The World Newspaper Fishing Blog

The Rogue River should have the best opportunities to catch a nice steelhead, as last week the reports were good from bank fishermen. Fishing near Huntley Bar and Canfield Riffle using a brown trout pattern Spin Glow produced the best bites. The outstanding news is at least three spring Chinook were taken [...] 0

03/01 Public input sways Coast Guard at a meeting held last week in Reedsport. Pressure, determination and the presentation of the tidal conditions in Winchester Bay has achieved a positive result. The Coast Guard will enforce the new bar closure only when dangerous are present in the lower bay.  The Coast Guard is also going to [...] 0

The U.S. Coast Guard hoisted a 33-year-old man from a fishing vessel near Cape Blanco, Wednesday, after the man complained of chest pains. At about 1:30 p.m., Coast Guard Station Coos Bay received a request for assistance from the Shenanegan, a 50-foot fishing vessel. A 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from Coos Bay went to the scene with [...] 0

Phil Harris, captain of the Alaskan king crab boat Cornelia Marie and one of the skippers on Discovery channel’s Deadliest Catch, died Tuesday. The grizzle-bearded 53-year-old suffered a massive stroke in late January aboard his boat, while it was in St. Paul Island, Alaska, according to The Associated Press. “It is with great [...] 2

In his column for the Umpaqu Post, accomplished fisherman and noted outdoor writer Pete Heley commented on the aggressive practices that the Douglas County Sheriff used enforcing the Coast Guard’s rules for crossing the Umpqua River Bar. “Recently, there have been both troubling and encouraging statements regarding the new enforcement area associated with bar closures on [...] 3

With many steelheaders switching from boats to bank fishing, these plunkers are doing very well. The county boat ramp in Coquille had a lot of activity and many nice steelhead were caught. Rising river levels offer a great opportunity to fish from the banks using stealthy methods, as many of these steelhead [...] 2

We are asking ODFW to expand the concept of Free Fishing Weekend.  Free Fishing Weekend occurs on the Saturday and Sunday immediately following the first Monday in the month of June.  No licenses or tags are required for taking fish, crabs and clams during the weekend.  However the tides in Oregon’s bays during Free Fishing [...] 0

The only man on America’s West Coast allowed to commercially harvest abalone has been convicted of poaching the tasty mollusk. Kevin L. Hiersche, 51, pleaded guilty this month to five charges of taking abalone out of season, falsifying business records and lacking a wholesalers license. The Gold Beach man had qualified to take [...] 0

A recent study from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed a popular salmon and steelhead bait containing sodium sulfite can harm juvenile fish. Scientists from ODFW and Oregon State University tested a random sample of commercially cured fish eggs and found that some juvenile fish died after ingesting some brands, [...] 0

Boaters are complaining that Coast Guard is unfairly restricting boating in the lower Winchester Bay from the entrance to the West Basin seaward when they close the bar. Boaters assert that the closure is unnecessary and they should be able to crab in the upper portion of the jetty channel and in Half Moon Bay. What [...] 4

New boating fee will fund program for aquatic invasive species prevention Aquatic invasive species can wreak havoc when introduced to rivers and bays, and starting next year, recreational boaters in Oregon will pay a fee to fund a program to prevent them from spreading. The Aquatic Invasive Species Permit, a fee recreational boaters [...] 2

Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington adopted 2010 sturgeon and smelt fishing regulations last week during a joint state hearing in Kelso, Wash. Current rules regulating the harvest of white sturgeon on the Columbia River were left unchanged from 2009 while representatives from the two states negotiate an agreement on 2010 harvest [...] 1

Winter steelhead fishing is just getting started. Fish are being caught in the East Fork Millicoma River near Nesika Park. A few steelhead also are being caught in the main stream of the Coquille River. The lower portions of the south fork of the Coquille also are producing a few fish. LaVerne [...] 1

We decided to gamble and have a friend of ours in a bigger boat haul our traps out for the opener, rather than having to do it over 4 days with the Harvester. We can only carry 80 or so traps at a time so this let us set all 300 to soak at once. [...] 0

Has the latest study of Pacific salmon ended the controversy generated by supplementing the population of wild coho salmon with hatchery raised coho salmon?  The killing of hatchery raised coho salmon at the Fall Creek hatchery a number of years ago ignited the controversy over supplementing populations of wild coho salmon with hatchery raised salmon when [...] 0

Local fisherman looking for volunteers to build stairs for access to popular fishing spot An avid fisherman for about 75 years, Don Hynes found a great spot to catch salmon after moving to Coos Bay five years ago. The only problem is, he has trouble navigating the short hill for fishing access. To the [...] 0

CRAB TAGGING STUDY WINCHESTER BAY:  The Oregon Wave Energy Trust in partnership with Oregon Sea Grant are conducting a study on Dungeness crabs. 3,000 legal sized male crabs were tagged in October and November of 2009. We need your help in returning the tags, so we can complete the study.  The location of the dump sites are: South [...] 4

CHARLESTON — Three fisherman are fine after their crabbing boat sank in the bay Tuesday, but the owner of the sunken Manatee will have to get it off the bay floor. A U.S. Coast Guard rescue crew fished the three men out of the water near Coos Bay’s South Jetty after the [...] 0

The Coquille River has experienced a rise in the conditions that pushed most of the fish upriver, but we still have some reports of a few fish being taken. It looks like we’ll make it to the end of the month without reaching our wild coho quota. Fishermen on the Coos River systems [...] 0

We’ve got 300 traps (dungie prisons) soaking on the bottom of the Pacific waiting for Midnight Tonight (Dec 1st) to be allowed to pull them. Be heading out in a few hours to start pulling once the clock strikes twelve and hope our boat doesn’t turn into a pumpkin. Stay tuned, we’ll have video and reports [...] 1