Sea Bass, Quota question

[Kildonan]

Are these beasts considered to be rockfish? Looking at the regs, the daily quota for these is 1 fish, total possesion 2 for area 19? Am I interpreting this correctly? As best as I know, these are not a deep water species and are not like Yellow Eye or Quillback rockfish. The bass I've found like to cruise along the shore where there is kelp.

Anyone know the answer to this?

 

[Mr. Dean]

Black Sea Bass are indeed Black Rockfish........Sorry to be the bearer.

 

[Kildonan]

Darn! I used to fish these years ago with an ultralight spin casting rig, bring home about 4 of them and make a feast of fish and chips out of them. They're damn delicious.

Guess that idea's out the window now. Pretty hard to make a feed for my wife and kids out of 1 of them.

I'll probably still go and fish for them one night though. They're a heap of fun on light gear and you can easily fish them from shore.

Cheers.

 

[Mr. Dean]

Just get the wife and kids out there with ya...No problem.

They're one of my fave's as well.

 

[theJohnD]

One of my favorites as well, when cooked while they are fresh very hard to beat. Don't keep as well other fish when frozen. I have a spot where they litteraly jump out of the water to take small plastic jigs. Have been taking kids and newbies there for 8 years now and haven't put a dent into the population yet.

 

[Pablo2079]

Don't see these on the inside (strait of Georgia). Were they once here and fished out?

 

[Mr. Dean]

quote:Originally posted by Pablo2079

Don't see these on the inside (strait of Georgia). Were they once here and fished out?

I'm not sure.

I do know however, that there's many WCVI species of Rockfish that don't make their way down the inside. This could just be one of them.

Do we have any Marine Biologists out there?

 

[fishwish]

There still are some in upper Johnstone Straight, but I don't ever recall catching any in the Strait of Georgia. Just my experience though.

FishWish

 

[knucklebuster]

Went down to Cow Bay launch ramp a couple years ago and someone had dumped around 20 carcasses on the beach.Good size too.Can't say where they were caught though.
Talked to a guy once who said he used to catch them off the kelp beds in oak bay.
One person told me they used to get lots of them in sansum narrows years ago.
AND ,I caught one while trolling off Pat Bay about 5 years ago.

 

[Kildonan]

I caught one onetime at Swale Rock in Barkley Sound in the 1970s. The thing was enormous! Never seen another one even remotely close to the size of that one. We thought we had a large spring on the way the thing peeled line off the old Peetz. [8D]

You can catch them easily from shore in a lot of places around the Victoria waterfront. They like to hang around kelp beds and rocky structures. The breakwater at Oak Bay marina and the Ogden Point Breakwater are two very good places to catch them.

I use ultra-light spin casters and small rapalas. I always fish after dark as this is when the hot action occurs, I've found. Sometimes you will get one every cast. Most are not very big, (12 inchers). Some do get to a decent size though. They're good sport, fight like hell. It's a great way to kill an evening.

 

[fishspoon]

Black sea bass ....fished for them just outside of Ucelelet around rocks and islands long time ago. It was fun catching and releasing them while searching for salmon. The fishing method was jigging.

 

[Yote]

used to catch them off the breakwater as a kid with those breakwater specials and buzzbombs. What a blast.

Can't keep the damned things off at Camper sometimes too, had to switch from bait a few times for a while to keep them off.

 

[Eagle Eyes]

used to be in some areas of georgia straight (point atkinson/ howe sound mainly) but were fished out in the 60's....not my experience but its what DFO connections have said. they've actually tried some relocation studies with west coast stocks to the area...dont know about the success but apparently poaching was a problem.

 

[Pablo2079]

Seems like they'd need more kelp than what Howe Sound can offer these days. From what I understand, they are most often found around kelp beds.

Surprised they tried a relocation effort.... Maybe they'll try again now that there are RCAs in place.

 

[fishwish]

Anyone have any fly patterns that have worked well for them?

FishWish

 

[IronNoggin]

quote:Originally posted by fishwish
Anyone have any fly patterns that have worked well for them?

Fished them quite often on the rocks just out of Ucy. Something to do when the salmon aren't being overly cooperative. Fiesty littler buggers on light gear / fly rods for sure!

As far as flys, we found that they'd hit almost anything tossed their direction. That said, best action was on medium-sized coho flies, tied to resemble baitfish. About 4-5" in length, dark green back, sparse pink slash on both sides, and polar bear white belly.

Tight Lines...
Nog

 

[fishwish]

I figured that really any pattern would work, but your baitfish fly suggestion definitely sounds worth a try.

I think that they will take almost anything that is put infront of their nose.

Thanks for the info, Nog.

FishWish