I’m seeing red and it looks tasty! On March 1, rockfish season opens between Point Conception and the Mexican border. After two months of closure, my taste buds are all set for mouth-watering nibbles of savory fish.
One of my favorite eating fish is vermilion, also known locally as red snapper. With the opener upon us, now is the time to shop for tackle, tie up leaders, and plan the first rockfish trip of the season on a private boat, open party boat like Stardust or Coral Sea out of Sea Landing, or on a private charter boat.
Beginning March 1, we can fish rockfish at depths from 100 fathoms (a fathom is 6 feet, so 100 fathoms equal 600 feet). This is exciting because areas are opening up where we haven’t been able to fish in many years.
The more lenient regulations are thanks to good angler conservation and good fisheries management. These deeper areas hold lingcod the size of your leg, and rockfish so big they seem to be from the Jurassic period. My own nickname for a really big lingcod is “lingasaur.”
Beside rockfish, the other members of the “RCG complex” become available on the same day. That includes cabezon and greenling as well as ocean whitefish and sheephead. This opener dramatically increases our fishing opportunities and kicks off our fishing seasons.
If you have your own boat, where can we go to catch these delectable denizens of the deep? That is fairly easy. Use a chart with good bathymetric data and reliable navigational aids, to locate rocky structure anywhere up to 600 feet of water.
In the Santa Barbara Channel, there are slides, canyons, reefs and wrecks in the allowable depth range, which collectively hold tremendous numbers of rockfish. There are numerous reef zones off Los Angeles and Orange counties, which are good fishing spots and are easy to get to from the various harbors in this highly populated area.
Farther south, there are productive spots off of Dana Point, Oceanside, and off of the lagoons of San Diego County. Check with local tackle shops and on the message boards for hotspots of the moment.
I will be out fishing with friends and family, enjoying spots I remember fishing years ago. I’ll be fishing deep and targeting big fish, grinning like a happy kid the whole time.
I’ll be fishing spots along the mainland coast, spots at mid-channel and deep-water structure spots within and beyond the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, where fishing is allowed and encouraged, except for within existing Marine Protected Areas.
To read up on current fishing regulations visit https://wildlife.ca.gov/regulations. To get a fishing license, bait, tackle and local knowledge, visit Hook, Line & Sinker, 4010 Calle Real, Santa Barbara.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
