Nonresident lingcod retention reopens at Prince of Wales; yelloweye stays closed

Nonresident anglers around Prince of Wales Island can keep a lingcod again. The season reopened for them Sept. 1. Yelloweye and the rest of the demersal shelf rockfish closed to nonresidents on Aug. 26.

Residents are unaffected. They can keep one rockfish a day with two in possession, and one lingcod a day at any size.

The nonresident rockfish season ran only from July 1 through Aug. 25 this year, with an annual limit of one fish, after the state shortened it across all Southeast marine waters and cited federal harvest constraints.

Lingcod runs on its own calendar for nonresidents: May 16 through July 31, then Sept. 1 through Nov. 30. The annual limit is one fish between 30 and 35 inches and one over 55. Species, date and location have to be recorded as soon as a fish is kept.

Demersal shelf rockfish covers yelloweye, quillback, copper, canary, china, tiger and rosethorn. Vessels have to carry a working deepwater release device, and anglers have to use it to send any rockfish they aren't keeping back down to the depth where it was hooked, or at least 100 feet.

In fresh water, this is coho month. Fall-run fish are moving into island drainages and the numbers build through September. Area management biologist Craig Schwanke can be reached at 907-826-2498.