Montana Fish Report

Sport anglers can no longer retain cabezon effective Friday, Aug. 17 at 11:59 p.m.

The recreational harvest is predicted to reach its quota of 16.8 metric tons by Friday, partly because the average weight of cabezon landed this year is higher than usual, and bottomfish effort has been very high this summer.

Sportfishing for other bottomfish remains open, find latest regulations.

Sport anglers who catch a cabezon after Aug. 17 need to release it. Cabezon have an excellent survival rate when released. Unlike rockfish, cabezon do not have swim bladders and therefore do not suffer from barotrauma (expansion or rupture of the swim bladder when the fish are brought up from deep waters) that can cause stress, injury, and sometimes death in rockfish.