Montana Fish Report

The daily bag limit for general marine fish (rockfish, greenlings, skates, etc.) will be reduced from 5 to 4 beginning July 1.

“Participation in this fishery has been really good so far this year with effort higher than even record years seen in two of the past three years,” said Lynn Mattes, Project Leader, ODFW. “Reducing the bag limit to 4 fish on July 1 is necessary to keep black rockfish, other nearshore rockfish and yelloweye rockfish catches within annual limits.”

Cabezon retention also opens on July 1 with a 1-fish sub-bag limit (meaning that of the 4-fish marine bag, no more than 1 can be a cabezon). Bag limits for lingcod, flatfish and the longleader fishery remain the same.

Anglers this year made 40,619 bottomfish trips through May (17,750 in May alone), compared to 24,080 for January-May last year, which until 2018 was the highest effort year on record. Angler effort is only expected to increase as summer fishing peaks.

Last year, recreational bottomfish closed on Sept. 18 after the annual quotas for several species were met early, the first in-season closure since 2004. The closure disrupted coastal charter businesses and anglers. (Typically, recreational bottomfish fishing is open all year, though effort significantly drops off after early fall.)

ODFW has been working to avoid another early closure this year by providing effort and catch rates at more frequent intervals and modeling impacts of various bag limit scenarios.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission heard testimony from coastal sportfishing businesses before deciding on the 5-fish bag limit when it set regulations back in December, with the understanding that in-season adjustments could be necessary to keep the season open through the end of the year.

Get the latest on marine fishing regulations and opportunities at myodfw.com/recreation-report/fishing-report/marine-zone