Fishing report for 

August 19-25

Halibut, lingcod, rockfish keep anglers hopping – salmon on the way

A city is often described by a motto, slogan or nickname that captures the essence of its community. Brookings has been officially designated “Home of Winter Flowers.” I have no disagreement with that motto, especially when I consider that a winter steelhead is a type of winter flower. 

But I do think that Brookings deserves to be elevated to a status that is much more befitting for a city that is fishable 365 days a year. After careful consideration, I have found a much loftier catch phrase. I believe that the slogan, “Brookings – Gateway to Fishing Paradise” would help generate more tourist dollars in an economy where getting the most bang for your buck is an absolute necessity. The term is neither fiction, fable or fantasy. For a Brookings fisherman, it is fact – an axiom of everyday life.

Last week, the big pond outside the Port of Brookings Harbor laid down like a sheet of liquid mercury, allowing anglers to slay just about every fatted fish that exists in the ocean. This scenario is not at all unusual but is typical of the Pacific Ocean near Brookings during the summer months. For most of the week, the ocean was literally a seafood smorgasbord. This week is shaping up to be even more fruitful.

Last Tuesday was one of the most productive halibut days I have ever seen in this neck of the Pacific Northwest. In fact, I would say that Brookings was probably the hottest port on the coast for Pacific halibut, including Alaska as well. Allow me to explain.

My good friend and guide Andy Martin has been working steadily in good old AK for about five years now, and every year he talks about putting his clients on halibut that easily weigh over 100 pounds. Fishing tourists live and breathe just to hook up with one of those big slabs.

This year, Martin and other recreational fishing guides in Alaska are only allowed to retain Pacific halibut that are under 37-inches long. Anything over 37 inches has to go back in the drink. In Alaska, it’s extremely difficult to catch a halibut under 37 inches because larger halibut usually dominate the action. By the way, a 37-inch halibut only weighs about 23 pounds.  

But last Tuesday at the Brookings cleaning station, a 23-pound halibut would have been considered a dink compared to the flatties I saw being filleted. On that day, at least 10 gargantuan flat-siders met the sharpened end of fillet knives. 

Of those 10 fish, there was one enormous barn door that weighed at least 75 pounds, a monster butt compared to the halibut we usually catch in this area. On that same day, there were also plenty of 40 pounders brought to the scales, as well as a few 50s. 

In addition to the excellent halibut fishing, anglers who dropped soft-bodied plastics, leadfish and shrimp flies were rewarded with limits of rockfish, and there were plenty of lingcod being filleted as well, with many anglers limiting on the lingasaurs.

There was also a group of anglers at the cleaning station who saw some exciting tuna action as well, and I personally saw at least five Chinook being filleted.

And based on all the river action that has been stirring in nearby streams, salmon activity in the ocean should also begin picking up as well, based on the scores of Chinook hanging out outside river mouths and in bays from the Rogue to the Umpqua.

“The Coquille has been averaging a couple fish per boat,” says long-time veteran fishing guide Rick Howard of Rick Howard Guide Service (www.howard5.net). “It’s not red hot, but next week we’re getting some good high tides and that will bring in a whole bunch of fish.”

It’s usually the first high tides at the end of August that brings Chinook into the Coquille. Howard says the Coos River is the same way. 

“There are a bunch of fish sitting right off of the airport in that 40-foot channel,” notes Howard. “Guys who are trolling down deep are doing quite well, but the fish haven’t really moved upriver in big numbers yet because we haven’t had good high tides to push them up on the flats.”

Howard’s talking about the Marshfield Channel, a popular shallow-water staging area in Coos Bay.

But it’s the Umpqua that has attracted most of Howard’s attention this month. When I talked to Howard on Thursday he was on his second guided trip on the Umpqua. The morning trip resulted in 10 adult Chinook and four jacks, and he was just about to limit his passengers in the afternoon while we were conversing. 

All in all, Howard’s boat landed 109 salmon in August on the Umpqua alone. With a portion of the aforementioned rivers’ fish still swimming in the ocean, that bodes well for salmon fishing in the ocean this week as well as the week after.

The Rogue River has seen its fair share of Chinook as well.

“It’s not every day, but I would say that more often than not we’re having a strong evening bite after 5 or 6 p.m.,” says Larry Cody from the Rogue Outdoor Store about the Rogue Bay. “The way it’s been working this year is that we’ll have slow periods during the day and then all of a sudden – WAM-BAM – everything’s poppin’. It may only last for an hour and a half and then we’re back twiddlin’ our thumbs again.”

ODFW biologist Steve Mazur says that the department has been netting at Huntley Park every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and finding plenty of fresh fall kings in the net.

“We’ve been getting pretty good numbers of Chinook at Huntley,” says Mazur. 

As one can see, the motto “Gateway to Fishing Paradise” is not an unrealistic expectation for Brookings area anglers. For one thing, it is truthful, not just another fish tale told at the local watering hole.

Tight lines!