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Tillamook Bay Bottom Fishing and Crabbing Report - Light Winds, Falling Tide Favor Nearshore Bite
Published 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Description
This is Artificial Lure with your Pacific Ocean, Oregon fishing report.
Offshore and nearshore, the ocean’s laying down a bit this morning, with light northwest swell and a chilly, gray start. According to the Ocean Prediction Center, weak high pressure is in place now, with a coastal trough expected mid‑week, so winds stay moderate today but seas will be lumpier the farther you run.
Tides are moving nicely for a bite window. Tide-Forecast’s Barview station at Tillamook Bay shows a morning high around 6:07 a.m. at just under 7.5 feet, dropping to a low early afternoon around 1:38 p.m. around a foot and a half. That gives you a classic falling tide through the late morning, which usually wakes up rockfish, lingcod, and nearshore feeders all along the Tillamook and Nestucca reefs.
Sunrise along the north and central coast is right around 7:55 a.m., with sunset about 4:55 p.m., so you’ve got a tight winter window. First light through mid‑morning and the last two hours of daylight are still your best shots.
According to recent reports from Oregon coastal charters and Oregon Fish and Wildlife updates, the most consistent action has been nearshore bottom fish. Boats working 40–120 feet off Garibaldi and Pacific City have been boxing good numbers of black rockfish with a smattering of canary and copper rockfish, plus a few legal lingcod most trips. On better weather days, some six‑ to ten‑pound lings have come off the harder structure.
Crabbing has slowed a notch in the bays but is still worth a soak outside the bars when the swell allows, with boat limits not uncommon after a half‑day soak on fresh bait.
Best lures right now:
- For rockfish: 2–4 ounce lead-head jigs with curly‑tail grubs in motor oil, root beer, or white; also small metal spoons and shrimp flies tipped with a little bait.
- For lingcod: heavier metal jigs, 6–10 ounces, in chrome, blue, or glow; large swimbaits on stout jigheads, especially in green/white or root beer/pear laced with scent.
Best bait: herring strips, squid, or sand shrimp on a two‑hook bottom rig. A strip of fresh rockfish belly on a jig can turn lookers into biters.
Fish activity today should track that falling tide: expect a slower start right at slack, then a noticeable pick‑up as the water starts dumping out of the bays and across the reefs. If the overcast holds and the wind stays down, the midday lull may be short.
Couple of local hot spots to circle:
- The Three Arch Rocks and nearshore reefs out of Garibaldi: classic winter rockfish and lingcod country when the ocean’s calm enough to work close to the rocks.
- The reef line straight out from Pacific City off Cape Kiwanda: consistent mixed‑bag bottom fishing, plus decent crab off the sand edges when the swell gives you a break.
Inside the estuaries, that outgoing tide at Tillamook and Nestucca favors slow‑rolled herring or large plugs along current seams for the odd feeder or early‑season chinook staging near the jaws, but most salt effort right now is bottom fish, crab, and a few die‑hard surf anglers soaking clam necks and sand shrimp for surfperch.
That’s it from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Offshore and nearshore, the ocean’s laying down a bit this morning, with light northwest swell and a chilly, gray start. According to the Ocean Prediction Center, weak high pressure is in place now, with a coastal trough expected mid‑week, so winds stay moderate today but seas will be lumpier the farther you run.
Tides are moving nicely for a bite window. Tide-Forecast’s Barview station at Tillamook Bay shows a morning high around 6:07 a.m. at just under 7.5 feet, dropping to a low early afternoon around 1:38 p.m. around a foot and a half. That gives you a classic falling tide through the late morning, which usually wakes up rockfish, lingcod, and nearshore feeders all along the Tillamook and Nestucca reefs.
Sunrise along the north and central coast is right around 7:55 a.m., with sunset about 4:55 p.m., so you’ve got a tight winter window. First light through mid‑morning and the last two hours of daylight are still your best shots.
According to recent reports from Oregon coastal charters and Oregon Fish and Wildlife updates, the most consistent action has been nearshore bottom fish. Boats working 40–120 feet off Garibaldi and Pacific City have been boxing good numbers of black rockfish with a smattering of canary and copper rockfish, plus a few legal lingcod most trips. On better weather days, some six‑ to ten‑pound lings have come off the harder structure.
Crabbing has slowed a notch in the bays but is still worth a soak outside the bars when the swell allows, with boat limits not uncommon after a half‑day soak on fresh bait.
Best lures right now:
- For rockfish: 2–4 ounce lead-head jigs with curly‑tail grubs in motor oil, root beer, or white; also small metal spoons and shrimp flies tipped with a little bait.
- For lingcod: heavier metal jigs, 6–10 ounces, in chrome, blue, or glow; large swimbaits on stout jigheads, especially in green/white or root beer/pear laced with scent.
Best bait: herring strips, squid, or sand shrimp on a two‑hook bottom rig. A strip of fresh rockfish belly on a jig can turn lookers into biters.
Fish activity today should track that falling tide: expect a slower start right at slack, then a noticeable pick‑up as the water starts dumping out of the bays and across the reefs. If the overcast holds and the wind stays down, the midday lull may be short.
Couple of local hot spots to circle:
- The Three Arch Rocks and nearshore reefs out of Garibaldi: classic winter rockfish and lingcod country when the ocean’s calm enough to work close to the rocks.
- The reef line straight out from Pacific City off Cape Kiwanda: consistent mixed‑bag bottom fishing, plus decent crab off the sand edges when the swell gives you a break.
Inside the estuaries, that outgoing tide at Tillamook and Nestucca favors slow‑rolled herring or large plugs along current seams for the odd feeder or early‑season chinook staging near the jaws, but most salt effort right now is bottom fish, crab, and a few die‑hard surf anglers soaking clam necks and sand shrimp for surfperch.
That’s it from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI