Montana Fish Report

Streams and rivers are now open to trout fishing until Oct. 31. Fishing is restricted to artificial flies and lures in streams above tidewater. Anglers may harvest 2 trout per day that are a minimum of 8 inches long.

A few Chinook salmon have been caught in the lower Coos Bay estuary. Salmon anglers are having the best luck trolling cut plug herring behind a flasher in the navigation channel. This is the early part of the adult Chinook returns and fishing will get better over the next few weeks.

Fishing for rockfish inside the Coos Bay estuary has been good one day and slow the next. Anglers are having the most success fishing along the jetties and submerged rock piles. The marine fish daily bag limit for bottom fish (rockfish) is seven fish and a separate daily limit for lingcod (two). The 7 fish marine bag limit will remain in place, with these adjustments for 2017: Create a sub-bag limit of 6 black rockfish, Remove the sub-bag limit for canary rockfish, Add China/quillback/ copper rockfishes to the sub-bag limit with blue/Deacon rockfish and change the limit from 3 to 4. Finally remove the 10-inch minimum size for kelp greenling. Retention of cabezon is now allowed.

Crabbing was good this past week for those crabbing from a boat and from the docks in Charleston. There was a mixture of hard and soft shelled legal Dungeness crab.

Recreational harvest of bay clams remains open along the entire Oregon coast. Clamming is excellent during low tides near Charleston, off Cape Arago Highway, and Clam Island. There are also good places to dig clams even on positive low tides in Coos Bay.

Recreational harvest of razor clams remains closed from the entire Oregon coast due to elevated levels of domoic acid. This includes all beaches and all bays. Recreational harvesting of mussels is open along the entire Oregon coast, except from Tillamook Head south to Cascade Head. Before any shellfish harvest trip, make sure to check the Oregon Department of Agriculture website for any updates.