Pacific Cod?

Vedder and I fished with Ricco and Tom Fallon in Tom's boat Thursday and Friday and several small pacific cod grabbed our bottom bouncing Chinook offers.

It has been many years since the Cod and Pollock population crashed in Puget Sound. Most marine areas are closed to retention.

Maybe they are coming back?

I'd like to hear if others are picking up these while salmon fishing.

been tons of them around since last fall

Been hooken a few at Kingston and Jefferson also.

Been getting alot of them jigging in the Pt. Defiance area and especially out off of the mouth of Gig Harbor. If you get out there in 90+ ft of water were were catching them as fast as we could get down. They are small but they must be making a comeback because I haven't seen any in years in the same area. Also, made a trip up to Freshwater Bay a couple of weeks ago and just out off of Blakely Rock in 80 feet of water or so we were jigging them up there right and left too. You can actually keep a couple in that area code but they were pretty small. I'm sure they are pretty slow growing but it must be some sign the ecosystem is getting turned around to see them again................Les

I caught a number of them last year about half the size of the ones I've been catching this year. This year they are about a foot long. I'm thinking they must be slow growing as well.
Bio's have any info on this?
I remember catching them by the cooler full and averaging seven or eight pounds with an occasional one in the teens...that was back in the eighty's. Then I was told the trawlers dragged them all and that was the last I saw of them.

can u keep them?

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

Life History and Habitat
Life history, including information on the habitat, growth, feeding, and reproduction of a species, is important because it affects how a fishery is managed. Very little is known about the habitat requirements of Pacific cod, particularly during their early life stages. More research to define nursery areas utilized by Pacific cod is one step being taken by fisheries scientists to further identify essential habitat and to monitor growth, survival, and subsequent recruitment to improve management efforts.

Geographic range: In the North Pacific Ocean from Port Arthur, China, in the northern Yellow Sea, north around the Pacific Rim into the Bering Sea as far north as the Chukchi Sea, and south along the North American coast to Santa Monica Bay, California. Also found off the east coast of Japan from Tokyo Bay to northern Hokkaido, on the west coast of Japan in the Sea of Japan, and off the coasts of the Sakhalin and Kurile Islands. Pacific cod are rare in the southern part of their range.
Habitat: Cod are demersal, living near the bottom, and concentrate on the shelf edge and upper slope (328 to 820 feet deep) in the winter and move to shallower waters (less than 328 feet deep) in the summer. Pacific cod have been found as deep as 2,871 feet. Adults and large juveniles prefer mud, sand, and clay habitats.
Life span: Relatively short-lived with a maximum age of about 19 years
Food: Clams, worms, crabs, shrimp, and juvenile fish
Growth rate: Moderately fast growing
Maximum size: Over 6 feet
Reaches reproductive maturity: Females mature at a length of 1.6 to 1.9 feet and at about 4-5 years of age.
Reproduction: Females have high reproductive potential – a mature female can produce over 5 million eggs. Pacific cod are single batch spawners, releasing all of their ripe eggs in a single spawning event within a few minutes.
Spawning season: From January through May, depending on location
Spawning grounds: On the shelf edge and upper slope (328-820 feet deep)
Migrations: Individual adults have been found to move more than 621 miles. Pacific cod also move seasonally from deep outer and upper shelf spawning areas to shallow middle-upper shelf feeding grounds. They are a schooling fish.
Predators: Predators include halibut, sharks, seabirds, and marine mammals.
Commercial or recreational interest: Both
Distinguishing characteristics: Pacific cod are brown or grayish with dark spots or patterns on the sides and a paler belly. They have a long chin barbell (a whisker-like organ near the mouth like on catfish) and dusky fins with white edges.


Role in the Ecosystem
Pacific cod are an abundant fish resource within the Pacific and North Pacific Oceans and the Bering Sea. The removal of Pacific cod by fishing may affect the food chain by reducing the amount of Pacific cod available as prey to predators, as well as reducing predation pressure on species that Pacific cod eat. Another consideration is the effect that bottom contact gear may have on living structure.

Pacific cod is a major prey item for endangered Steller sea lions. There are concerns that the Pacific cod fishery depletes important sources of prey for Steller sea lions, as much of the area used by the fishery is designated as critical habitat for the endangered sea lion (because of the prey resources available within it). One objective of Pacific cod fishery management regulations is to minimize competition between locally intense fisheries and Steller sea lions.



Additional Information
Market names: Cod, Alaska cod
Vernacular names: Alaska cod, Grey cod, True cod, Treska
Other species are also marketed as cod.

I'd think their comeback would help feed ling cod too. Agate Pass used to have thousands of them in the fall, and 0 over the last decade. That areas decline was blamed on hydraulic digging for geoduck. Whether that's to blame or not I don't know. I do know the casino sewage winds up out there, but don't know if it'll have a new impact.

I caught a bunch of them in the straits during halibut season. There were a bunch of them in front of Pillar Point. While fishing 300ft for Halibut we caught one about 5-6lbs. Released it but later regretted it when we found out they are good eating.

We released about a dozen of these (one of them bitten clean through at the base of the head. No dogfish did this, but maybe a ling?) fishing yesterday alone. I would guess that on average they have put on several inches in length over the last 4 months or so. When I was a kid we used to catch these things by the dozens! As far as I know, they were not commercial geoducking in Agate pass until after the population of true cod was already gone.... I remember one year seeing commercial cod fishermen in the sound, and the next year the cod were gone. It seems to me, WDFW violated this rule that Vedder posted:

"Life history, including information on the habitat, growth, feeding, and reproduction of a species, is important because it affects how a fishery is managed. Very little is known about the habitat requirements of Pacific cod, particularly during their early life stages. More research to define nursery areas utilized by Pacific cod is one step being taken by fisheries scientists to further identify essential habitat and to monitor growth, survival, and subsequent recruitment to improve management efforts. "

What a shame.... They just did it again with geoduck in Puget Sound....

Nice to see the cod coming back a bit. I thought they were all gone...

Just because a fish is good to eat is NOT reason enough to eat it. IMHO there is no way Pacific cod should be retained by anyone in Washington State.

They will come back if we let them. Of course the dirtbad draggers will wipe them out ASAP while destroying habitat as a side benefit. Even so we should not base our actions on the poor behavior of others.

We should protest loud and clear that we will not tolerate a commercial harvest of these cod ever again. If we ever do get a chance to have some kind of fishery on them we need to have a collective voice that is unequivocally against commercial exploitation of a resource that they decimated.

Fishy

We have caught too many to count this year, sometimes they have become a nuisance. Good to see, they seem to be everywhere, and in very good quantity.

Here's another possible answer why the Pacific True Cod are finally making a comeback;

When the bottom draggers came and did their damage to the fish stocks decades ago,(with WDFW's blessing mind you), they also did something else, they destroyed the eel grass beds that had been growing in Puget Sound for centuries undisturbed.

Eel grass is a major habitat for countless species of small fish and baby Pacific Cod flourished in the eel grass beds in Puget Sound, I used to catch hundreds of them while fishing for greenling, another species decimated by the bottom rapers.

As a youngster, my family lived on the water near Waterman Dock in Port Orchard. I got a front row seat to see the devastation the draggers were doing to Puget Sound. I was disgusted and I had no idea of the impact of what they had done even though I was not yet an adult.

For weeks eel grass washed up on the beach like someone had taken a giant lawnmower under water and just knocked it all down. That was in addition to the thousands of dead fish that washed up on the beach that the draggers had discarded because they were to small to be sold.

Sad, very very sad.

Years later after the bottom fish had all but disappeared it all made sense, disgusting as it was.

It looks to me that the eel grass has now grown back and the fish are taking advantage of it.

Lets hope all of the missing species make a comeback, it would sure make Puget Sound a lot better place to live and play around.

WD.

Well said WD

Nicely said WD....Let's leave them alone...

I remember fishing for them as a kid in the mid 80s during the winter months, I hope they make a comeback

neal- could have been a king that ate your true cod, we have caught countless kings with them in their bellies...including one of today's fish

Would that be "true" mooching?

If you are hooking lots of true cod in an area and you think you have yet another on the line......why not just leave the line down there and see what happens.

You don't know it is a true cod yet, you are probably saving all the others you will hook if you don't unhook this one, and most importantly, I know from experience that a lot of large bottom feeders feckin' love these fish.

Well said and point taken. Even if it is legal to do so. Kinda like bonkin' a 30lb nate just cause one can. But we dont want to beat that dead horse.

i caught on off the alki pier last winter that was about 17" long. i was shocked to say the least. but as the year has went one ive heard of alot.

also there has been alot of black sea bass caught in the des moines area. i seen 8 or 9 caught in one night that were in the 1-2lb range

Used to be thick on possesion and mission bar back when I was a kid - some of them quite large. I've got a picture of my brother kissing about a 15# pacific true cod. Used to be a lot of hake around too - anyone been seeing any of those?

I would believe they migrated in... Let's hope they stay around. I haven't caught a TC since the late 70s or early 80s when this last March I could keep them off the line. They are a pain when you are blackie fishing.

As far as hake, haven't seen one of those for a while either.

Without looking at the regs, I believe it is illegal to retain True Cod in 5-13.

I can vividly remember when blackie fishing was slow mooching or jigging off Point Fosdick for limits of these tasty fish.

My cousin used to fish for hake as a kid. He would ride his bike down to Les Davis pier at night with no fishing gear on hand! He would find some line a hook and some old bait on the dock and many times he would come home with several hake.

I too remember catching lots of true cod and hake while salmon fishing. I also remember catching them from the old Edmonds dock where my brother and I used to fish at night in the late 60's.
My dad used to have an old 30' Bristol Bay double ender sailboat that we would go on with him as long as he made sure we'd get a little fishing time. We used to catch lots of cod between Kingston & Edmonds.
One thing to remember (and I'm no expert) is that hake and true cod do look "similar". Also, there is a seperate fish called a Tom Cod which is a small version of the Pacific Cod, growing to maybe 12"-14" and can be mistaken for a young Pacific Cod. I remember one time catching dozens of them off our dad's sailbot in Quatermaster Harbor one evening and while bringing one up feeling a huge jerk on my rod, then back to normal. When that little Tom Cod came to the surface some kind of 8'+ shark loomed up from the deep following it. You never saw a couple of kids scramble for high ground faster than my brother and I did.

We also caught a lot of what we called "tomcod" but now I know that they were actually "greenling" and mostly the females as the color was almost always brown/gold.

The true tell tale sign between greenling and pacific cod or true cod is a white whisker under the chin, whereas the tomcod had no whisker.

WD.

tomcod
pacific cod (true cod)
hake

and also don't forget the walleye pollock

all look somewhat similar. Not sure if I can tell the difference between a tomcod, true cod, or WP when the fish is less than 12 inches long. At least with hake, they have more readily identifiable features, like bigger teeth and a generally oddball appearance

Pacific Cod (True cod) = Gadus Macroephalus can reach 119 cm (46.9 in)

Pacific Tomcod = microgadus proximus can reach 30.5 cm (12 in)

And, Tomcod do have the whisker. I remember them looking like "minnie me" versions of True cod.

I do remember the unique "google eyes" of the Walleyed Pollack.

Hake were harder to tell apart from True cod, although usually smaller, if memory serves me correct.

I think "Krab" is made from either pollock or hake.

I humbly disagree. I spent my youth on the docks catching Tom Cod. They look just like a small Pacific Cod. There are two types of Tom Cod Microgradus tomcod, and Microgradus proximus.

Greenling, Hexagrammos decagrammus, look like, well ,greenling, or if you have enough imagination perhaps lingcod, but to me they do not look like Tom Cod . Also note the male and female kelp greenling look quite dissimilar

What I had always heard was that they spawned in Agate Pass and that it was the largest run in the world. Then they allowed the commercials to net Agate Pass during the spawn and wipe them out.

Hake are night feeders. Used to be mooching for kings you had to thin out the true cod to get to the kings and in the evening you fished until you caught a hake. Hake will destroy leaders and once you catch one all you are going to catch is more hake.

Vedder, I thought you spent your youth catching crabs?

That was my Navy years.

Here's what the little fellows look like.