Montana Fish Report

Streams and rivers are open to trout fishing until Oct. 31. Anglers are allowed to use bait in streams above tidewater starting Sept. 1. Anglers may harvest two trout per day that are a minimum of 8 inches long.

Anglers were catching Chinook salmon from the railroad bridge up to Marshfield Channel over the weekend. The bite was best a couple hours before the slack tides. A couple wild coho were caught over the weekend also. There is not a wild coho season inside Coos Bay this year so all wild coho must be released but anglers may keep an adipose fin-clipped hatchery coho. Salmon anglers are having the best luck trolling cut plug herring behind a flasher in the navigation channel.

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. Crabbing has been best near Charleston but legal crab can be caught all the way up the bay to the BLM boat ramp off of the North Spit. 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.

The recreational harvest of razor clams is CLOSED from Cascade Head to the California Border for 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.