Brookings ocean fishing report 1-8-2015

With unusually nice weather so far this month, the ocean out of the Port of Brookings has been calm enough to venture offshore in pursuit of lingcod and rockfish. Yesterday, after a quick drift down the Chetco River for steelhead, I took my customers onto the ocean for a quick lingcod and rockfish trip. The highlight was a limit of lingcod in the 24- to 26-inch rage, and the chance at a couple larger lings.
We started near Aiken Point, but didn't find much action, so we headed up to Chetco Point, where we found lings and a few rockfish. Cold water coming from the river slowed the bite, but the lings were still aggressive as they move into shallow water to spawn.
We caught the lings on a mix of jigs, shrimp flies and live rockfish.
I told my customers they were probably the only people in the world to catch steelhead and lingcod on the same day on Jan. 8.
With more nice weather expected the coming week, we plan to run some more saltwater trips, some as combos with our river steelhead trips.
It's not too early to start booking peak season lingcod, rockfish and salmon trips. Visit brookingsfishing.com or call (541) 813-1082 to reserve your date.
- Capt. Andy Martin
BrookingsFishing.com