SURFPERCH - LINGCOD DRAW ANGLERS TO BROOKINGS AND GOLD BEACH Last week's flat-calm seas and sunny weather drew anglers to fish the ocean out of the Port of Brookings Harbor and try their hand at some pretty fine surfperch fishing from shoreline venues from Crissey Field at the Oregon/California border up to Gold Beach.

On Thursday the Port of Brookings Harbor's parking lot was filled almost to capacity, with 35 trailers filling the lot at last count.

And the lingcod fishing was totally off the charts.  It was hard to buy a limit of rockfish due to the fact that the lingcod were so thick. Limits are common.

This is the time of year when multiple male lingasaurs start guarding single nests.  Two local-area anglers reported that they hooked at least 10 lingcod, keeping their daily limit of two lingcod per day.  Other anglers reported hooking and releasing even more.

It's kind of a transitional period, when the bigger females can be caught as well.  But the bulk of the catch was male lingcod averaging a respectable 8 to 12 pounds, the perfect eating-size lingcod.

For those who prefer using bait, a whole herring rigged on a mooching rig using a banana sinker ranging from three to five ounces was the go-to rig.

For those whose interests are more artificial oriented, 5- to 7-inch split-tail plastic jerkbaits in the color watermelon used on a 2-ounce jig head was the way to coax the aggressive lingasaurs into inhaling their lures.

SURFPERCH FISHING STELLAR
Redtail and striped surfperch were also on the menu for fishermen who like to throw small pieces of shrimp from the sandy shoreline.

Two must-have items in the surfperch-fishing arsenal are a tide book and a watch (or some device that tells the time.  Almost without exception, the best time to fish for surfperch is during the last 2- to 3-hours of the incoming tide, and into the first half hour of the outgoing tide after the turn of high slack.

Striped surfperch prefer to hang out in areas that are close to jetties, and in tide pools that contain kelp.

Redtail surfperch, my favorite-eating surfperch, almost without exception prefer steep, sloping beaches that are nearby to underwater reefs.

You can use any rod-and-reel assemblage as long as the stick and chuck between 3- and 6-ounce claw-type sinkers.  Last week I just grabbed the closest setup available, which was a medium-size spinning reel loaded with 30-pound braid which I matched with a 9-foot Cabelas diver rod.

On that day I used cooked cocktail shrimp on size 8 snelled Eagle Claw leaders and I threw about 5 or 6 wraps of pale-orange lightweight cotton thread around the assembly in order to keep the bait from flying off the hook.  Always keep the aforementioned cotton thread handy in case your bait gets a little mushy.

LOWER ROGUE RIVER SPRINGER FISHING SLOW TO FAIR
Jim Carey from the Rogue Outdoor Store in Gold Beach reported that springer action on the lower Rogue was tenuous but fast enough to draw anglers to try their luck.

"Anglers are now starting to switch over from bank fishing to fishing in jet sleds, and fishermen are catching most of their fish on anchovies now," said Carey. "Anglers are catching most of their fish primarily in the first ten miles of the river."

However Carey did mention a bank-fishing angler plunking a Spin-N-Glo who caught a 26-pound springer at Jim Hunt.

"Jim Hunt and Coyote Riffle are two good spots where anglers have been hooking springers," said John Anderson of Memory Makers Rogue River Guide Service in Gold Beach.  "Right now the best anglers are catching 1 fish per boat, and a lot of the fish are wild so they have to be released."

Springer fishing on the Rogue River is finesse fishing at its ultimate glory.  If you are looking for fast action, this is not the fishery for you. But if you are looking for the possibility of hooking into a fish that can spool you in less than a minute, and have some of the best-eating salmon on the planet, consider hiring one of the many guides who specialize in the nuances of this fishery.

John Anderson, Greg Eide, Gene Garner, Sam Waller at Jot's Resort and Toby Bowman at Kimble Creek Bend RV Resort are only a few of the numerous guides who know the eccentricities of this river.

Larry Ellis, author, writer, columnist and photographer has had a 50-year passion for fishing in California and Oregon's saltwater and freshwater venues. He is a well-known writer for Oregon, Washington and California Fishing and Hunting News, Northwest Sportsman, California Sportsman and Pacific Coast Sportfishing. He currently writes monthly for Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine, and is the author of two books, "Plug Fishing for Salmon" and "Buoy 10, the World's Largest Salmon Run."  Both books can be bought from Amato Publications (amatobooks.com), Amazon and eBay. Ellis particularly loves living in his hometown of Brookings, Oregon - The heart of salmon country and gateway to fishing paradise.