Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: A hazardous seas warning is in effect into this afternoon, with southwest winds up to 25 knots and 4-foot wind waves and 3-foot swells. Winds are forecast to back off to 20 knots Saturday, but swells will rise to 10 feet amid thunderstorms. Sunday will see winds backing down to 5 knots but it will take a bit for the ocean to settle down as 9-foot swells slowly decline to 4-foot swells, according to the forecast. The marine aggregate rockfish daily limit for bottomfishers
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE:  The ocean will not be terribly agreeable this weekend, with 20-knot winds, swells up to 8 feet and rain in the forecast. Saturday doesn't get much better, with 20-knot winds and 10-foot swells. Sunday looks much better but still not that good, with the forecast calling for 10-knot winds and swells to 7 feet. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred recently out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have been
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: This weekend's forecasts don't look good for the angling opportunities available for the rest of 2017 off the Southern Oregon coast. Forecasts for Friday call for 10-knot winds and 9-foot swells, followed Saturday by 10-knot winds and 5-foot swells. Halibut fishing is closed off the South Coast. That leaves only ocean bottomfishing outside the 40-fathom line. Thirty-foot leaders and floats are required to keep baits off the bottom and focused on midwater rockfish species
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Jim Hutchins stands atop two old, exposed sewer line spanning Bear Creek beneath the Jackson Street Bridge, staring at the frothy brown water at the base of this three-foot drop for the next explosion to occur. On cue, a wild fall chinook salmon the size of a man's leg bursts out of the froth and hurtles itself onto the concrete-covered pipes, only to fall just short and tumble back into the pool. "Almost got it that time," says Hutchins, a naturalist who monitors Bear Creek chinook runs each fa
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
BROOKINGS — The tips of the north and south jetties at Chetco Bay are called the "jaws," and what's on the inside of them is telling Andy Martin a lot about what lies outside of them. The jaws are the demarcation line separating the Pacific from the bay, and for the past few weeks schools of Chetco-bound fall chinook salmon have been finning past the jaws and back out. "They're holding at the tops to the jetty, nosing in but not committing yet," says Martin, 41, a Brookings charter captain
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
BROOKINGS — Despite winds and choppy seas making for shortened fishing days, anglers trolling the near-shore waters during last weekend's first half of the Chetco River bubble fishery fared about average in what amounts to the only ocean chinook season of 2017 off the Southern Oregon coast. Creel-checkers at the Port of Brookings-Harbor estimated 1,009 angler-trips over the first two days of the four-day fishery, and they kept an estimated 193 chinook salmon while releasing 85 others, acc
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for a small-craft advisory through this evening, followed by what likely will be a rough day Saturday before better conditions arrive Sunday. Today's forecast calls for winds up to 15 knots and 3- to 5-foot swells, followed Saturday by winds up to 25 knots in the morning and 5-foot wind waves. Sunday looks the best with 5- to 10-knot winds and 2- to 4-foot swells. The ocean bottomfishing season ends Sunday night because the black rockfish quota will be met
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for quite the bouncing around of conditions this weekend, with winds up to 20 knots and wind waves around 6 feet today and Saturday, followed by winds Sunday starting at 25 knots but ebbing to 15 knots with 4-foot wind waves. That makes Sunday by far the best opportunity of the weekend. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred recently out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have been good to very
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Hazardous seas warnings are in effect until 4 p.m. Saturday, and that puts a serious damper on weekend bottomfishing off the couth coast. The forecast calls for 20-knot winds and 22-foot swells today, making this the first real coastal storm of 2018. Saturday's winds are forecast to build up to 25 knots with 9-foot wind waves and a 21-foot swell. Bottomfishers are back in business coastwide with the new five-fish marine aggregate rockfish daily limit. Lingcod fishing is
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts today call for winds up to 25 knots but backing down to 15 knots near Brookings. The forecast also calls for 4-foot wind waves with a 6-foot northwest swell. Saturday looks a little better, with 15-knot winds dying down to 5 knots by the afternoon and wind waves of 3 feet but rain. Sunday things start kicking up again with winds to 15 knots and wind waves building to 14 feet. The marine aggregate rockfish daily limit for bottomfishers is five fish. Anglers are
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Despite a huge increase expected in the number of fall chinook salmon bound for the Rogue River this fall, continued problems with Sacramento River salmon survival means there likely will be very little sport and commercial salmon fishing this summer off the Southern Oregon coast — and maybe none. Preliminary stock assessments estimate that 462,800 Rogue fall chinook are now in the ocean, 216,000 more than last year, according to federal Pacific Fishery Management Council reports. Of thos
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Ocean anglers have been welcomed back to deep-water bottomfishing to ease the impacts of September's bottomfishing closure after anglers exhausted their black rockfish limit for 2017. After consulting with coastal communities rocked by last month's closure, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reopened recreational bottomfishing in waters outside the 40-fathom line last Friday. The move is designed to take advantage of unused quotas for such species as yellowtail, widow and canary rockfish
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
The Oregon Hunters Association paid a record $24,200 in rewards to informants in poaching cases last year through its Turn In Poachers program. The rewards were paid in a record 50 separate fish and wildlife violation cases reported to Oregon State Police statewide. Most years see about two dozen cases netting informants about $10,000. The OHA last year increased the standard reward amounts for people who provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of fish and wildlife law violat
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Eclipse watchers on Oregon beaches will have to watch out for an odd series of tides, and they'll have to do without a warming fire. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department banned all campfires and open flames Wednesday from state park properties, which includes beaches, until further notice. The rule bans charcoal briquettes, tiki-style torches and even candles. The only cooking allowed is with the use of fuel-based gear such as propane stoves. Parks officials said some parks will allow prop
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
SALEM — The Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday the establishment of a biotoxin management zone from Cape Blanco to the California-Oregon border, effective immediately. To protect consumers, all crab landed from this area must have the viscera (guts) removed by a licensed processor, according to a press release issued by the ODFW. Dungeness crab internal organs sampled from the area have biotoxins above the alert level, indicati
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
SALEM — Recreational crabbing has been closed on the Southern Oregon coast from Cape Blanco to the California border due to elevated levels of domoic acid. This includes Dungeness and red rock crab harvested from the ocean as well as in bays and estuaries, and on beaches, docks, piers and jetties, according to a press release issued Friday by the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Recreational crab harvesting from Cape Blanco north to the Columbia
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE:  Forecasts are calling for decent weather on the water today but deteriorating as the weekend unfurls. Expect 10-knot winds and 3-foot swells today, followed Saturday by 10- to 15-knot winds and 6-foot swells. Sunday's forecast calls for winds of up to 25 knots and 7-foot wind waves. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred recently out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have been good to very good. The So
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
In the late 1700s — as America’s East Coast was being rapidly logged, trapped, fished, farmed and mined — scholars noticed a disturbing trend: native brook trout and Atlantic salmon populations were plummeting. The new nation’s eventual answer to the problem was not to restore habitat or protect streams from rampant sources of pollution, as is often the case these days. Instead, in 1812 the Philadelphia Academy of Science created a curriculum in aquaculture — r
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
  OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for calm winds and relatively light seas today, with winds kicking up Saturday and easing a bit but still blowing hard Sunday. Today calls for winds at 5 to 10 knots and mixed swells up to 3 feet, followed Saturday by winds building to 25 knots and wind waves up to 7 feet. Sunday the winds will be 15 to 20 knots, with wind waves up to 7 feet. The Chetco Bubble fishery off the mouth of the Chetco River opens Saturday and Sunday, then again Oct. 14-15
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Today starts with a small-craft advisory through Saturday evening, with 20-knot winds and 6-foot wind waves. Saturday winds creep up to 25 knots and more 6-foot swells. Sunday sees winds ease back to 15 knots and wind waves to 5 feet. The marine aggregate rockfish daily limit for bottomfishers is five fish. Anglers are allowed to fish for midwater rockfish species outside 40 fathoms using 30-foot leaders and floats to stay off the bottom. The midwater species limit is 10