Pacific Oregon Fishing Report: Ideal Conditions, Solid Bites, and Helpful Insights

Good morning, Pacific anglers—this is Artificial Lure with your Pacific Ocean Oregon Fishing Report for Sunday, August 31st, 2025.

First, let’s talk conditions. Sunrise hit at 6:37AM, and sunset will be at 7:54PM, giving you plenty of daylight to get out on the salt. Weather’s ideal for late summer—expect variable winds around 5 to 10 knots today, swinging back to a northwest breeze by evening. Ocean conditions are favorable, with a mellow swell at four to five feet. That’s about as comfortable as it gets for August, and should keep most boats happy and safe offshore, according to the latest report from the Ocean Prediction Center.

Tides are right in that productive zone for morning and evening fishing. Depoe Bay’s high tide crested at 7:25AM and you’ve got another big push coming at 5:57PM—midday lows might slow bottom action, but the bookended highs should kick things into gear.

Fishing has been downright solid this week. Dockside Charters out of Depoe Bay reports both bottom fishing boats limited out on rockfish and scored some hefty lingcod just these past few days, and each passenger was hauling in about nine to ten Dungeness crabs. Lingcod and black rockfish continue to anchor the bite along the nearshore reefs, particularly with the ongoing fishery-independent survey work from the ODFW adding some science muscle to the management game. Note the daily bag limit is four rockfish per angler (bumping up to five in July), and lingcod hold steady at two per person with a 22-inch minimum. Canary rockfish are one per angler sub-bag. As always, no yelloweye or quillback—mind your regs!

Halibut action’s right at its summer peak, too. With the August inshore and summer quotas open all month, you’ve got good odds if you can get to the sand flats. The inshore halibut limit is four fish per angler through August 31st, but check your charts for closed zones and keep an eye on that quota.

Tuna folks, the signs are good: warm blue water in tight and some promising scatterings of bait on the surface—reports hint at albacore within reach for anybody with the fuel and a spread of cedar plugs or small Tuna Clones. Watch the water temps west of Pacific City and Garibaldi—hotspots are around the 200-fathom line.

Lures and bait—here’s what’s working. For bottomfish, the go-tos remain four- to eight-ounce leadheads with big curly tail plastics in white or root beer, or swimbaits tipped with squid. For lingcod, blue and green patterns have been deadly. If you’re after rockfish, nothing beats a double dropper loop rig tipped with fresh herring, but soft plastics and tungsten jigs (like a Departure Outdoors tungsten chatterbait) are also doing damage, especially around rocky ledges.

For halibut, large herring fished on a spreader bar or a white grub on a heavy jig head is the ticket. And if you’re chasing albacore, trolled cedar plugs and soft plastic squid in pink or blue get the nod.

A couple of hot spots for your short list: the Stonewall Bank reefs off Newport and the rocky pinnacles off Cape Lookout are both producing limits of rockfish and lings. For halibut, try the North Reef out of Garibaldi or the flats outside Depoe Bay. Tuna crews—look for temp breaks west of Pacific City, typically starting around 25 to 35 miles out.

Lastly, word from ODFW’s research teams—their ongoing black rockfish survey means more accurate stock numbers and, hopefully, stable fisheries for seasons to come. So remember, your catch counts for more than just dinner.

Thanks for tuning in to the Pacific Ocean Oregon daily fishing report with Artificial Lure. If you found this useful, remember to subscribe for your daily bite updates.

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