Edie Ferrario brought this 17-pound Chinook to the net on Thursday while fishing in the ocean within two miles of the Port of Brookings. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

In what has been a long time coming, Chinook salmon have finally busted a move and rolled within a few miles of the Port of Brookings Harbor, providing excellent opportunities for salmon aficionados in the local area to troll whole and cut-plug herring without having to spend a fortune on fuel.

Last week, a long-awaited fog bank finally made its way into local waters, creating calm seas which prompted hawg hunters from Brookings and the Rogue Valley to try their luck trolling for kings from the red can out two miles from shore. Most people found salmon close to home, either trolling off the stack or in between the red can and the whistle buoy, especially at first legal light.

Thursday was the day the salmon bite finally cut loose, and although the bite was far from being wide-open, there were several excellent bite periods. In the six hours I spent at the Brookings Harbor cleaning station on Thursday, I personally saw at least eight Chinook meeting the sharpened end of manual and electric fillet knives. Most of the salmon were between 15 and 20 pounds, with an occasional king approaching 30 pounds.

In what has been a long time coming, Chinook salmon have finally busted a move and rolled within a few miles of the Port of Brookings Harbor, providing excellent opportunities for salmon aficionados in the local area to troll whole and cut-plug herring without having to spend a fortune on fuel.

Last week, a long-awaited fog bank finally made its way into local waters, creating calm seas which prompted hawg hunters from Brookings and the Rogue Valley to try their luck trolling for kings from the red can out two miles from shore. Most people found salmon close to home, either trolling off the stack or in between the red can and the whistle buoy, especially at first legal light.

Thursday was the day the salmon bite finally cut loose, and although the bite was far from being wide-open, there were several excellent bite periods. In the six hours I spent at the Brookings Harbor cleaning station on Thursday, I personally saw at least eight Chinook meeting the sharpened end of manual and electric fillet knives. Most of the salmon were between 15 and 20 pounds, with an occasional king approaching 30 pounds.

In addition to the Chinook bite, I saw practically every other marine fish being filleted Thursday, including many varieties of rockfish, lingcod, redtail surfperch, albacore and three Pacific halibut from 30 to 60 pounds.

For tuna fishermen, there is presently a wall of extremely warm water ranging from 62 to 65 degrees hovering in different locations off of Oregon’s coast that’s just waiting to come in with the right conditions. Imagine a diagonal line drawn from Garibaldi to Brookings. Warm water is closest to shore near Garibaldi, within 20 mile from shore. By the time you get to Brookings, the warm water is between 70 and 100 miles from shore. 

With a mild south swell, more fog banks and less wind, and the warm water will soon be in our area. In the meantime, enjoy fishing for salmon, rockfish, lingcod and halibut. For an outdoorsman, fishing just doesn’t get any better than this.

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New regulations

It is important to address a few new regulations and scenarios that apply to Oregon fishermen, specifically in the Brookings-Harbor area.

Having started July 21, fishing beyond the 20-fathom line for rockfish, lingcod and flatfish species such as sole, flounder and California halibut is no longer permitted until 2012. A fathom equals 6 feet, so 20 fathoms equals 120 feet. There is a 20-fathom line that is defined by certain way points which can be found on the ODFW website at www.dfw.state.or.us.

A second regulation that occurred on July 21 was that boat anglers could no longer retain cabezon until 2012. If you are out on a boat and happen to hook a cabezon, it must be released.

However, cabezon may be kept if you are fishing from shore. Great places to fish for cabezon for shore-based anglers are from the Brookings north and south jetties, and from tide pools such as the ones found at Mill Beach, Chetco Point Park and the tide pools north of the Winchuck River beach. Only one cabezon may be kept per day and the minimum size must be at least 16 inches.

Several years ago a separate quota for rockfish, lingcod and cabezon was set aside for shore-based anglers and divers.

For Pacific halibut anglers south of Humbug Mountain

Several questions have also come to the attention of halibut fishermen at the cleaning station last Thursday. They are specifically wondering whether they can fish for halibut beyond the 20-fathom curve. If you are specifically targeting Pacific halibut, the answer is yes, according to Gway Kirchner from ODFW marine fisheries.

Anglers may still fish for Pacific halibut beyond the 20-fathom curve; however, they cannot fish for California halibut beyond the 20-fathom curve.

The regulations for Pacific halibut are slightly different for anglers south of Humbug Mountain. Below Humbug, you may still target Pacific halibut seven days a week until the season closes on Oct. 31.

If you catch a Pacific halibut, you are still required to mark it down on your combined angling tag, and the limit is still six Pacific halibut a year.

South of Humbug Mountain, you may also keep a Pacific halibut plus rockfish and lingcod on the boat, but there are certain stipulations in order to do this.

First of all, it is suggested that you catch your Pacific halibut first and then come inland less than 20 fathoms to catch your bottom-grabbers. This is the only situation in which you may legally retain rockfish, lingcod, flatfish and Pacific halibut on board at the same time.

In other words, you cannot catch your rockfish and lingcod limit first and then fish for Pacific halibut in water exceeding 20 fathoms. If you are caught by a game officer fishing for any species beyond the 20-fathom curve, and you have bottomfish onboard, you will be ticketed with a very expensive fine.

This means that you cannot catch bottomfish and fish for albacore as well, since albacore are always found beyond the 20-fathom curve.

Special regulations for the Chetco and Winchuck rivers

Starting last Monday, Aug. 1, anglers may not fish in the mainstem Chetco River for any species above River Mile 2.2 through Nov. 4. However, you may continue fishing for cutthroat trout in the Chetco’s tributaries such as the North and South Fork through Oct. 31. So if you’ve never experienced fishing in the beautiful Wild and Scenic Section of the Chetco River in the South Fork, the opportunity to do so is right now.

Also, the entire mainstem of the Winchuck River is now permanently closed to angling through Nov. 4. The tributaries, however, will still remain open for fishing for cutthroat trout through Oct. 31.

John Weber, our ODFW STEP biologist has also asked that anglers be very careful about fishing in the Chetco Bay because out-migrating salmon smolts are currently thick right now. It is advised not to use night crawlers or very small spinners and spoons because smolts are suckers for these objects. If you happen to catch a smolt by mistake, please release it with caution.

Tight lines!