I'm certainly no expert on true cod (or many other fish for that matter) but from the little reading I have done it is my understand that as bottom fish go our true/Pacific cod are a relatively fast growing and short lived fish.

It takes a female about 4 years to reach sexual maturity (at around 20 inches) and they can spawn multiple times. A fish in its mid teens would be an old fish and fish older than 20 years is virtually unheard of. They are pretty fecund fish with the larger females releasing 5 million or more eggs.

Further it is my understanding that Puget Sound is at the extreme edge of the species distribution. It is for that reason that some thought that once the population crashed it may take a series of unusually good survival years for the population to recovery and it may take decades or longer if ever for the stars to align correctly for the population to recovery. Little is known about the habitat/environmental conditions needed for good survival of the eggs and young larvae/fish so at this time it is impossible to say when to expect improvement.

I do recall that 8 years or so ago we saw a few small cod during the winter and even fewer larger fish the following year and then they virtually disappeared again. Maybe those fish were the parents of those that we ar seeing now; no one knows. It could be that they are just juvenile fish migrating here from elsewhere only to leave later in their life.

However if they remain local fish and some fish survive to reach maturity and sometime in the next decade the larvae from their spawing find favorable survival conditions (probably a long shot) we may see a rebound of the Puget Sound true cod.

Tight lines
Curt