Duayne McKinney of Brookings hammered this 25-pound Chinook on Monday while trolling in the Chetco Bay. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

Today, Brookings area anglers will get their first chance at hooking up with a wall-hanging trophy Chinook in the ocean when the beginning of the Chetco Ocean Terminal Area season takes place Oct. 1-12.

This is a state run fishery that takes place in state waters that extends out to sea three miles from shore, from the California/Oregon border to Twin Rocks. The hardest part of the fishery is finding the fish; the second hardest part of the fishery is getting them in the boat. Make sure that you have a large net.

 These fish are beginning to stack up like cordwood day after day, aching for a rain to send them upriver. So if you don’t know where to find these fish, you can begin trolling for them right in front of the jetty jaws. Every year, a large concentration of fish begin kegging up from the red can out toward the whistle buoy.

There is always a contingent of fish that like to hang around the sandy beach in front of the motel off of Sporthaven Beach. So until the majority of the fish are found, begin trolling large herring as soon as you exit the jaws. Hang a left and continue trolling toward the motel, paralleling the beach.

If you don’t mark any fish on your meter, then troll back toward the red can buoy and begin working your way back and forth from the red can to the whistler. Eventually the fish will be there, if they aren’t there already.

A lot of people are going to be using cable baiters. Cable baiters are large hooks attached to a piece of cable and they come in different lengths which correspond to the size herring you are using. They can be purchased at Englund Marine Supply at Crescent City.

The limit in the ocean is one fish per day; five for the season. The minimum length is 24 inches and only single-shank barbless hooks may be used.

Meanwhile, fishing in the Chetco Bay continued last week with as many as a dozen boats trolling the bay. An average of three salmon per day continued being caught. On Monday Duayne McKinney from Brookings hooked and landed a beautiful chrome-bright Chinook and while I was at the cleaning station a fish over 30 pounds was brought to the tables.

As the month of October continues, more and more fish will begin entering the jaws on the incoming tide, heading for staging areas at Tide Rock, Morris Hole and Social Security Bar. At the present time anglers are only permitted to fish as far upriver as River Mile 2.2.and the best bite has been occurring on the outgoing tide as fish have been forced out of their upper tidewater holes because of low water, heading back to the ocean.

Meanwhile the Rogue Bay, Coquille River, Coos River and Umpqua River have been kicking out good numbers of Chinook as well as fair numbers of coho.

The run of fish back to the Sacramento has been late this year, so anglers are hoping that their river’s run of fish are late as well. The Coquille, which was projected to receive almost four times the average amount of Chinook has been kicking out about twice its average run of fish. The run is good, but not nearly as good as predicted – yet! If the run is late, as the Sacramento’s run was, then expect to find robust numbers of Chinook and coho returning this week as well as the week after.

Paul Lefebvre of Brookings reported having a 10-coho day Thursday on the Rogue River. All of the fish were wild and had to be released. Andy Martin reported catching two Chinook and one wild coho as well.

This is the time of year when the Indian Creek Fish begin returning to the Rogue Bay, and remember that Grant Martinsen caught his 71-pound Chinook at Clay Banks the beginning of October as well.

Every year the Curry Anadromous Fishermen of Gold Beach release 75,000 smolts in the Rogue estuary that are meant to produce an extended bay fishery clear into October, which means that these fish should be milling around Indian Creek right about now.

Usually coho can be caught in the same area as the Indian Creek Chinook, so trolling upriver from the Patterson Bridge, one-half mile upriver toward Indian Creek, might be a good strategy for picking up these fish, especially since a calm bar on Friday produced ideal conditions for the salmon to enter the river.

Coho really like spinners, plugs and spinner blades that are deep red or hot pink, and they will take offerings that are trolled slightly faster than Chinook prefer.

A friend of mine from the North Nehalem hatchery told me that he and a group of anglers fished Coos Bay last week and had as many as 10-fish days.

Guide David Anderson has also been producing limits of Chinook for his clients while fishing Coos Bay. Dave has been launching at the California Street boat ramp and trolling in the deep channels near the McCullough bridge, as deep as 45 feet.

Other anglers have reported catching fish further up the bay in the Marshfield Channel near Sause Brothers. As October progresses, the Coos fish will head higher up the river, first underneath the Chandler Bridge and then further upriver near Daniels Creek. Daniels Creek is a popular bank-fishing spot on the Coos River. Fish concentrate around Daniels Creek as they get ready to head up to the Morgan Creek hatchery.

Coquille River Chinook have been caught in the flats just above 7-mile Slough with some regularity. A red Big Al’s in-line Fish Flash connected directly to a 4-inch spreader with a 5-foot leader leading to a cut-plug herring has been the rigging of choice in both the Coos and Coquille systems.

Don’t forget that you can still retain wild coho in the Coquille, Coos and Umpqua systems. But please check the news releases on the ODFW website for current standings on the wild coho quotas by visiting www.dfw.state.or.us.

I’m looking forward for salmon fishing to break wide open any day this week in the ocean, so keep your ears peeled to the VHF and CB radio for real-time reports from recreational sport fishermen.

Tight lines!