Best Times & Seasons to Fish the Oregon Coast (Full Guide)

The Oregon Coast is one of the best fishing destinations on the west coast known for tremendous salmon, halibut, trout fishing, and crabbing. Knowing when certain species of fish bite can make a huge difference in your success and enjoyment.

The best times to fish the Oregon Coast is June through September for chinook salmon, coho salmon, sockeye salmon, pink salmon (during odd number years), flounder, and lingcod. Chum salmon fishing is best from October through December.

Fish Species	Best Times of Year to Fish the Oregon Coast
Chinook (King) Salmon	The peak of the king salmon run is June through August.
Coho (Silver) Salmon	July through October is the best time for silvers in Oregon.
Sockeye Salmon	June through August is the best fishing window for local sockeye runs.
Chum (Dog) Salmon	The run starts in July but peaks out with the best fishing October through December.
Lingcod	May through mid-June is the lingcod season. Very short season, but great action.
Halibut	Year-round availability; May through October is the best in Oregon-area waters.

Oregon is located on the northwest coast of the United States and offers Alaska-like fishing without having to travel as far. The coast of Oregon is over 350 miles long and has many spots that offer world-class fishing for salmon, halibut, tuna, and other species of gamefish.

Oregon also offers fishing in tributaries that lead into the ocean, these tributaries hold healthy populations of trout and salmon and are especially good when the salmon are spawning.

Best Time to Fish The Oregon Coast

The best times of year to fish the Oregon coast are from late spring through early fall. In late spring, you can expect to catch a lot of salmon and halibut out in the ocean and trout in the tributaries and other freshwater spots.

When you’re out in the ocean, you can expect to find a lot of halibut, lingcod, and rockfish during the summer and fall. 

Species of The Oregon Coast (Best Times)

Halibut

Halibut are one of the most sought-after fish of the west coast and for good reason. They put up a good fight, can weigh a couple of hundred pounds, and taste amazing. The best time of year to try and catch one is from May through September.

The season is closed from January through April and October through December. The best time of day to catch them depends on the tides, if the tide is moving, it can be hard to keep your bait on the bottom with all of the currents. If it is low tide, you can still catch them, but the best time is around high tide.

Halibut are bottom feeders, usually hiding in sand and silt and ambushing their prey. The most commonly used bait for halibut are herring, squid, and sometimes scraps of salmon after they’ve been cleaned. You will want plenty of weight to get to the bottom and stay there

Halibut like to hang around offshore reefs and wrecks, but you can find them in open water as well. As mentioned before, halibut like to hide under the sand to feed, so fishing the edge of a reef where the sand meets the reef is a productive area to try.

Salmon

The most common in Oregon are coho, chinook, and chum For most of the state, all salmon except for coho are open from mid-March through the end of October. Coho are open from mid-June through the end of September. The best time of day to target salmon is in the morning, as the sun won’t be as harsh, making the fish more active.

Salmon mainly like to feed on eggs and baitfish. Using imitation plastics on a jig is a common strategy used for all species of salmon. Inline spinners are also a popular choice for salmon, usually, something that’s either brightly colored or silver will do the trick.

If you’re fishing from a boat, trolling is also an option for you to catch salmon. When trolling, you can use inline spinners, spoons, crankbaits, or even live bait.

The salmon in Oregon are ocean-run salmon, meaning that they live out in the ocean for most of their lives and go into rivers when it’s time to spawn.

Out in the ocean, you can find salmon near structures, islands, and underwater currents. In the rivers, you will want to look for deep holes and eddies in the river, but when the salmon are in the rivers, you shouldn’t have an issue finding them.

Trout

The most common species of trout in Oregon are rainbow, cutthroat, and brown trout. Trout season is open year-round when fishing in lakes and is open from late May through the end of October.

The best time of day to fish for them is in the morning because the sun is less harsh and predators like birds aren’t easily able to see them through the water.

Trout are quite a bit like salmon in a few different ways and the bait used for both are similar as well. Trout will bite on inline spinners, small spoons, live bait, and flies.

In lakes, you can try trolling or fishing deeper spots in the lake and try jigging live bait or spoons. In streams, the most common baits used are inline spinners and flies. 

Trout like deep, cold water, so you should try to target areas that are deeper than the rest of the surrounding water. In streams, you can find these spots by looking for darker patches of water, and sometimes there will be eddies surrounding a dropoff.

In lakes, you should try to fish along shelves that lead to deeper water, you can jig or cast around these areas and catch plenty of fish.

Tuna

Tuna finish up their migration to Oregon around July and stay in the area through early October. You can still fish for tuna in their offseason, but you will most likely catch a lot less of them.

The best time to fish for them is at night. The tuna has a much harder time seeing all of the tackle attached to your line at night and it allows you to use a heavier line and add more weight if you need to get deeper.

Tuna are usually caught by trolling. Usually, trolling jigs, plugs, or lures that imitate the baitfish in the area are what’s used by the charters.

You can also attach cut or live bait to a jig to add some scent to your lure. Fresh bait for tuna includes ballyhoo, mullet, and cut squid.

Tuna are almost always found offshore. More specifically, they are usually found in open water, and not near structure.

Experienced charter captains will know spots that tuna usually like to hang around, which are usually along underwater currents, which brings a constant supply of food to them.

Lingcod & Rockfish

Lingcod and rockfish are available year-round with their high seasons being from December through May. Neither fish is extremely sensitive to the time of day and is more affected by the tides. You’ll want to aim for just before high tide for the best results.

The reason for that is that your bait will stay on the bottom and in front of the fish’ faces much longer than if there was a lot of tide current. 

Herring is a good option for both rockfish and lingcod, but any oily, silvery baitfish should do the trick. Using larger bait or larger jigs is a good idea as most rockfish and lingcod are bigger than most of the fish on a reef, so the larger bait will prevent you from getting many other species. 

Both of these fish like to live in offshore reefs, ranging anywhere from 100 to 1000 feet. You will most likely have a charter if you are targeting these fish and they will take care of finding the spots and putting you on fish.

I recommend this Penn Pursuit Spinning Rod & Reel combo (available on Amazon) for inshore and nearshore fishing. It can handle everything from redfish to snapper and king mackerel. The Penn Battalion Series Spinning Rod and the Penn Battle Spinning Reel are fantastic if you want to create your combo.

Recommended Fishing Charters on the Oregon Coast

These Coastal Oregon-based charters have earned great reviews from anglers and will offer you a tremendous service. The captains are knowledgeable, friendly, and are sure to put you on fish. By clicking the links below, you will be taken to the charter’s respective profile on Fishing Booker where you can read reviews, learn more about the charter, view photos, and book online at the best rate.

Recommended Fishing Charters	Type of Fishing Offered
All Depth Charters (Newport)	Salmon, Bottom
Pastime Fishing Adventures (Newport)	Salmon, Bottom
Big Johnson’s Guide Service (Tillamook)	Salmon, Bottom
Pacific Roots Adventures (Nehalem)	River
Woody’s Northwest Fishing & Fun (Depoe Bay)	Salmon, Bottom
Corkem Fishing Northwest (Oregon City)	Salmon, Bottom
SOA Charters (Coos Bay)	Salmon, Bottom

For a complete breakdown of the best time to fish Seattle, please check out this helpful article I wrote. For a complete breakdown of the best time to fish San Francisco, please check out this helpful article I wrote.

For a complete breakdown of the best salmon locations in Oregon, please check out this helpful article I wrote. For a complete breakdown of the best water temperature for salmon, please check out this helpful article I wrote. For a complete breakdown of the best time to fish in Washington, please check out this helpful article I wrote.

Best Time of Day to Fish The Oregon Coast

You can expect the fishing to be good throughout most of the day, but fishing in the morning is generally the best. In the morning, when the sun is still low, gamefish will be much more active as they won’t have to deal with the harsh sun.

The baitfish will be more active as well, for the same reasons, and when baitfish are active, gamefish are active. Fishing in the evening offers similar situations, but you’ll get an extra hour or two of great fishing if you go in the morning.

Tidal Impacts on The Oregon Coast Fishing

Tides can make a huge difference in how good of fishing you will have for your trip. The best tides to fish are from just before high tide to just after high tide. The times before and after high tide are good because the moving water moves around baitfish, making gamefish more active.

During high tide, the fishing is so good because the water is deeper and more stable. There isn’t a lot of currents to drift your bait away from the fish and having deeper water can make it o that you don’t need to go as far offshore to find the fish.

For a complete breakdown of the best time to fish Portland, please check out this helpful article I wrote.

Affect of Storms on Fishing in The Oregon Coast

Being a coastal state, Oregon sees plenty of rain. For ocean fishing, some of the storms that go through the area can be bad enough to prevent you from fishing. Most of the storms will just be rainstorms, which will make some fish less active, but you can still get on the water and catch fish.

For fishing in the streams in the area, rain can make the water extremely muddy, and the streams won’t be fully clear again for about a week. This can make it so that fish can’t see your bait as easily, so using bait with lots of contrast to the watercolor is important.

Fishing in lakes can be difficult during the times surrounding and during a storm, fish will scatter and move deeper. With that being said, you can still catch plenty of fish as long as the storm isn’t too bad.

Night Fishing in The Oregon Coast

Night fishing is a very popular tactic used for tuna fishing, but it can also be done for other species as well. You cannot fish for trout or salmon after dark in Oregon, but you can for every other species.

Fishing for rockfish and lingcod at night can be very good, if there is a tide you want to fish during and it’s only available after dark, you can have a better fishing trip than during the day.

Night fishing for these deep-water fish can also be effective because you can attach more tackle to your line without the fish realizing it.

Shore and Surf Fishing in The Oregon Coast

Fishing from the shore and surf is almost as popular as boat fishing in this area. With plenty of rivers, streams, lakes, and surf fishing spots, you can catch just as many salmon and trout as you would if you fished from a boat.

During salmon runs, fishing from shore can be extremely busy in some areas, making casting difficult sometimes, but there are plenty of fish to go around. Most of the rivers in the area go directly into the ocean, these are some of the best spots you can fish.

Best Fishing Spots in The Oregon Coast

-Surf/Shore Fishing

Tillamook Bay

Tillamook Bay is on the northern part of Oregon’s coast. This large bay is home to tons of salmon and lingcod.

There are countless rivers and creeks that dump into the bay, making it a hotspot when salmon runs happen. Salmon will also gather in the bay just before spawning season. There are also many public access areas within the bay and even a lake on the west side of the bay.

Columbia River

The Colombia river makes up the border of Washington and Oregon. The river starts inland and slowly starts to grow as it gets closer to the ocean. The river offers world-class salmon fishing for most of the summer and fall and has plenty of public access areas.

The areas closest to the coast are extremely good for most of the salmon season and if you go out towards the ocean more, you will find a few large peninsulas that have great fishing as well.

-Inshore

Newport

The town of Newport is located along the central coast of Oregon and has excellent lingcod, rockfish, and halibut fishing. The salmon fishing here can also be good, but not as good as other areas along the coast.

Nearby, there are plenty of reefs and structures, offering great habitat for bottom-dwelling fish. You can expect this area to be a week or two ahead of schedule in terms of the fishing season because the water will warm up a bit quicker here.

Tillamook

Along with great salmon fishing from shore, you can find halibut, lingcod, and rockfish in Tillamook Bay. The bay gets pretty deep and has the perfect habitats for these fish. If you are sticking to the bay area, you can try trolling around different reefs, and if you’re outside of the bay, finding an offshore reef and jigging it is a good strategy.

There is great fishing all throughout the bay, but don’t forget about all of the amazing fishing you can find outside of the bay. 

-Offshore

In Oregon, the main species that will be targeted offshore are lingcod, halibut and rockfish. There are times when you can offshore fish for salmon as well, but salmon fishing is more popular close to shore and in the rivers when they spawn.

With those offshore species, the main way to catch them is by using a lot of weight attached to cut baitfish or squid. Your charter will provide all of the gear and bait that you will need to target them and will have spots where you can catch fish all day long.

The most common spots to catch these offshore fish are offshore reefs and wrecks. If you are going to be using your own boat and gear, make sure to have strong gear as you may need to bring these fish up from 100 feet of water.

Best Seasons to Book a Charter

The best season to book a charter depends on what species you will be targeting. If you’re looking for salmon, trying to go during the runs in the fall will be your best option.

The ocean fishing will still be good during this time, but you can expect to get the most lingcod, halibut, and rockfish during early summer.

Another factor to think about is how busy will the charters be. You can expect charters to be extremely busy most of the summer and into the fall, meaning that you should book as early as you can to make sure your trip is during the best fishing times.

For a complete breakdown of the best times to fish in Vancouver, please check out this helpful guide. For a complete breakdown of the best times to fish in Astoria, please check out this helpful guide. For a complete breakdown of the best times to fish in Montana, please check out this helpful guide. For a complete breakdown of the best times to fish in Oregon, please check out this helpful guide. Check out this guide for a complete breakdown of the best times to fish in Lake Tahoe.