Lingcod, rockfish biting as Spring arrives

BROOKINGS, Ore. (March 31, 2025) – The Oregon Coast has experienced a stormy, very wet and rainy winter and early spring, limiting the number of days boats can get offshore for lingcod and rockfish. But on calmer weather days between storms, fishing has been good, with limits of rockfish and lots of nice lingcod. Now that Spring has officially arrived, better weather is in the forecast. The second half of this coming week has the best weather forecast so far this year, with light winds, small swells, sunny weather – the making of what should be great fishing off the coast of Brookings.

Our charter boats have seized the weather openings between storms to run trips, returning to port with nice limits of rockfish and plenty of lingcod. On calmer weather days, the lingcod fishing has been excellent. During big swells, rockfish are still eagerly biting, but lingcod have been tougher to come by.

Fishing on rocky reefs in shallow water, using light tackle, the rockfish action is often wide open this time of year. We are finding a mix of large black rockfish, blue and deacon rockfish, canaries, vermillion, China and an occasional copper rockfish. Lots of smaller rockfish are mixed in, but with the lighter tackle and shallower water, they are easy to release unharmed. April and May usually signals the start of the surface bite, where rockfish are caught just under the surface as they feed on freshly spawned baitfish and crab spawn.

Lingcod also are still in shallow water after the winter spawn. Most of the lingcod caught on recent trips have been in 20 to 40 feet of water. Our boats have done best at House Rock and Mack Arch for lingcod, the typical destination of our six-hour long-range charters.

Pacific halibut season opens May 1, along with our trophy lingcod and rockfish season at the Point St. George Reef Lighthouse. This season, the Nauti-Lady, Miss Brooke and Kraken will be running trips to the lighthouse. While halibut is open May 1, the best fishing is from late June through September.

We will learn our 2025 ocean salmon dates for the Oregon Coast next week, after the Pacific Fishery Management Council sets ocean seasons for Oregon, California and Washington. Early indications show a mid-May through early June king salmon season, and early June through August hatchery coho season. The best coho action off of Brookings is mid to late June, when action is often wide open.

Winter steelhead season closed March 31 on the Chetco and remains open through April on the Smith River. Our river guides are switching gears to the Rogue River for spring king salmon. Capt. Rye, Mick and Sam will be running trips from their jet boats for these hard-fighting, great-eating springer salmon. Call (541) 813-1082 to book a spring king salmon trip.

Ocean charters will run daily now through the early fall, weather permitting. Book online at www.brookingsfishing.com, or call our booking office at (541) 813-1082.

Here are some more recent catches from our ocean charters in March.