Recreational harvest of crab is open along the entire Oregon Coast. It is still recommended you discard the crab viscera (guts/butter) before cooking.

Anglers fishing the beaches from Coos Bay to Bandon have been catching redtail surf perch. Sand shrimp or Berkley Gulp sand worms have been working the best for bait. Surf perch fishing is usually best on the incoming tide.

Recreational ocean salmon fishing from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt. opens on March 15 and runs through April 30. The season is open for all salmon except coho salmon. Anglers are allowed two salmon per day with a minimum size for Chinook at 24 inches or larger. Salmon season from May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2017 are currently being developed.

Fishing for bottom fish is now closed outside of a line approximating the 30-fathom curve. Fishing for black rockfish continues to be very good from Charleston to Bandon when the ocean is calm enough for anglers to get out on the water. Fishing for ling cod has been slow recently.

The marine fish daily bag limit is seven fish and a separate daily limit for lingcod (two). Anglers can only keep 3 blue rockfish and 1 canary rockfish as part of their daily limit and there will be no harvest of China, quillback, or copper rockfish. Retention of cabezon is prohibited from January 1 through June 30.

To help anglers identify common species and comply with the regulations, ODFW has produced several sheets of ID Tips for blue vs. black rockfish and for China, copper and quillback rockfish, as well as a handout titled “What Can I Keep, and How Many?”