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Oregon saltwater bottom fishing

14K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  pablofeesh 
#1 ·
Hi, my name is John and this is my first post here. I live in Southern California and love to do winter bottom fishing for rockfish, lingcod, whitefish, and sheephead using plastic lures down here. I use plastic lures to fish from shallow water to depth of about 250 feet. The place that I visited the most is the Channel Islands especially the outer islands via overnight party boat trip.

I am curious about how's saltwater bottom fishing up there in Oregon. What kind of fish do you guys get other than rockfish and lingcod? Do you guys use artificial lures? What's the best season to do bottom fishing over there? Where can I catch a party boat that specializes in bottom fishing in Oregon and what type of trips are available? I may use the information I get here to plan my road trip to Oregon this and next year.

In the summer time in Southland I also do a lot of surface fishing such as calico bass, sand bass, baracuda, bonita, yellowtail, etc. If you wish to know more about this type of fishing I think I can contribute some experiences here. Thank you and have a nice day.
 
#2 ·
John, The Dogs can a great group of people when you get to know them and they get to know you! Traditionally we ask new folks to tell a little story of one of their experiences and a little about themselves/their boat etc. Youv'e got it half done so lets hear story and we will tell you all about the great bottom fishing out of Garibaldi/Newport and Depoe Bay!

oh yeah and Welcome aboard. :wave:

Paul
 
#7 ·
Thanks guys for the welcome and the the already wealth of information. I've been saltwater fishing since I was 15 mainly experienced from rock hopping, surf, to sportboat fishing. My true love is boat fishing even though I don't own one. I've fished frequent enough to hit some good days but generally what make me thrill is applying something just learned and proving it works. When I am not a fisherman I am a gardener and software developer... hoping to retire in less than 10 years.

Traditionally we ask new folks to tell a little story of one of their experiences and a little about themselves/their boat etc. Youv'e got it half done so lets hear story and we will tell you all about the great bottom fishing out of Garibaldi/Newport and Depoe Bay!

oh yeah and Welcome aboard. :wave:

Paul
 
#3 ·
In general all of our bottom fishing encompasses a few species. greenling some form of sebastes(rockfish), Lingcod, and Halibut at times are allowed catch. we have lots of reef type structure and lots of rocky areas that tend to concentrate the rockfish. spring is usually the best time for Lings due to mating season. The summer has the Lings more spread out and rockfish are easy to find if you hit the right rock its limits with smaller soft plastics casted and retrieved.

There are so many charters available up and down the coast that its hard to give you one. we have a few that advertise here on Ifish and they are among some of the best at what they do.
 
#4 ·
Welcome John. I grew up in Laguna Beach and then moved down to Leucadia. I've fished the party boats and my own boat down there, so I know the type of fishing you are talking about. Here are some comments about Oregon bottom fishing

1. There are lots of lingcod, and in shallower water than you are used to. We use yo-yo jigs and plastics quite a bit
2. We have zillions of black rockfish that roughly occupy the ecological niche of the calico bass. They are generally easy to catch. The limit is 6
3. We have lots of Cabezon, some quite large
4. The halibut here are the larger Pacific Halibut, rather than the California Halibut you have down there. Whereas the California halibut is a finicky biter, the Pacific Halibut are quick biters, easy to hook, and relatively abundant. Regulations severerly limit the number of allowable fishing days. Halibut grounds range from 700 feet deep to 100 feet or so. 30 pounders are not uncommon.
5. Aside from a few days, the ocean is too rough to get out on November to April.
6. Albacore fishing up here can be very good. The last few years they have been fairly close (30 miles). I think they are more abundant up here than off San Diego. I also think they have denser, oilier flesh, and are better eating.
7. Live bait is not available in Oregon. Despite this, private boats routinely score 30 or more albacore in a day, strictly trolling and casting swimbaits.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Welcome there John. A very nice intro you posted, thereby proving that not everyone in southern CA is a jerk.

Like Tinman said in #5, the weather up here is everything. Finding fish is not the issue.

From most ports up here, there is **decent** rockfishing pretty close in, like 3 - 6 miles from the harbors. So even when the weather is a little choppy, you can get to them. Now, for the 15 or 20 days a year when it is actually flat calm, you can zoom to spots 15 or 20 or 30 miles out, that have fantastic fishing. A few of the ports in the more "remote" parts of the state (i.e. Port Orford) have some close-in reefs that are still pretty great.

As you can imagine, it's tough to plan a trip ahead of time and bet on flat weather. But if a guy was going to do that, August & the first half of Sept are the best bets for flat weather.

Come and visit sometime, but don't stay too long.

Regards, Mark (who lived in Santa Barbara and....Riverside <ick> as a kid for 3 years).


p.s. yes on occasion we catch big halibut....



and even a few tuna.....
 
#6 ·
HI John I moved up from San Juan Capistrano 6 years ago via a job transfer. I would fish out of Dana Wharf and Point Loma all the time. The fishing up here is awesome but as the other folks mentioned the seas are a bit snotty. If you come up, bring your gear and make sure the charter you go on knows you are bringing you own gear. Up here most of the charters get tourist type passengers that do not own gear or folks that are on vacation on the coast and left there gear at home. The first time I went out on a charter up here was out of Garabaldi on the Norwester. I got on board the boat with 3 different rods and a large tackle box and the skipper looked at me like I just fell out of a tree, he asked me why I needed all of this stuff for I told him its for fishing J . When we got to the fishing grounds I dropped down a Salas 6x Iron and started to bring in some beautiful black rockfish that ran 3 to 5 lbs. each. During the third stop I noticed that some predatory fish was pushing up a bait ball. I grabbed my other rod with a Tady 9 iron and cast it out. The deck hand asked what I was doing casting out lures, before I could answer I hooked up with something BIG. After two trips around the boat fighting the fish, I landed a 38lb Chinook salmon.
Tuna fishing is really good up here; the charter boats around here are starting to realize that its a lot more fun to catch tuna on light line than hand lines. The guys up in Westport Washington fish tuna in the same manner as the San Diego folks do. My first experience tuna fishing in Oregon was similar to my first bottom fishing trip, I came on board with all this stuff and the deck hand did not know what to say, granted that was 6 years ago. These days they are fishing with lighter gear and enjoying the fight that albacore give.

Anyways sorry for the excessive information

Hope you make it up here and experiance the great fishing.. its alot of fun up here.

Tady
 
#8 ·
Where can I catch a party boat that specializes in bottom fishing in Oregon and what type of trips are available? I may use the information I get here to plan my road trip to Oregon this and next year.
I would contact "Nalu", who you can reach here on Ifish (see "The Salty Sponsors" link at the top of this page, and then go to "Ifish Charters" for contact info.) I believe his boat fishes about six guests very comfortably.

I do not know the man, so I've never been on his vessel, but I've read his Ifish posts for years. My sense of him is that he is very safety conscious, and strives to meet the needs of his customers while offering a whole fishing experience, meaning his trips are more than just catching fish (which I understand he is pretty good at doing). A bonus is that he operates out of Depoe Bay, which is an amazing place itself.
 
#9 ·
John -JTJ0026 One of your questions is what kind of bottom fish do we catch off the Oregon Coast. Here's a pretty complete list (may have missed some):

Ling cod
Black rock fish (large mouth)
Blue rock fish (small mouth)
Kelp trout (often called greenling)
Vermillion rock fish
China rock fish
Canary rock fish
Yellow eye rock fish
Baccacio rock fish (not often)
Cabazon' (at least 10 varieties)
Rat fish (a small shark)
 
#10 ·
John,

Well, there are no whitefish or sheepshead up this way but as was said plenty of other bottom grabbers to catch. Lings are plentiful too.

If you get a chance, jump on the Aloha Spirit out of Capt Hook's Sportfishing in the Channel Isl harbor. Shawn Steward is the new skipper, if the name sounds familar, he just retired from the Excel a few weeks ago and is eventually going to buy the Aloha Spirit. He's been loading up on the "Reds" pretty consistently as of late,,,,cannot keep Reds up here, also too if the squid show and the C-bass pop up or when the calicos, barries and yellows start up, he'll know where to go. 5 to 5 trip,,,,like a long 3/4 day.

Any of your favorite plastic or iron that you use down there will work fine up here. And during the summer you can try for a salmon which is something you don't get every season down your way................
 
#11 ·
Hey John - I knew I'd miss some. Add to my previous list:

Tiger Rock fish
Copper Rock fish
Yellowtail Rock fish (look like black rock but are green colored)
Quillback Rock fish

I fish a dory at Cape Kiwanda, and often come in with 8 to 10 different species.
 
#12 ·
John...

Welcome aboard! I'm one of those (not jerk) So Cal guys from Huntington Beach. I'm now here in Eugene, and echo everything above. If/When you go on a charter up here, and bring your own stuff (which I recommend), don't be surprised if the charter guys (other than Nalu) on large boats look at you crosseyed and gripe about your stuff not matching theirs. Just my experience on a few boats up here.:shrug:

That said, I learned that if you touch base first and ask what they fish (specifically mono vs. spectra) you'll have heads up to match their stuff. If you're coming all the way up here to fish, I'd allow a large window (2 weeks?) for weather, but there is plenty to do in this great state.

Doug
 
#13 ·
my .02......... i have been working on the ocean for 12 years, i started at age 11, i'm still a young buck. i now make my living on the bottom of the ocean, i have dove all over the oregon coast alot and i promise that port orford is by far the best fishery in oregon. i reside in depoe bay, and like someone else mentioned, nalu is a great opperation, i know mike personally and he has a real nice boat and he is a great guy, for tuna or halibut he would be my choice hands down, for bottom fish, five star charters out of gold beach runs trips out of port orford and gold beach, the best two fisheries in oregon. there are plenty of nice days on the ocean here too, just make sure you book a morning trip, it is rarely nice in the summer after noon. north west winds blow almost every day and you can add 15 knots to the wind if you fish gold beach or orford.... good luck!!
 
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