Early Summer Salmon and Rockfish: Oregon Coast Morning Bite Report

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your coastal Oregon fishing report for the Pacific this morning. We’ve got a classic early‑summer pattern setting up from Astoria down through Newport and into the central coast. According to the National Weather Service marine forecast, seas are running 3 to 5 feet with a light northwest swell and afternoon northwest winds building 10 to 20 knots, so the morning window is your friend before the wind chops things up. Air temps are topping out in the 60s along the beach with a marine layer hanging around, burning off later. Tides along the central coast are on a moderate swing today with a pre‑dawn high, a late‑morning low, then a solid afternoon flood. That first couple hours of the morning ebb and the push of the afternoon flood are going to be your prime bite windows, especially around current breaks and structure. Sunrise is right around the mid‑5 o’clock hour, sunset in the high‑8s, giving you a long, workable day if the bar cooperates. Offshore, saltwater salmon is still hit‑and‑miss, but boats working 180 to 250 feet of water off Newport and Depoe Bay have been picking at chinook on the troll. Most fish are coming on chartreuse and green‑glow hoochies or small spoons behind 11‑inch flashers, with herring scent doing the heavy lifting. Anglers running close to the surface early, then dropping deeper as the sun comes up, are seeing the best action. Bottom fishing has been the main show. Party boats out of Garibaldi, Pacific City, and Newport have been reporting near‑limits of black rockfish, a mix of canary and a few nice lingcod when the ocean lays down. Shrimp flies tipped with squid strips, 4‑ to 6‑inch swimbaits in root beer, motor oil, or blue‑black, and standard pipe jigs are all putting fish in the box. Keep your gear tight to the bottom but be ready to crank up a few cranks to stay out of the snags when the drift speeds up. Closer to the beach, the surf perch bite has been steady on open sandy stretches from Tillamook down through Florence. Anglers using sand shrimp, clam necks, or Gulp! sandworms in camo or bloody colors on simple hi‑lo rigs with 2‑ to 3‑ounce pyramid sinkers are finding good numbers of redtails in the cutouts and troughs on the flooding tide. That last hour of the incoming has been especially productive. Crabbing in the bays has been so‑so but improving. Newport’s Yaquina and Coos Bay are giving up legal Dungeness to folks setting pots in 10 to 30 feet on the channel edges. Fresh fish carcasses or turkey legs are the go‑to baits; let the pots soak at least an hour, and focus on the top half of the flood into the early ebb to avoid pulling through heavy current. A couple of hot spots to circle on your mental chart today: First, the Stonewall Bank area off Newport. When the bar is safe and the wind light, that structure has been kicking out a mix of rockfish and lings, and is a good starting point for anyone hunting salmon sign, birds, and bait balls. Second, the nearshore reefs off Boiler Bay and Depoe Bay. Those short runs can be bumpy on a windy afternoon, but in the morning they’re a great option for stacking up rockfish limits fast on swimbaits and shrimp flies, then shifting to lingcod with heavier jigs once the sun gets higher. For those working from the sand instead of a boat, the south jetty at the mouth of the Columbia and the north jetty at Newport remain solid bets. Toss 3‑ to 4‑inch swimbaits or metal jigs for rockfish and the occasional ling, and work bait rigs on the inside for perch when the swell is down. That’s your Pacific Oregon coastal rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn