Rockfish Description

Rockfish are bottom dwelling fish that are often caught in the same rocky areas as Lingcod. There are many, many species of Rockfish including Vermillion Rockfish, Copper Rockfish, Blue Rockfish, Quillback Rockfish, China Rockfish, etc. Some of them tend to stay at the bottom, while some species of Pelagic Rockfish like Black Rockfish tend to hang out in the middle of the water column. For simplicity’s sake I will lump them all together along with fish like Boccaccio and Treefish that have similar characteristics.

The great thing about fishing for Rockfish is that you never know which species you will pull up. Many of them are brightly colored and very beautiful. They don’t put up much of a fight (often when caught in deep water their air bladders expand on the way up and they are unable to fight at all) but they do taste absolutely delicious. If you are lucky enough to be able to fish for them shallow with light tackle they are a lot more sporty.

How to catch Rockfish

The great thing about fishing for Rockfish is that you never know which species you will pull up. Many of them are brightly colored and very beautiful. They don’t put up much of a fight (often when caught in deep water their air bladders expand on the way up and they are unable to fight at all) but they do taste absolutely delicious. If you are lucky enough to be able to fish for them shallow with light tackle they are a lot more sporty.

Rockfish are a great fish to get kids started on fishing because they are not usually very difficult to catch. Usually a chunk of bait sent to the bottom gets a bite right away. They don’t have big teeth but when handling them watch out for their long sharp dorsal spines.

There are many ways to cook them. You can may like to deep fry them whole, but they taste good baked, steamed, grilled, and basically any other way you might want to prepare them. They have a light, delicate flesh that is typically not fishy tasting.