Mexican Fish Report

Seas as flat as a sheet of liquid mercury beckoned anglers to trip the lingasaur fantastic out of the Port of Brookings Harbor last week.  The extra-calm ocean conditions also tempted a few surfperch aficionados to slay the fatted redtail in beaches ranging from Crissey Field near the California/Oregon border clear up to the Nesika Beach Wayside north of Gold Beach.

On Wednesday I arrived at the Brookings-Harbor fish-cleaning station just after long, thick lingcod fillets had been stacked up on the fish fillet tables.

"You just missed the photograph to beat all photographs," said one of the lingcod warriors on Wednesday."

Wednesday was the day of the 10-minute limit.

I asked what the ocean was supposed to be like on Thursday.

"It's supposed to be like a sheet of glass, just like today," the same gent replied.

As I left the fillet station, ice chests full of redtail and striped surfperch were still awaiting to be filleted.

I wasn't going to miss the action on Thursday, as I drove up to the cleaning station extra early.

The only difference between the two days, was that Thursday was the day of the 15-minute limit. Hefty, mottled Lingcodzillas kept meeting the sharpened ends of electric fillet knives.

Dan Bensen, member of the Oregon South Coast Fishermen said that it was easy limits on lingcod all the way around, but very few rockfish were caught.

Lings were biting anything and everything, from large herring that anglers had jigged and frozen last year, to their favorite gnarly rubber concoction. With lingcod biting as aggressively as they did last week, it's no surprise that the black rockfish flew the coop with their tails tucked between their fins.

In addition, Bensen's group also limited out on some of the largest Dungeness crab I had ever seen.  The average depth for setting your crab pots is ranging between 40 and 45 feet of water.  It's been my experience that when the ocean lays down as flat as it did last week, crab tend to wander in closer to shore.  But please be very careful as January seas can kick up at any moment's notice.

Meanwhile a few winter steelhead are being caught on the Chetco and Rogue River, even with gin-clear water conditions on the Chetco, with flows well below 1,450 cubic feet per second.

But increasing water flows are predicted to raise both the Rogue and Chetco rivers after this weekend, as snow pack from the Rogue Valley is anticipated to melt with upcoming rain conditions.

"We're getting fish and the water's getting a little bit clearer," said Jim Carey from the Rogue Outdoor Store in Gold Beach about the winter steelhead fishing on the lower Rogue River on Thursday.  "And I'm happy to report that it will probably continue for a couple more days.  But at some point that snow is going to start melting with the turbidity going up.  That river's going to start raging pretty soon."

As of early Friday morning, the National Weather Service's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service was predicting that the Rogue River near Agness was going to rise sharply to 34,000 cfs by this coming Monday.  That's the bottom of the action stage at approximately 13 feet. Flood stage is at 17 feet.

Similarly, the Chetco River is predicted to rise from 1,000 cfs to 15,500 cfs by Monday as well.

"I think it's going to be a little bit of a vacation for us next week," notes Carey.

So those of you who are rocking to the rhythm of the plunking jive, start tying up your Spin-N-Glo leaders.  You're going to get first crack at both these rivers when they start dropping and clearing, that is, if the National Weather Service's forecasts come to fruition.

And Carey says that when the ocean lays down and the surf's not kickin', definitely venture out after surfperch.

"That's something that's virtually here all year," he says.

Drop into the Rogue Outdoor Store and Carey will be happy to show you how to rig up for these mottled slabmeisters.

Tight lines!