Oregon Coast Sees 'Jumper Year' with Unusual Fish Catches | Bill Monroe

A Day of Excitement on the Oregon Coast

ILWACO, Wash. – “Jumpers!” “Birds!”
The shout is electric as engines are cut, live anchovies are flung into the crystal-clear, 64-degree water and six anglers race to tether others on hooks, then lower the wiggling temptations below Mike Colbach’s 43-foot, twin engine “Shake N Bake.”
“Fish on!” comes the shout, followed by “Fresh one!” and another...and another...
Half an hour later, the meticulously sparkling white deck is bathed in crimson, staccato-slapping albacore tuna and busy boots.
When the tuna finally holler Uncle, we’ve got 19 on ice.
Decks and boot bottoms are washed and we proceed to the next bite.
By day’s end, the fish boxes are packed with 38 tuna and can hold no more, so we turn for home, 35 miles east.
Their average will be close to 22.5 pounds, with the largest a dandy 28.

It’s been a jumper year up and down the Oregon Coast this summer.
Boats surging west are greeted by albatross, shearwaters from New Zealand and Australia and even flocks of young local gulls fighting each other far from their nests for the remains of tightly schooled bait, as tuna attack from below.
And it’s not just albacore this year.
Would you believe albacore in Sitka, Alaska?
In 62-degree water?
...One on a spear?

Even more exciting on the Oregon Coast have been the documented landings of six striped marlin.
SIX!
In the same summer!
Marlin are a rare anomaly here, seen only on occasion...but six? (and the warm water is still out there.)

Christian Heath, halibut & recreational groundfish project leader for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, sent this account of the catches:
One marlin out of Garibaldi (8/30).
Three marlin out of Newport (1 on 8/29, 2 on 8/31).
One marlin out of Winchester Bay (July or August- well documented on social media).
One in Bandon this last weekend.

Want to experience the catch brought into Garibaldi? Try this excellent account by Mark Graves, one of our photographers.
Yellowtail have shown up out of Iwaco and Colbach’s boat has landed a few blue-fin tuna.
What next?
Sea-run walleye?

Changes in Fishing Regulations

Speaking of spears:
The proposed package of 2026 angling regulations was approved by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, meeting Friday in Ontario.
Among the new rules will be permission to spear bass and walleye in waters (but only) where limits on those fish have been lifted. The Columbia is the major arena.
A list of new regulations is available by fishing zone.

The commission also certified the legislature’s adoption of a new $9 ocean endorsement for all marine fish species except shellfish, salmon and steelhead.
The money will be used to survey and research bottomfish populations. Nearshore surveys are critical for the creation of fishing models in the making of management decisions.
Learn more about the Ocean Endorsement at MyODFW.com.

An ocean endorsement will cost the same for residents and nonresidents and is included for free with resident Pioneer, resident Disabled Veteran, and Youth licenses.

Controversy Over Bass and Walleye Tournaments

Speaking of bass and walleye:
One must wonder why, if Oregon (and Washington?) seems so intent on eliminating bass and walleye from the Columbia River (and others), why oh why are bass tournament anglers still allowed? They not only hi-grade their catches during tournaments, but then live-release the largest, most fertile fish back into the very waters they’re clearly not wanted.

A double-standard? Contradictory rules? Hypocrisy?
There’s little question the tournament circuit is an economic boon for small communities, but if salmon and steelhead management subjugates economics to conservation, why not the same here?
Just sayin’.

New Deer Management Strategies

New deer management on tap:
Commissioners also approved new structures for controlled hunts in Eastern Oregon (mostly) that will alter the way most hunters approach their favorite hunting locations.
Rather than manage by unit, biologists have chosen a much better path – pay the most attention to individual herds, which often cross from one unit to the next.

The units will remain intact and no changes are planned for preference points, although that internal structure may be different than hunters are accustomed to seeing.
For a closer look, try the department’s deer hunting page.
Commissioners also approved new structures for controlled hunts in Eastern Oregon (mostly) that will alter the way most hunters approach their favorite hunting locations starting in 2026.