Montana Fish Report

Anglers have been catching rockfish around the jetties in the lower Coos Bay estuary, but you may need to move around to several spots to find actively biting fish. Best fishing is typically near slack tides with good fishing one day and fair fishing the next. A jig fished with a twister tail trailer is always a good option to catch bottomfish.

The 2025 daily general marine fish bag limit is 5 fish plus 2 lingcod with no retention of yelloweye or quillback rockfish. There is a 1 fish daily sub-bag limit for canary rockfish as part of the general marine bag limit. As of July 1, anglers are allowed to harvest cabezon with a 1 fish daily sub-bag limit as part of the general marine bag limit.

Salmon anglers have caught an occasional Chinook salmon trolling near the Coos Bay jetties. Fall Chinook regulations are in effect for Coos Bay with anglers allowed to harvest 2 wild Chinook per day and 10 wild Chinook for the season.

Striped surfperch can be caught around the jetties and red-tail surfperch are being caught along the ocean beaches like Horsefall Beach. Anglers have the best success fishing with sand shrimp near the bottom.

Trout fishing opened in the Coos Basin rivers and streams on May 22. Anglers are restricted to fishing with artificial flies and lures in streams and rivers above tidewater. The daily bag limit for trout fishing in streams is 2 trout over 8 inches per day. Water temperatures in the large rivers are warming up where fishing will be best in the mornings.