Montana Fish Report

Streams and rivers are now closed to trout fishing until May 22, 2018.

A few fresh steelhead are still running up the rivers in the Coos Basin. The crowds near the acclimation sites will be thinning out this month but anglers have a good chance of catching steelhead through the month of March. Steelhead anglers are having success fishing eggs or yarn balls along the bottom or by fishing a jig suspended below a bobber. In the Coos Basin, 1 additional hatchery steelhead may be retained per day for a total aggregate of 3 adult hatchery fish harvested daily. Steelhead fishing is open in the Coos Basin through the end of April.

Anglers fishing the South Fork Coos River above Dellwood will need a permit from Weyerhaeuser, which allows the angler access up to the Seven Mile Bridge. Permits can be obtained at Weyerhaeuser’s Coos Bay office.

Recreational fishing for bottomfish is opened on Jan. 1 in the ocean along with bays and estuaries. The daily bag limit will be 5 marine fish plus 2 lingcod. There will be no retention of cabezon until July 1. Anglers have reported catching rockfish and lingcod inside Coos Bay near the north jetty.

Crabbing and clamming updates can now be found in the Crabbing and Clamming section of the Recreation Report.