Couple additional things that I hope people will remember when rockfishing
to help minimize killing any juvenile "by catch":
++ Keep another heavy rod handy with an 8 oz torpedo weight and a
barbless hook taped upside-down to the weight to allow for an
easy release of any incidental smaller fish. If it happens, just set that
barbless hook in the lip of the little guy and let it down 100 feet before
reeling the weight back up (simple!);
++ When fishing bait, I'll use a
7/0+ circle hook and whole squid or even
two for a larger bait profile. This hook type keeps the little ones from
getting hooked, because I only reel/set the hook when I feel a very solid
headshake on the bait - zero stretch spectra makes this possible.
Understand that this often requires waiting patiently through dozens of
'nibbles' over a drift area, and I would seriously rather catch nothing than
a 5 or 8 inch fish and have to release it with the other rod. Patience,
and skilled approximation of the size of the fish biting is the key here.
++ I never jig an iron or use a treble hook, those are bad news for the
little guys.
Please visit my seminars or the Fastlane Kayaks display at the Fred Hall
Show - Del Mar if you want to ask me questions in person!
Good Luck out there, when the weather cleans up (starting Tuesday
)
Reference links:
http://www.bdoutdoors.com/story/dfg-rockfish-question/
nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345