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Oregon Fishing Underway

Catch reports and seasonal information for rockfish, salmon and lingcod

Pacific City and Garibaldi were the two hot ports for both rockfish and lingcod last week. Fishing for rockfish continued to be good in other Oregon ports, but only one in two anglers landed a lingcod.

Watch for the weather windows: a calm ocean usually means better catches this time of year. Fishing for bottomfish (also known as groundfish) can be when weather and ocean conditions permit. Since April 1 and continuing through September, sport fishing for groundfish is closed offshore of the 30-fathom line.

Salmon fishermen in Charleston last week reported catches of 13 chinook for 10 anglers. Newport and Garibaldi reported four chinook for every 10 anglers.

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Ocean chinook salmon fishing from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain opened March 15 and continues through Oct. 31. Ocean chinook salmon fishing from Humbug Mountain to the Oregon-California border opened May 1 and continues through Sept. 9. The bag limit is two salmon per day, closed to retention of coho except during the selective coho season. Selective coho opens July 1.

In the ocean off the Columbia River (Leadbetter Point, Wash., to Cape Falcon) fishing opens June 9 for fin-clipped chinook.

May 10-12 is the first all-depth Pacific halibut opening. View open dates. The Pacific halibut quota is 9 percent more than last year.

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The nearshore Pacific halibut fishery in the central coast subarea (Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt.) includes waters inside the 40-fathom line, as it has in recent years. New this year is the prohibition of fishing for or retaining groundfish (including rockfish, lingcod, cabezon, greenling and others) offshore of the 30-fathom line through the end of September. So during days on which nearshore halibut is open and all-depth halibut is closed, the game plan is to fish first for halibut between the 30- and 40-fathom lines, catch your halibut, and then move inside the 30-fathom line to catch groundfishOn all-depth halibut days, anglers are asked to use caution around or avoid research mooring.

For bag limits, regs and complete information go www.dfw.state.or.us/RR/marine/

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