Rockfish fishing in Oregon Coast

In Oregon Coast, rockfish peak April–October and are around year-round, according to Fish Scouter's month-by-month season calendar. June: Peak: Newport, Depoe Bay, Pacific City, Garibaldi charters; long-leader trips for mids off the bottom where open.

1. JanuaryAroundWinter steelhead; lingcod on the jetties. Tidewater drifts on the Wilson, Nestucca and Chetco; release big nest-guarding male lings.
2. FebruaryAround
3. MarchArrivingBlack rockfish on the jetties and nearshore reefs when the swell drops.
4. AprilPeakOcean kings open; redtail perch on the beaches. Troll herring on the 120–200 ft line when the bar lets you out; perch on sand shrimp in the surf.
5. MayPeakHalibut opens; rockfish and lings on every reef. Spring all-depth halibut days off Newport; nearshore reefs for rockfish; Columbia estuary sturgeon.
6. JunePeakPeak: Newport, Depoe Bay, Pacific City, Garibaldi charters; long-leader trips for mids off the bottom where open.
7. JulyPeakAlbacore arrive; salmon offshore. Tuna 20–50 nm out on the warm break; coho on the color breaks; rockfish limits inshore.
8. AugustPeakBuoy 10 opens; albacore peak. Fall kings at the Columbia mouth from August 1 on the flood; summer all-depth halibut; tuna out of Newport and Charleston.
9. SeptemberPeakBay salmon season; coho at Buoy 10; tuna still on. Troll spinners and herring in Tillamook, Nestucca and Siletz bays on the incoming; Buoy 10 coho.
10. OctoberPeakWinter swell starts closing the bars.
11. NovemberAroundLast bright kings; first winter steelhead. Chetco and Elk mouths after the rain; first steelhead in tidewater.
12. DecemberAroundWinter steelhead on; lings begin to spawn. Tidewater and the lower drifts; jetty rockfish on calm days between the storms.

Three hundred miles of headlands, jetties and drowned river bays — Chetco, Rogue, Coos, Umpqua, Siuslaw, Alsea, Yaquina, Siletz, Nestucca, Tillamook — with Heceta and Stonewall Banks offshore and the Columbia's mouth at the top.

Fish Scouter charts 51 wreck spots in the The Oregon Coast map area — the kinds rockfish hold on.

• SquidStrips on a bottom rig for snapper, grunts and porgies; whole on a deep-drop rig.
• Anchovies (Pacific)Nose- or collar-hooked on a #4 to 1/0 hook and fly-lined with no weight, or on a dropper loop; a dozen tossed over the side as chum keeps the bass and bonito up.
• HerringCut-plug for salmon: head off at an angle, guts out, two hooks in tandem so it spins slow behind a flasher or a banana weight. Whole and live on a circle hook for stripers where the herring run.

• Leader30–60 lb fluorocarbon
• Hook2/0–7/0
• Braid30–65 lb

Feeds in 44–62°F water, best at 48–56°F.

All about rockfish · The Oregon Coast, the whole year