Rockfish carried the week out of Charleston. ODFW’s dock checks had boats averaging 2.8 rockfish per angler, almost all black rockfish, and lingcod stayed slow for a second straight sample. Salmon effort dropped to five trips for the week, which is the sound of a season ending; the ocean stays open for Chinook through October 31 but the fleet has moved on to the reefs and the bay. The item to act on: ocean crabbing closes October 16 and stays closed through November 30, so this is the last week to pull pots outside the bar until December.
The week in numbers
| Charleston | This week | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Rockfish per angler | 2.8 | Mostly black; Brookings 2.9 |
| Lingcod | Slow | Brookings 0.25 per angler |
| Salmon angler trips | 5 | Season total 4,405 |
| Chinook kept | 0 | Season total 416; 98 in 2025, 195 in 2024 |
| Coho | Closed | Season total 1,741; 3,636 in 2025 |
| Swell, Port Orford buoy | 6.0 ft average, 9.2 ft peak, 10 seconds | Wind 15 knots average, gusts to 29 |
| Water temperature | 54.8 degrees | Cooling toward fall |
Bottomfish
2.8 rockfish per angler against a four-fish bag, with the fish almost all blacks, says the boats are filling on the easy fish early and spending the back half of the day hunting lingcod that will not cooperate. Brookings, the other sampled south coast port, read 2.9 rockfish and 0.25 lingcod, so this is the whole south coast, not a Charleston problem. The lings are on the structure. October’s first run of light wind and small swell usually flips the switch; a 25-pound lingcod on the first calm morning after a blow is a south coast tradition.
Four rockfish, three lingcod, two canary within the four, one cabezon, descending device on board. The long-leader grounds outside 40 fathoms stay open for yellowtail and canary.
Salmon
The 2026 ocean salmon season out of Charleston, in numbers: 4,405 angler trips, 416 Chinook kept, 1,741 coho kept. The Chinook figure is four times 2025’s 98 and more than double 2024’s 195. Coastwide the fleet made 112,497 trips and kept 20,254 Chinook and 94,000 coho, the biggest ocean salmon season on this coast in the three years of comparison ODFW publishes. The ocean stays open for Chinook through October 31, two a day, 24-inch minimum. Local attention now turns to the Coos River fall Chinook run in the bay.
Tuna
Done. Water at the buoy is 54.8 degrees and falling.
Halibut
Summer all-depth days run through October 31 on remaining quota, two a day, six for the year.
Crab and clams
Ocean crabbing closes October 16 through November 30. Bay and jetty crabbing stays open year-round. Razor clams are closed coastwide on biotoxin as of this writing; bay clams and mussels are open. Check the ODA line at 1-800-448-2474 before you dig, because that changes without much notice.
Ocean and bar
Fall is arriving. Swell averaged six feet at a 10-second period with a 9.2-foot peak, wind averaged 15 knots with gusts to 29, and the water temperature dropped three degrees in a week. Still fishable in the mornings between fronts; the windows are getting shorter.
Looking ahead
Ocean crab closes Thursday, October 16. Chinook and halibut both run to the end of the month if the weather allows. October is usually the last reliable rockfish month before the winter swell closes the bar for days at a time, so the next fishable window is worth taking.
Neighbors
Brookings: 2.9 rockfish and 0.25 lingcod per angler, with cabezon in the catch.
How this report is built: catch rates are ODFW Ocean Recreational Boat Survey dock-sample estimates for the week of September 28 to October 4, 2026, published October 8. Salmon counts are ODFW’s preliminary season estimates through statistical week 40. Ocean conditions from NOAA buoys 46015 off Port Orford and 46229 off the Umpqua. Shellfish status from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Photos are file photos from the Pacific Charter Services archive (2025) and were not taken during the week covered. Compiled by Pacific Charter Services, Charleston, Oregon.