I have always been a proponent of shallow water rockfishing primarily with leadhead or metal minnow style jigs with barbless hooks.

I try to fish surface feeding rockfish like Blacks or Yellowtails. When it was legal to retain rockfish in Puget Sound I targeted CopperRockfish in 15-30 feet of water. I prefer to never fish deeper that 60 feet .

Cabezon at best are an incidental catch and would be extremely difficult to target. Lingcod are a different mater.

Instead of closures, why not make a regulation requiring all sport fishing boats to carry and use equipment to increase the number of fish survival by using techniques to reduce barotrauma. The most practical seems to be use of a heavy leadhead with a barbless hook used to lower the fish to depth that can be easily dislodged with a jerk on the line. A fish brought to the surface and quickly be released at depth and the fish will survive at a much higher rate than not using this method.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInfo.rockfishconservation


At one time venting was thought to be a successful way to release with swim bladders taken at depth, but this method is no long recommended.

Education of fishermen and effective methods of releasing fish with swim bladders taken at depth in my opinion is a better option than suggested closures.

Respectfully,

Doug Wilson, co-author of New Techniques For Catching Bottom Fish, published in
1977.