Southern Oregon

Anglers who had their sights set on catching their first lingcod of 2018 on Monday's opener came back to the Port of Brookings Harbor cleaning tables humming the tune of buzzing electric fillet knives, and went home with plenty of meat to fill their stomachs and freezers. The lingcod bite was said to be off the charts.  They were everywhere -...
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It's been an excruciating 105 days since Oregon bottom fishermen have been prohibited to fish for rockfish, cabezon and lingcod since the fishery was completely shut down on September 18. But it is now January of 2018 and the rockfish situation is starting to look very hopeful.  Anglers can now keep 5 rockfish of their choice a day plus an additional 2...
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I always tell anglers that the first rains around the Christmas holiday signals the first major runs of winter steelhead to head up the Chetco River.  But low, gin-clear water conditions have been the plague of Oregon south coast rivers this year.  I was beginning to worry that the old Christmas adage was not going to come true this year. Not...
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The lack of precipitation on the southern Oregon and northern California coastline has created a mini-drought situation in rivers like California's Smith, or Oregon's Winchuck and Chetco Rivers, which are dropping and clearing to Sparkletts-water visibility. At the time of this writing, the Chetco was nearing the 1,000 cfs mark and was still predicted to be on-the-drop during the middle of...
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The groundfish and lingcod fishery has been completely closed in the entire state of Oregon for almost 4 months, and anglers are jonesing for a rockfish fix. So get out your calendars and sharpies because it's time to start counting backward. In precisely 23 days, Oregon salty dogs will be able to fish for rockfish, cabezon and lingcod when the new...
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Anglers of the salt have been chomping at the bit to catch a rockfish, kelp greenling or a lingcod ever since ODFW completely closed the groundfish fishery on September 8.  Well, fret not. Fishing for bottomfish will open up again come January 1. In my mind, this complete closure severely impacted local area businesses such as restaurants, motels, sporting goods stores, marine repair...
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