Fishing with bait will be allowed in streams above tidewater starting Sept. 1.

Chinook salmon are being caught by anglers trolling near the chip pile all the way up to SOMAR on the Coos River. Salmon fishing was very good last week but slow down over the weekend. Trolling cut plug herring behind a flasher near the bottom is a good way to catch salmon. This is the beginning of the Chinook salmon run in Coos Bay.

Anglers have been catching a few rockfish 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). 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 one cabezon per day is allowed as of July 1.

Crabbing the past few days has been very good for people crabbing from boats. A few legal size crab have been caught off the docks in Charleston. There are still a mixture of hard shell and soft shell crab in the catch. It is still recommended you discard the crab viscera (guts/butter) before cooking.

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.

Recreational harvest of razor clams is closed from the north jetty of the Siuslaw River south to the California border due to elevated levels of domoic acid. This includes all beaches and all bays. Before any shellfish harvest trip, make sure to check the Oregon Department of Agriculture website for any updates.