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  FISHING

Boats at the Newport Dock - Photo by Bob Swingle, ODFW -

Saltwater News Bulletins

You can subscribe to receive e-mails and text message alerts for marine topics you are interested in. To sign up go to http://dfw.state.or.us/MRP/bulletins/index.asp and enter your phone for text alerts and e-mail information to subscribe to email updates. It’s easy to unsubscribe at any time. Your phone and e-mail information will remain confidential. Six different lists of interest to ocean enthusiasts are available: Bottomfish (recreational), Halibut (recreational), Ocean Salmon (recreational), Ocean Salmon (commercial troll), Commercial Nearshore Groundfish, and Marine Reserves.

Send us your fishing report

We’d love to hear about your recent fishing experience. Send us your own fishing report through ODFW Fishing Reports -- the information will be forwarded to the local biologist who may use it to update various ODFW resources such as the Weekly Recreation Report.

Marine Reserves

Prohibitions at Oregon’s marine reserves at Redfish Rocks and Otter Rock are in effect. Fishing, crabbing, clamming, hunting and gathering seaweed are all prohibited. Beach walking, surfing, bird watching, diving and other non-extractive uses continue to be allowed. See complete details and a map of the boundaries of the reserves:

• Otter Rock Marine Reserve
• Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and Marine Protected Area

BOTTOM FISHING

Starting April 1, bottom fishing is closed offshore of the 30-fathom line.

Fishing for bottom fish continued to be good when weather and ocean conditions allowed fishers out on the ocean. Most anglers returned with limits of rockfish and lingcod.

Several bottomfishers caught legal-sized chinook on shrimp flies. If a chinook takes your bait while bottomfishing you can keep it – so long as you have a salmon tag and the fish is more than 25 inches. (Be sure all the anglers aboard after the salmon is boated bend over the barbs their hooks.)

Cabezon retention is prohibited by all anglers until July 1. Retention of cabezon is allowed July 1 through Sept. 30. Under the federal cabezon quota, there is only enough cabezon to be open for two to three months during the busy summer period. When ODFW asked for public input in the fall, many people said they preferred a later season (July-September) over an earlier season. The daily bag and size limits remain the same (one-fish sublimit, 16-inch minimum length).

A Black and a Blue Rockfish - Photo by Brandon Ford-

Sport fishing for groundfish is open at all depths through March 30. On April 1, fishing for groundfish is closed outside of the 30-fathom curve defined by latitude and longitude.

The marine fish daily bag limit is seven fish (of which no more than one may be a cabezon during the cabezon season). There are separate daily limits for lingcod (two) and flatfish other than Pacific halibut (25).

Remember: yelloweye rockfish and canary rockfish may not be retained.

The Stonewall Bank Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Area, approximately 15 miles west of Newport, is closed to the harvest of rockfish, lingcod, flatfish and other species in the groundfish group.

OCEAN SALMON

Fisheries samplers reported some limits of chinook in Newport and Depoe. Fishing for chinook salmon from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain is open from March 15 through April 30. All retained chinook salmon must be 24 inches or larger.
  
Anglers fishing in ocean waters adjacent to Tillamook Bay between Twin Rocks and Pyramid Rock and within the 15 fathom depth contour are reminded that only adipose fin clipped chinook salmon may be retained or on board while fishing.
 
Seasons from May 1 through April 30, 2014 are currently being developed. Season alternatives will be reviewed and a final season recommendation made at the Pacific Fishery Management Council public meeting in Portland, Oregon by April 11.

PACIFIC HALIBUT

Staff Recommended 2013 Pacific Halibut Sport Regulations
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will make the final decision on the 2013 halibut regulations, including open dates, at their meeting on April 26.

A nice halibut - Photo by Matt Frank -

Leadbetter Point, Wash., to Cape Falcon
Spring All-Depth Season: Open May 3, three days per week, Friday-Sunday, through 9,516 pounds or the start of the summer season on Aug. 2.

Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain
Nearshore Season (Quota = 23,038 pounds)
Open May 2, three days per week (Thursday-Saturday), inside the 40-fathom line (defined by waypoints) through the earlier of 23,038 pounds or Oct. 31.
Spring All-Depth Season: Open May 9-11, May 16-18, May 30-June 1, and June 6-8. Backup days are June 20-22, July 4-6, and July 18-20.

South of Humbug Mountain
Open May 1, seven days per week, through Oct. 31.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the annual allowable catch for the West Coast at the same level as last year.
 
For the most up-to-date information visit: http://dfw.state.or.us/mrp/finfish/halibut/index.asp

SHELLFISH

Razor clams
For the tide series of March 28 to April 2, razor clam harvesting along the Clatsop Beaches was good. Ocean conditions were conducive to optimum harvest with surf levels as low as they have been all year. During this tide series harvest was good along the entire beach with the best occurring at the Seaside and Sunset beach areas. Harvesters averaged nearly 14 clams per person during the tide series in these two areas while the rest of the beach areas averaged almost 12 clams per person. Clams harvested were quite large with many harvesters digging clams well over 4½ inches and even a few close to 6 inches.

Razor Clams - Oregon Fish and Wildlife-

Water temperatures have been warming up and there is a lot of food in the surf. This made the clams show quite readily. There was a significant set of clams in 2012 that would be considered small (less than 3 ½ inches) to many harvesters. Therefore harvesters must use extreme caution when digging to only choose the largest shows so as to limit the chances of digging a small clam. Shellfish staff observed wastage rates that are higher than average this time of year. Wastage is the intentional replanting of small or broken clams. A full 80 percent of these replanted clams die due to damage or improper placement. Harvesters need to keep the first 15 clams they dig regardless of size or condition as per permanent regulations.

The next set of low tides begins April 9-14. This is a small series with a much bigger one at the end of the month. Harvesters should pay close attention to the surf forecasts and be on the beach one to two hours before low tide. If the forecast calls for combined seas over 8 or 10 feet, razor clam harvesting can be very difficult because the clams tend to show much less in those conditions.

The entire Oregon coast is open to razor clam harvest.

Recreational shellfish safety status as of April 9:

• Mussel harvesting reopened on March 8 from Cape Arago to the California border.
• With the reopening, all shellfish harvesting is open along the entire Oregon coast.
• The consumption of whole recreationally harvested scallops is not recommended, however. Coastal scallops are not affected by toxin closures when only the adductor muscle is eaten.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture's shellfish safety hotline is toll free and provides the most current information regarding shellfish safety closures. Please call the hotline before harvesting: 1-800-448-2474.

Check out the recreational shellfish pages on the ODFW web site. The pages contain everything you need to know for identifying and harvesting Oregon’s clams.

Crabs

In several bays, crabbing has been more productive that crabbing in the ocean. However, during periods of rain, crabbing in bays may slow due to decreased salinity, but boat crabbers can still expect to land a few keepers. The recreational harvest of Dungeness crab in Oregon’s bays and estuaries is open year round.

Ocean crabbing has been decent, although some crabs are still reportedly soft. Recreational crabbing in the ocean is open along the entire Oregon coast.

The ODFW crabbing report shows average number of legal-sized Dungeness crab per person in various ports by month over the past couple of years: check it out.

Some sport crabbers have difficulty correctly measuring the minimum size for Dungeness crab, which is 5 3⁄4 inches measured in a straight line across the back immediately in front of, but not including, the points. See an illustration showing the correct measurement.

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  VIEWING

Late March through Early April

The whales go by

Whale watching - Photo by Bob Swingle, ODFW-

The spring gray whale migration reaches its peak the end of March. The whales move more slowly and closer to the beach during the spring migration because there are calves in the pod. About 18,000 gray whales will pass by the Oregon coast.

A gray whale's blow is up to 15 feet high, and each blow is visible for about five seconds. When warm, moist air exhaled from the animals' lungs meets the cool air at the ocean surface, it creates the bushy column called a blow, or spout. Anticipate that the whale will dive for three to six minutes, then surface for three to five blows in row, 30 to 50 seconds apart, before diving deep for three to six minutes again.

To watch the migration, it is best to pick a calm day and find a view point that is high enough to spot the spouts. Learning good binocular technique will help spot the whales. Gaze out onto the ocean, focusing on medium distances until you see a puff of white. Then raise your binoculars while continuing to look at the place you saw the puff.  This technique takes some practice, but generally works better than swinging the binoculars around looking for something. Just keep your eyes focused on the whale and raise the binoculars to your eyes, looking through them, not into them.

Gray whales are the most coastal of the baleen whales and are often found within a few miles of shore as they migrate from Alaska to Baja. Gray whales have baleen instead of teeth. To feed, they fill their vast mouths with mud from the sea bottom and strain it through their baleen to capture amphipods and other small animals. This is the only type of whale to feed in this manner.

Tide Pooling at Yaquina Bay - Photo by Kathy Munsel -

Minus Tides

Starting the end of March and continuing through April, are the first morning minus tides of the year. More hours of daylight make this prime time for visiting tide pools and watching the life that was just a few hours ago under as much as 10 feet of water.

The three series of morning minus tides are: March 28 to April 1, April 10 through 13 and April 24 and continues through the end of the month.

Look for green anemones, hermit crabs, sea urchins, small fish, jelly fish, sea stars, pinkish corraline algae, lime green anemone, dark green sea lettuce, barnacles and other animals of the intertidal region.

There are dozens of good places on the Oregon coast to go tide pooling. Some of the best are in state parks and recreation areas, including Haystack Rocks, Hug Point, Seal Rock, Yachats State Recreation Area (or just about anywhere with 10 miles of Yachats), Strawberry Hill State Wayside, Neptune State Park, Sunset Bay State Park, Cape Arago State Park and Cape Blanco State Park. Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, four miles north of Newport, has outstanding tide pools and rangers on hand to provide tours and answer questions.

Don’t turn your back on the ocean because a large wave may get you wet or worse. Also, stay off beach logs! They can roll in the surf and crush you. High surf can make tide pooling on the ocean beaches uncomfortable and dangerous, so try looking for wildlife in the mud flats of coastal bays and rivers. For more information.

Tufted Puffins arrive in early April at an offshore rock near you

Tufted Puffins sport a colorful bill and in the breeding season with two long, blond plumes at the end of a facial mask. These chunky black birds arrive every spring to breed on the coastal islands of Oregon that make up Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. From early April to late August they can be seen up and down the coast. Tufted puffins only come ashore to breed and raise their young. For the remainder of the year they live, feed, and sleep on the open ocean. Puffins arrive, along with thousands of other seabirds, to the coastal rocks of the refuge during the first week in April.

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