Ocean salmon action heats up
During the summer months, the Wild Rivers Fishing crew switches gears to running charter boats out of Brookings, through Brookings Fishing Charters. The ocean salmon season opened in late June, and fishing has quickly improved, with limits or near limits of kings and hatchery coho. Big numbers of hatchery and wild coho, and kings of all sizes are being caught out of Brookings.
Salmon season in the ocean runs June 18 through late August. The best fishing out of Brookings takes place in late June and July, when hatchery coho headed to the Columbia River pass by the Southern Oregon Coast, and kings from a variety of West Coast rivers feed off of Brookings. Anglers can keep two salmon a day, including wild or hatchery kings, and hatchery coho. Wild coho must be released.
The majority of the salmon caught out of Brookings each summer are from the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers. Huge numbers of hatchery kings were released a few years ago, fueling what has been an above-average ocean season in Northern California and now Southern Oregon. Salmon from the Klamath, Rogue, Chetco, Smith, Eel and other far Southern Oregon and Northern California rivers spend the ocean portion of their life off of Brookings, Crescent City, Eureka and San Francisco, contributing to the ocean salmon fishery in those areas.
Capt. Andy, Mick, Sam, Travis, Michael and Rye, who run drift boat trips during the winter on the Chetco and Smith rivers, operate six-pack charter boats out of Brookings in the summer to catch ocean salmon. The first week of the 2022 season was slow, with a few hatchery coho. Fishing improved in late June. The last week of June produced wide-open action at times, as salmon moved closer to shore to feed on anchovies and herring. The outlook for July is good, with plenty of salmon available out of Brookings.
Aside from salmon, lingcod and rockfish action has been good out of Brookings. Trips to the Point St. George Reef Lighthouse, just across the border in California, have been especially good, with limits of large lingcod and a nice grade of rockfish.
To learn more about ocean fishing with the Wild Rivers Fishing crew, check out www.brookingsfishing.com or call (541) 813-1082.
