April and May are the months when bottomfish do the ol' switch-a-roonie to their nom de plume and start feeding on the surface, and anglers in-the-know about this curious phenomenon were catching easy limits last week of the bottom-grabbers within a foot or two of the surface.

The rockfish, which were comprised of mainly black rockfish with a few blue rockfish thrown in, could be seen frothing and splashing at various venues ranging from off the mouth of the Winchuck River uphill toward Chetco Point.

Although anglers using twin-tail soft plastics and ripbaits can slow down their presentation to get the surface-feeding bottomfish to gobble their lures, the most successful anglers were using lures that were primarily designed to work the water's surface.

Great surface lures to use are the lifelike hard-bodied lures designed to imitate baitfish, lures such as Rapalas, Rebels and Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows. These lures are designed to start working within a foot from the surface and have a deadly diving action down to about 3 feet below the surface.

Finding these topwater spots is easy.  Keep your eyes peeled for any unusual churning activity occurring on the horizon, where the bottom feeders will be coming up to the surface to gorge on baitfish such as anchovies or herring.

Also, this is a great way of finding deepwater high spots, because rockfish from the local reefs will be coming up to the surface to thrash on the baitfish balls.  Usually, these fish won't be venturing far from home, so look on your fishfinder and you'll be surprised to see that the perimeter of these boiling fish thrashes will often coincide with a high spot near the bottom.

So when you find these surface feeders, make sure to lock your fish finders onto the overall schools of fish that are feeding on the surface.

When June rolls around, northwest winds will usually drive the fish back to the bottom.

It goes without saying that limits of rockfish were common last week, but lingcod up to about 10 pounds were also commonly caught as well.

Although lingcod don't usually come up to the surface to dine on rockfish, they have been known to come up to the surface on occasion during the months of April and May. Lingcod have been hitting semi-deep diving plugs, a plethora of soft plastic baits and ripbaits, and they have also been hitting 4- to 5-ounce leadfish as well.

There have also been reports of salmon being caught by lingcod fishermen using a 2-hook mooching system with a herring or anchovy for bait.  It is believed that the majority of the ocean-caught Chinook were either Rogue River or Umpqua River springers, since most of these salmon have been caught relatively close to shore.

Remember that at this time, it is not legal to retain any salmon that is caught in the ocean, but it won't be long until the first day of the ocean Oregon KMZ salmon season rolls around starting on May 19.

Lower Rogue Springers
There were a handful of lower Rogue River spring Chinook being caught last week, although most of the action has been reserved for the more-experienced Rogue River guides.

"We are consistently getting in some fresh fish virtually every day," says Jim Carey, owner of the Rogue Outdoor Store in Gold Beach. "Although the action has waned over the past couple days, our experienced guides are producing fish for their clientele.  It's not always a limit by any means, but they're getting fish in the boat."

Carey says that about 75-percent of the fish are wild and must be released, while approximately 25-percent of the springers have been hatchery fish (those missing an adipose fin).

But according to one local guide, the action picked up on Thursday, enough for many boats to experience 10- to 12-pound 3-year-old springers, with most of the action occurring in the lower 8 miles of the river.

"Mark Van Hook was the hot boat today with 7 fish and Sam Waller (of Jot's Resort) had 3," said John Anderson of Memory Makers Rogue River Guide Service on Thursday.  "Les Craig had 2 fish and another boat had 2 fish as well."

Anderson's boat is pretty well booked up this weekend with Sunday and Monday being taken, however the guide says that he's got openings the rest of the week.

Do not fret if you don't see the Gold Beach south jetty sand spit.  It is in its first stages of development.

"The sand spit usually disappears this time of year," notes Carey.  "We've just haven't had those southwest storms yet to push it back in. But it'll be back."

Carey also stated that the surf is continuing to produce good amounts of surfperch, and that he's been seeing some of the bigger ones, whether they are the redfin or striped variety.

Good spot for catching surfperch near Gold Beach are at Kissing Rock, which is at the mouth of Hunter Creek, and down the beach from the Nesika Beach Wayside.

In Brookings, surfperch aficionados have been getting their mottled flat-siders at Crissey Field, McVay Park and at Sporthaven Beach.

The good high tides are Saturday at 11:36 am, Sunday at 12:24 pm and Monday at 1:11 pm. When May rolls around, make sure that you are fishing the high tides on Tuesday at 1:56 pm, Wednesday at 2:42 pm, Thursday at 3:29 pm and Friday at 4:20 pm.

Make sure to arrive 3 hours before the aforementioned specified high tides to take advantage of that 3-hour window of incoming tide magic fishing.

Tight lines!

Larry Ellis, author, writer, columnist and photographer has had a 50-year passion for fishing in California and Oregon's saltwater and freshwater venues. He is a well-known writer for Oregon, Washington and California Fishing and Hunting News, Northwest Sportsman, California Sportsman and Pacific Coast Sportfishing. He currently writes monthly for Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine, and is the author of two books, "Plug Fishing for Salmon" and "Buoy 10, the World's Largest Salmon Run."  Both books can be bought from Amato Publications (amatobooks.com), Amazon and eBay. Ellis particularly loves living in his hometown of Brookings, Oregon - The heart of salmon country and gateway to fishing paradise.