Even the Ninja gets stumped every once in a while. I've caught many of the RF species but I've never seen one of these. You?
(https://i.ibb.co/HGtgmCt/image1.jpg) (https://ibb.co/YfcjvXc)
Hmmm, those pink spots have godda be something significant.
Gopher rockfish...?
Pretty sure it is a Gopher too - gonna look it up... My vote is Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus).
(https://www.dfw.state.or.us/mrp/FishID/images/Sebastes_carnatus.jpg)
They look quite a bit like Quillback, which apparently are no-retention now in California. My rockfish ID chops aren't what they used to be, but I happepened to see a bunch of Quillback up close recently.
A handy ID chart:
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=222200 (https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=222200)
-J
Yup looks like a gopher to me. How deep were you fishing? Don't usually see them super deep
Yeah, good shore fishing Rockfish. Great eating. So many species... Picture a big trawl net full of mostly Rockfish dumped on the deck and you're the biologist that has to identify them all.