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Friday, September 07, 2018
NEWPORT, Ore.—Oregon’s recreational summer all-depth halibut season in the Central Coast subarea has ended for the year, as not enough halibut quota or yelloweye rockfish bycatch allowance remains for any additional all-depth openings. The remaining all-depth quota will be transferred to the nearshore fishery (inside of the 40-fathom line) for the Central Coast subarea which remains open seven days per week.
Anglers may no longer catch or retain halibut in the Central Coast subarea (between Humbug Mountain and Cape Falcon) outside of the 40 fathom line. “Good weather on Friday and okay weather on Saturday allowed many anglers to get out and target halibut. Success rate was around 50 percent, with some nice sized fish landed,” said Lynn Mattes, ODFW Recreational Groundfish and Halibut Project Leader. “With approximately 20,000 pounds landed, that leaves only 2,800 pounds remaining in the summer quota, which is not enough to open for an additional all-depth day.”
While there is 7,800 pounds remaining from the spring all-depth that could be transferred into the summer fishery, the threshold for yelloweye rockfish impacts for the all-depth fishery has been reached. Potential yelloweye rockfish bycatch from an additional all-depth halibut day could impact the nearshore fishery or the recreational bottomfish fishery.
Therefore, the remaining pounds will be transferred to the Central Oregon Coast Subarea nearshore fishery. With the additional pounds, the nearshore fishery will have approximately 14,000 pounds remaining, and is scheduled to be open seven days per week until Oct. 31, or attainment of the quota. “In the last two weeks approximately 1,200 pounds of halibut were landed in the nearshore fishery, with a nice average size of fish,” said Mattes. “We are trying to keep the nearshore fishery open as long as we can, to provide some opportunity in waters closer to shore.”
In addition, all-depth halibut fishing remains open south of Humbug Mountain in the Southern Oregon subarea.
For more on fishing opportunities available in the Marine Zone visit https://myodfw.com/recreation-report/fishing-report/marine-zone
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