General Marine Species bag limit decreases beginning Aug. 18.

NEWPORT, Ore. – The General Marine Species bag limit returns to a four-fish bag limit beginning Monday, Aug. 18. The one-fish sub-bag limit for cabezon and the one-fish sub-bag limit for canary rockfish remain in place, and retention of quillback rockfish and yelloweye rockfish is prohibited.

Great weather in mid-July led to high effort and success, and 26 metric tons (mt) of black rockfish were caught for the entire coast in one week from July 21-27 and 20 mt were caught the following week. In comparison, for the first three weeks of July, an average of about 11 mt of black rockfish were caught per week. In total 80 mt of black rockfish were caught in July. Check the ODFW groundfish estimates webpage to see how much quota has been attained.

Harvest limits for both black rockfish and canary rockfish are projected to be exceeded if the bag limit remains at five fish. A bag limit reduction from five to four during the month of August decreases the risk of an early season closure or a three-fish bag limit.

The General Marine Species group is made up of all rockfish species, greenlings, cabezon, skates, and other marine species not listed on page 81 of the 2025 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations Book. Sablefish have been pulled out of the General Marine Species group and have a species-specific bag limit of 10 fish per angler.

Additional information on the recreational bottom fish fishery can be found on the ODFW sport bottom fish webpage.