Also known as Rockcod, Pacific snapper, Reds (vermilion/canary), Boccacio, Chuckleheads (bank rockfish), Bottomfish. Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Rockfish (Pacific) — The Pacific Coast's bread-and-butter reef fish, stacked over every hard bottom. Also called Rockcod, Pacific snapper, Reds (vermilion/canary), Boccacio, Chuckleheads (bank rockfish), Bottomfish.
Rockfish (Pacific) is also known as: Rockcod, Pacific snapper, Reds (vermilion/canary), Boccacio, Chuckleheads (bank rockfish), Bottomfish. The Pacific Coast's bread-and-butter reef fish, stacked over every hard bottom.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Rockfish (Pacific) is in season for June. Click through for the live forecast.
Out of season across our covered spots in June.
Find the hard stuff — rock pinnacles, reef edges, wrecks, high spots — and fish it vertically. Drop a shrimp-fly rig or swimbait to the bottom on the sounder marks, lift a couple cranks off the rocks so you don't hang up, and work it with a slow lift-drop. Vermilion, copper, gopher and china rockfish hold tight to the bottom and structure; blues, olives and bocaccio suspend higher in the water column, so count your jig down or throw a surface iron when you mark fish off the deck. Use enough lead (4–16oz) to hold bottom in the current and braid (40–65lb) so you feel the bite and can pull stuck fish off the rocks. When you hit a school, stay on the number — they stack thick over a good piece of structure. Crank steadily on the way up: rockfish barotrauma, so plan to keep your limit or use a descending device (SeaQualizer, weighted milk crate) to release deep fish alive.
A moderate tide with manageable current is ideal — you want enough water movement to turn the fish on but not so much you can't hold bottom. The slow hour either side of the tide change, and the building current right after the turn, fish best. Slack water can shut the bite off; a screaming spring tide makes it hard to stay vertical and forces heavier lead.
Rockfish are deep, structure-oriented fish and far less moon-driven than pelagics — they'll bite a dropped bait around the clock. The bigger lever is current: moon phase matters mostly because it sets tidal range, so the moderate-current days around the first and last quarter often fish more comfortably than the rip of a full or new-moon spring tide.
Pacific rockfish are managed as part of the Rockfish-Cabezon-Greenling (RCG) / groundfish complex, with state-water and federal limits that exist and differ — including sub-limits and full prohibitions on certain species (e.g. yelloweye, cowcod, bronzespotted). Seasons are set annually with depth constraints (Rockfish Conservation Areas) and area-specific rules that change by management zone and can close mid-season. Always confirm the current open dates, legal depth, area boundaries and any species-specific closures with your state agency (CDFW in California, ODFW in Oregon, WDFW in Washington) before you fish.
US state size & bag limits for Rockfish (Pacific): CA · OR · WA-US
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