfish but Kelp rockfish have more light, tan, or sand color mottling then browns, with less reddish brown. They also hang out in shallower water then most other rockfish so they are the most likely rockfish to catch form a pier. I see these all the time as I get a ton of them in my hoops when I'm lobstering in 30 to 40ft of water.

Jim[/QUOTE]

Nice research Jim, the markings around the eye and behind it are identical. The pectoral fins are thicker and have more pronounced bones kind of like a Cabezon, another sign of this fishes natural habitat.

Also, baby calicos only look like small calicos, there is very little juvenile differences. Unlike black seabass that look very different throughout their life stages.

Certain rockfish can live very shallow in La Jolla. I often sight-fish at low tide.



http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...ife0527098.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...fe05270912.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...fe05270914.jpg

Yeah it's kind of crazy. Not all of them have the same markings but those two look like they are twins separated at birth or something.

I hear you there, I've seen those kelp rockfish in really shallow water and certain forms of sculpin are even common in tide pools.

Jim