Reef & bottom · Saltwater
Silvergray rockfish
Sebastes brevispinis
Shelf-dwelling Pacific rockfish native from the western Gulf of Alaska (Bering Sea edge per DFO) south to central Baja California. Long-lived (documented to at least 80 years) and, per NOAA's Alaska stock assessment, one of the more data-limited rockfish species managed on the West Coast.
Also called rock salmon, silverbelly, greenie, longjaw, grouper.
- Nearshore
- Offshore
- Regulated context
- 4 of 4 overlays reviewed
- Reviewed 2026-08-27
Before you target this fish
Regulated context — check the rules for the exact water
Where this applies California; Oregon; Washington; Alaska; British Columbia (Canada)
The reviewed context, unedited
Silvergray rockfish has not turned up in this review as an individually stock-assessed, individually overfished species on the U.S. West Coast; CDFW classifies it among 'shelf' rockfish and it appears to be managed within aggregate rockfish sub-bag limits and depth-based closures (Rockfish/Groundfish Conservation Areas) rather than under its own rebuilding plan. In the Gulf of Alaska it is managed as a non-target species inside the 'Other Rockfish' multispecies complex, and NOAA's 2023 stock assessment moved it from Tier 5 to the more data-limited Tier 6 specifically because of unreliable survey biomass estimates. Washington closes recreational retention in Puget Sound. Because individual-species confirmation was not found for California, Oregon, or federal West Coast (PFMC) waters, verify current sub-bag limits and any depth restriction directly with CDFW/ODFW/WDFW/NOAA Fisheries before fishing.
Rules for this fish change at a state line and sometimes inside one. Check the ones that apply to the exact water you are standing on before you act on anything here — this record is biology, not permission.
Take this somewhere
This page is the record. The reading is what happens when you add water, a season and a temperature to it — that is where the families below get ranked against each other instead of just listed.
Those three links carry the fish and nothing else. No conditions were declared on this page, so none travel, and the link says so rather than sending an empty reading.
The half nobody publishes
What this record does not know
Everything else on this page comes from a named agency or peer-reviewed source. This is the other side of that: the questions a reviewer went looking for an answer to and came back without, and the fields the record leaves empty because filling them would mean guessing.
It is here rather than at the bottom because a page that only shows what it knows is easy to read as a page that knows everything. For Silvergray rockfish there are 15 of them.
Named by a reviewer
11Somebody looked for this and wrote down that they did not find it.
- Behaviour
No species-specific feeding-mode or feeding-strategy source found; the value given is an unconfirmed placeholder.
Water-column position (pelagic mid-water schooler vs. bottom-aggregating) is contradicted between ADFG/ODFW and DFO and was not resolved.
Spawning/parturition timing not documented anywhere in the sources reviewed.
Diel activity, territoriality, current-facing, and predator-avoidance behavior not documented.
- Identification
Typical angling size and typical weight not documented in the sources reviewed.
Maximum length and maximum age figures differ slightly between WDFW/DFO and NOAA's 2023 Alaska assessment; both are reported rather than reconciled into one number.
- Forage
No species-specific diet data found in any source reviewed — this dossier is effectively empty by design rather than padded with genus-level inference.
No sourced feeding style or feeding zone; both are omitted rather than inferred from the genus.
- Season
Only one entry is populated because no source reviewed documents a seasonal change in habitat, depth, or behavior for this species — the single entry reflects the general, apparently year-round pattern, not a summer-specific one.
Spawning season is entirely undocumented (see catalog record) so no conservation-timing entries could be written.
No sourced thermal band to tie to the calendar.
Absent from the record
4No reviewer wrote a gap here. The field is simply empty, which is its own answer.
- Water temperature
No agency or peer-reviewed temperature band for Silvergray rockfish was found that a review would accept. The reading runs without one rather than borrowing a number from a related fish.
- Identification
No reviewed image. A photograph is only in this catalog when an agency or a named creator labelled the subject, and nobody has cleared one for this species yet.
- Presentation
No species-specific weighting rule is reviewed for Silvergray rockfish. Its ranking comes from the shared model — season, temperature, water type, holding and forage — with nothing added for this fish in particular.
- Population context
No regional population profile is registered. The species-level reading stands on its own; it does not silently become a local one.
Where the record puts it
Water and range
Nearshore
2 reviewed holding classes- Kelp edge
- Rock pile
Offshore
3 reviewed holding classes- Offshore ledge
- Canyon edge
- Deep wreck
DepthAdults are most common at roughly 330-990 ft (100-300 m) on hard, high-relief shelf and upper-slope bottom and in troughs near the continental shelf; documented range extends from the surface to about 1,440 ft. Juveniles have been recorded in shallower kelp beds around 56 ft (ADFG, DFO, WDFW, ODFW).
Moving waterNot documented in the sources reviewed for this record.
LightNot documented in the sources reviewed for this record.
Thermal band
Temperature
No reviewed temperature band
Nobody publishes a preferred or active temperature range for Silvergray rockfish that a review would accept. Borrowing one from a related fish would look like knowledge and behave like a guess, so the reading runs without it and says which parts of the answer that weakens.
How it uses water
Behaviour
Sources disagree on water-column position: ADFG classifies silvergray among 'pelagic' rockfish, described in that guide as schooling mid-water near rocky structure, and ODFW's fishing page references fishing 'schools' of this species; DFO instead describes adults congregating in groups near the ocean bottom and notes it is unclear whether the species migrates in groups or holds in home areas like other rockfish. Both agree on some form of grouping behavior; neither confirms a single clear water-column position.
No species-specific feeding-mode source was found; this value is a placeholder pending species-specific data and should not be treated as a sourced diet claim — see gaps and the diet dossier.
Not documented in any source reviewed for this record.
Depth movementAdults are most common at 330-990 ft (100-300 m) on shelf/slope structure and in troughs; younger fish occur shallower, in kelp beds around 56 ft (ADFG, DFO, ODFW, WDFW).
CoverHard-bottomed, high-relief rocky areas and underwater troughs near the continental shelf (DFO); juveniles use shallower kelp-bed cover (ODFW).
Spawning (conservation context)Not documented in the sources reviewed — NOAA's 2023 Gulf of Alaska assessment leaves the spawning-timing field blank for this species. Like other Sebastes, the species is presumed viviparous with internal fertilization, based on the genus-level pattern documented for other rockfish in this catalog (e.g. quillback rockfish), not on a silvergray-specific source.
What it can eat
Forage
- Crustaceans
- Small forage fish
No species-specific diet source was located for silvergray rockfish in any agency or peer-reviewed document reviewed for this record, including NOAA's own 2023 Gulf of Alaska stock assessment for the complex it belongs to. The feedingStyle and feedingZone values above are not diet claims — they are placeholders reflecting only the species' documented depth/structure association (see the behavior dossier) and should be treated as unverified pending a species-specific source. primaryForage is left empty rather than inferred from related Sebastes species.
Diet capacity is not proof that a particular prey event is occurring at a given time. Observed current forage still comes from a user observation or Hatch Match.
Through the year
Season
Summer
- Where they sit
- Hard-bottomed, high-relief shelf and upper-slope structure, roughly 330-990 ft; juveniles in shallower kelp-bed structure.
- Depth
- Adults most common at 100-300 m (330-990 ft); juveniles recorded around 56 ft in kelp beds (ADFG, DFO, ODFW, WDFW).
What that changesVertical-jig on nearshore structure; vertical-jig and trolling offshore over shelf/slope structure.
What would count against it
- assuming a summer-specific behavior shift — none is documented
Spawning · Unknown
Spawning timing was not documented in any source reviewed for this record — NOAA's own 2023 Gulf of Alaska assessment table leaves the spawning-month field blank for this species. Like other Sebastes, silvergray rockfish is matrotrophically viviparous (internal fertilization, live birth) — a family-level trait, not a species-specific timing claim, sourced from COSEWIC's general description of the genus in the quillback rockfish status report.
Recorded as conservation context. No spawning site, staging concentration or migration bottleneck is named anywhere in this catalog, because naming one is how a population gets fished out.
Telling it apart
Identification
What to look at
- Long lower jaw protruding well beyond the upper jaw, with a prominent bony knob at the tip of the lower jaw (symphyseal knob) (WDFW, ADFG).
- A long second anal-fin spine, which ODFW specifically calls out as the trait separating it from bocaccio, whose second anal-fin spine is shorter.
- Reduced/weak head spination compared to many other Sebastes (WDFW).
- Average adult length
- In the Gulf of Alaska, males average about 48.8 cm (23-69 cm range) and females about 50.5 cm (25-74 cm range) (NOAA AFSC 2023 assessment).
- Common angling size
- Not documented at the level of a typical landed size in the sources reviewed; see gaps.
- Typical weight
- Not documented in the sources reviewed; see gaps.
- Maximum documented
- Sources differ slightly: WDFW gives a maximum of 73 cm (29.2 in) and 4.7 kg (10.4 lb); the NOAA AFSC 2023 Gulf of Alaska assessment gives a maximum observed length of 77 cm. Both are agency sources and are reported here rather than reconciled.
- Longevity
- Sources differ: WDFW and DFO both give a maximum documented age of about 80-84 years, while NOAA's 2023 Gulf of Alaska assessment gives a revised maximum of 81 years, corroborated by multiple age readers.
What it gets confused with
- Bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis)
- Bocaccio tends to be red, pink, or brown, often with small dark spots, lacks a strong symphyseal knob, and has a larger mouth than silvergray. ODFW additionally notes bocaccio's second anal-fin spine is shorter than silvergray's (WDFW, ODFW). Because bag limits in this fishery are species-specific, distinguishing these two matters at the rail.
What follows from all of that
Presentation families
Nearshore
Vertical jig
Work a compact bait up and down through a marked depth, basin, or timber pocket.
- stay over the target
- measured lift
- controlled drop
- watch slack
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Vertical
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Drop presentation
Let a bait fall on a controlled line into cover, along a wall, or through a hole in vegetation.
- place then fall
- watch the line
- hold at depth
- short hop only after the fall
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Short
- Weight range
- 1/16–3/8 oz
- Cover resistance
- High
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- High
Offshore
Vertical jig
Work a compact bait up and down through a marked depth, basin, or timber pocket.
- stay over the target
- measured lift
- controlled drop
- watch slack
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Vertical
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Trolling
Cover a depth contour or basin at a controlled speed to intercept mobile fish.
- speed control
- depth control
- follow the contour
- turn to change action
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- Boat
- Weight range
- Varies with speed and depth
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- Low
Deep drop
Put bait on the bottom in water deep enough that the drop itself is most of the work.
- heavy enough to go straight down
- know when you are down
- short lift to check
- wind steadily
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- 8–48 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Secondary
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
What moves them for this fish
No species-specific rule is reviewed for Silvergray rockfish. Its ranking comes from the shared model — season, temperature, water type, holding water, forage — with nothing added for this fish in particular. That is a gap, not a claim that nothing is special about it.
Where every sentence came from
Sources
Agency
Fisheries and Oceans Canada — Silvergrey rockfish species profile
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife — Silvergray rockfish fishing page
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Alaska Department of Fish and Game — Rockfish identification guide
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife — Silvergray rockfish species profile
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center — 2023 Gulf of Alaska Other Rockfish complex stock assessment
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; behaviour. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
California Department of Fish and Wildlife — Nearshore, Shelf and Slope Rockfishes of California
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
California Department of Fish and Wildlife — Shelf Rockfish of California identification guide
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-08.
A source with no link predates the rule that one has to carry a URL. It is still a real citation and still checkable; it just takes a search rather than a click, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.