Southern Oregon

For the second time this month, the Chetco River was seined at Social Security Bar for large Chinook in what has been classically called, “The Chetco River Broodstock Salmon Program.” This broodstock program only picks the best-looking and oldest, heaviest Chinook to be hauled away in hatchery trucks to be spawned at Elk River Hatchery in Bandon. In fact, the Hatchery...
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The wind and swells outside the Port of Brookings Harbor subsided enough for anglers to try their luck at catching bottomfish.  The port’s fillet station saw plenty of limits of large rockfish in the 3- to 5-pound category and limits or near-limits of lingcod ranging from 8 to 20 pounds. Remember that the limit for rockfish has been bumped back up...
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The very popular Chetco Bubble Fishery which takes place in state waters started out with two spectacular days on Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7.  The salmon were stacked up like cordwood between the jaws of the Port of Brookings Harbor, and the bell and whistle buoys. So it was a fisherman’s job to merely seek out the obvious. Limits...
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An unusually high amount of jack Chinook with a few big kings mixed in crossed the Rogue and Chetco bars last week, enough fish to keep fishermen trolling spinnerbait rigs. In the Rogue bay, if you didn’t have one on, someone around you did.  And that’s what keeps people on the water, knowing that there are fish to be caught. “We have...
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The Rogue bay is still producing enough Chinook to keep boaters trolling in the estuary.  The sizes have ranged to jacks to 20-plus pounders.  Jacks are by nature, mostly 2-year-old male Chinook under 24 inches.  Anything bigger than a jack could be male or female. On Tuesday, I spent the day on the Rogue observing anglers trolling the bay, and catching...
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The Rogue bay and Chetco bay continue to please anglers as they continued to catch a variety of Chinook sizes last week. The Rogue bay was stellar-hot with an inordinate flux of 2-year-old Chinook, commonly known as jacks. Anglers didn’t seem to mind catching the 22- to 24-inch fish because they were looking forward to next year’s crop of kings. Remember...
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