Post by Admin on Jun 3, 2015 10:16:53 GMT
The recreational opportunities listed on the webpage for the Coquille River Estuary are brought to you by wwww.clamdigging.info for the benefit of the members of the Clam Digging and Crabbing Community.
The Coquille River Estuary at Bandon. Click on the image of the map to enlarge it.
Coquille Bay is one of Oregon’s smaller bays ranking eleventh among the fourteen major bays, but the bay is one of the premier crabbing and fishing bays on the Oregon Coast.
The bar is subject to breaking waves even in calm seas. A seasonal light and fog signal are located on the south jetty. The skipper should be experienced with the local bar conditions before attempting to cross the bar. The boater should be prepared to deal with fog and the waves generated by the prevailing afternoon winds. The Coast Guard maintains a seasonal lifeboat station in the boat basin from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Click on the Oregon State Marine Board and click on Forms Library Scroll down to Publication for download (Many publications no longer in print). Click on Coquille River Bar Hazards The interactive PDF file webpage describes the navigational hazards that boaters encounter when crossing the Coquille River Bar.
NOAA's Bar Observation Website for Oregon's Bays. Check the NOAA Bar Observations website for updated closures and restrictions.
Bandon Bait & Tackle is located next to the Public Boat Launch at 110 1st St Se, Bandon, OR 97411.On 03/14 Diane from Bandon Bait reports Crabbing from Webers is dead slow due to freshwater storm runoff.
Diane fixes a mean fish and chips to go along with her clam chowder. I always stop by to enjoy fish and chips on my way to Port Orford. She also books fishing trips for local river guides. (541) 347-3905 Diane rents crab rings and sell bait to catch the freshest food available.
Tony from Tony's Crab Shack on the boardwalk in Bandon is a great ambassador for recreational enthusiast living in or visiting Southern Oregon and he loves to share his knowledge with you. Hear more from Tony on "Oregon Outdoors" Thursdays on KWRO 6130 AM. Email your report to tonyscrabshack7@gmail.com. Or at 541 347-2875
On 04/18 Tony's reports Crabbing from Webers Crabbing Dock is slow. Crabbing from boats in the lower bay is slow; plus the bar has been restricted most of the time because of the afternoon winds.
The Perch Derby today 6/09 is over, registration required begins on 05/01 and is sponsored by Tony's Crab Shack, the Bites On and Basin Tackle. No big fish recorded as of yet, however, the winning perch weighed 2.30 pounds
CRAB DERBY 2019 is scheduled to begin on 07/01 and run to the Cranberry Festival. The crab derby offers a chance for recreational crabbers registered In the DERBY to WIN BIG!!
The Port of Bandon at the Coquille River Estuary: Tony from Tony's Crab Shack at 541 347-2875 reports on the recreational opportunities available from Coos Bay to the California Border in the Bandon Western World. The Bandon Western World newspaper is a great source for current and future public attractions in the Bandon area.
One lucky crabber shared the following photos of his amazing crab catch at Webber's Crab Dock. He set his pots long before daylight and collected his prize at daylight. Click on the photo to enlarge the image. Our Thanks to the lucky crabber for sharing his experience with us. Bill
Bill's Crabbing Adventure from Webber's Crabbing Dock in Bandon.
Crabbing at the Coquille River Estuary: one of Oregon's premier crabbing bays the Coquille River Estuary is one of Oregon’s smaller bays ranking eleventh among the fourteen major bays. Crabbing in Bandon usually remains productive until the bay blows out with turbid brown stained water during seasonal Fall rains.
How to humanly kill Dungeness and red rock crabs is the question my wife wants me to answer. She can't stand to see anything suffer. Striking the Thoracic ganglion with a crab mallet kills the crab immediately. The crab does not suffer as it would if submerged in boiling water and neither does my wife. Killing and backing the crabs prior to cooking them shortens the total time it takes to cook and clean large numbers of crabs.
Click on the following video clip to view a professional crab shaker picking a Dungeness crab. Using this method cuts the time to pick a crab in half.
Additional Information for Crabbing From the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Rim:
Click on the following links for additional information about taking crabs in the Pacific Northwest. Click on ODFW's website crab page or click on Washington State's information on recreational crabbing or click California's information on recreational crabbing. Click on Alaska's comments on Dungeness Crabs and on permits and regulations for SE Alaska. Click on Dungeness Crabs at Netarts Bay. Click on Species Profile for Dungeness Crabs PDF file. Click on Species Profile for Red Rock Crabs to view PDF file. Click on Dungeness and Red Rock Crabs to view information on taking crabs from Oregon's Bays and ocean water.
Tony's Crab Shack Annual Crab Derby. Catch a tagged crab and win the Big Bucks 100.00 dollars weekly and 1000.00 value worth of prizes from July 4th through the Cranberry Festival in September, that is if I got it right. Six crab tags have been turned in at Tony's.
Tony's May surf perch derby is over now and the winners collected their prize. Pay a 5.00 entry fee, land the largest fish posted to the derby and it is winner take all. Second place is a hundred dollar gift certificate and a fifty dollar gift certificate for third place.
The food Tony serves is great!, The fish Tacos umm umm are so good, I make the drive to Bandon to have lunch with my wife, Diane whenever I am in the area.
Tony’s cooks crabs for 50 cents per crab and backs them for an additional 25 cents per crab. Tony rents boats in the summer and fall months. Read Tony’s all encompassing Fishing Report in the Bandon Western World newspaper or the online edition at Bandon Western World.
Over the years I have pretty much tried every trick in the book to catch Dungeness crabs in Bandon, Oregon.
In those same years I have learned one FACT, and that’s the fact that crabbing is an art, not a science. So many factors play into catching crabs that you can never hope to hit the Holy Grail and perfect crabbing every time you go out. You can however increase your odds.
The following list of tips will help you overall in your effort to catch legal Dungeness crabs.
1) Bait is important. Things that are natural to crabs seem to do better. This includes using fish carcasses, squid, clams and the like. Using these also have a downside in that seals seem to love these baits as much as the crab do. In a battle of you vs. the seal vs. your bait, YOU LOSE. So BEST tip on bait is protect it at all costs. Using a bait bag or bait box will often keep the seals at bay. It will also help to keep the crab on your bait longer.
If a crab pulls off a nice piece of your bait more than likely it’ll crawl off an eat it so something to stop them from tearing off chunks will improve your odds when using crab rings.
2) Location, location, location. Crabs tend to get pushed around with the tides and also tend to settle into channels formed by those tides and river flow. If you can find a place near this your odds go up. If you want to crab where it’s best for you, such as an enclosed boat basin your odds go down.
If you are crabbing and are catching at least some crab then at least you know they are there, if you are getting nothing, likely it’s time to move. I don’t know how many people I have seen crabbing in areas sheltered from the wind and far off the beaten path and whining how the damn crabs are not to be found, well DUH!
3) Crab rings aren’t for wimps. A Dungeness crab may be a dumb little sea creature but when the ground moves underneath them they have enough sense to think all hell is breaking loose and it’s time to get out of Dodge. So if you are using a crab ring and pulling real slow, YOUR crab are basically yelling “Wooooos” to you and crawling off your crab ring.
Pull quickly, you will get all the rest you need AFTER you have your belly full of fresh Oregon Dungeness crab, but until then, crab like you mean it.
If you can’t do this, get a trap that will at least keep them in for the most part. They are heavier and harder to pull but much less affected by pulling them up slowly.
4) Crab when crabbing is good. For every day of the year someone will tell you something about how to know when crabbing is good or bad. From salinity in the water, to months of the year that end in ‘R’ to the day after a storm, full moon, sewage spill or whatever. But if you REALLY want to know how the crabbing is doing, ask around the stores on the docks, they usually know. They can not only tell you how the crab are running but if they are full and meaty or have just molted. The staff at Tony’s Crab Shack always know what is happening since they cook many of the crab caught in Bandon.
5) Don’t be afraid to ask. Most crabbers on the docks are totally full of crap and will tell you they caught 30 crab yesterday, that’s just fishing. But they will usually help you with honest questions, like what bait are they using, or how best to throw crab rings, how to measure crabs and the like. But remember if someone asks you these questions it’s a time honored tradition to lie about your catch, you always caught 30 yesterday but today is slow.
Best of luck! Tony
Clam Digging: Clam digging in Coquille Bay is limited to digging softshell clams. The softshell clam beds are located in the National Wildlife Refuge at Riverside Dr on the eastside of the bay above Bandon. A very limited number of littleneck and gaper clams are located in the lower bay along the south shore. Some purple varnish clams are dug from the large tidal flat on the north side fo the bay at the entrance to Bandon Marsh. Mussels are picked from the rocky structure at Face Rock. Razor clams are dug along the beach south of Face Rock.
Internet Links of Interest for the Coquille River Estuary
Seen live Bandon's Coast Cam.
Tbone Tidal projections for the Coquille River Estuary.
Tidal Projections:Click on the NOAA tidal projections for Oregon. Scroll down to the Chetco and Rogue River Estuaries and click on your area of interest.
Click on the height of the river level for the Coquille River – At Coquille
Click on the height of the river level for the Coquille River – At Myrtle Point
Click on the following link to view the navigational hazards for crossing the bar at the Coquille River Estuary.
Recreational Advisories:
Always call the Oregon Shellfish Hotline at (503) 986-4728 or 1-800-448-2474 toll free outside of Oregon before harvesting clams or mussels for messages listing the areas closed to harvesting shellfish due to high levels of marine toxins.
Fish and Shellfish Consumption Advisories and Guidelines In mid July the State issued shellfish advisories for elevated levels of arsenic in soft shell clams and gaper clams. The CDAO does not recommend consuming contaminated clams or fish species of any species. The Oregon Health Authority has prepared a series of asked and answered questions about the soft shell clams taken from Oregon's Bays. Click on Questions and Answers (pdf).
However the purple varnish clams common to most of Oregon's Bays have tested free of contamination from arsenic; and to date the clams have not been contaminated by Domoic Acid or PSP that have closed the Oregon Coast to the taking of razor clams and mussels.
Oregon's Beach Monitoring Program is a part time program that occurs between Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September.
Oregon's Beach Monitoring program helps protect people who come into contact with beach water contaminated with elevated levels of fecal bacterium called enterococcus. The program does regular water testing to look for high levels of bacteria and issues a public health advisory when bacteria counts exceed acceptable risk levels.. Beginning in 2017 the EPA has implemented new higher standards to requiring Oregon to issue an alert notifying the public of the health risks.
New Beach Action Value for the 2017 beach monitoring season
The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) is beginning a process to adopt a new beach action value (BAV) for bacteria of 70 MPN that will be used as the basis for public health advisories at Oregon beaches starting in 2017. The 2015 and 2016 monitoring seasons will remain unchanged and continue to use the current BAV of 158 MPN.
What type of bacteria? Ocean waters are tested to see if a fecal bacterium called enterococcus is present. Enterococcus is found in the intestines of warm blooded animals, including humans. High levels of these bacteria show there is fecal material in the water and that microscopic disease-causing organisms may be present.
How does the water become contaminated? Fecal contamination can be due to multiple causes near anybody of water. Some of the reasons of contamination are due to: animal feces deposited by domestic animals and all wild animals including beavers, seals, migratory waterfowl and seabirds , swimmers with diarrhea, children not properly cleaned after using the bathroom, the improper disposition of diapers, the vomiting or fecal matter in the water, agricultural and storm water run-off, sewage treatment plant spills, inadequate or the absence of public septic systems, failing or leaking of both public and private septic systems or the improper disposal of boat waste. The list of offending agents is seemingly endless. Do your part it reduce contamination of our waterways.
The Algae Bloom Surveillance program advises the public when a harmful algae bloom has been detected in a lake or river. Not all blooms are harmful, but some species of algae, such as cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, can produce toxins that can cause serious illness in pets, livestock, wildlife and humans.
Please see the Oregon fish consumption guidelines for more information abut the health benefits of fish and how to make healthy fish choices.
The Coquille River Estuary at Bandon. Click on the image of the map to enlarge it.
Coquille Bay is one of Oregon’s smaller bays ranking eleventh among the fourteen major bays, but the bay is one of the premier crabbing and fishing bays on the Oregon Coast.
The bar is subject to breaking waves even in calm seas. A seasonal light and fog signal are located on the south jetty. The skipper should be experienced with the local bar conditions before attempting to cross the bar. The boater should be prepared to deal with fog and the waves generated by the prevailing afternoon winds. The Coast Guard maintains a seasonal lifeboat station in the boat basin from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Click on the Oregon State Marine Board and click on Forms Library Scroll down to Publication for download (Many publications no longer in print). Click on Coquille River Bar Hazards The interactive PDF file webpage describes the navigational hazards that boaters encounter when crossing the Coquille River Bar.
NOAA's Bar Observation Website for Oregon's Bays. Check the NOAA Bar Observations website for updated closures and restrictions.
Bandon Bait & Tackle is located next to the Public Boat Launch at 110 1st St Se, Bandon, OR 97411.On 03/14 Diane from Bandon Bait reports Crabbing from Webers is dead slow due to freshwater storm runoff.
Diane fixes a mean fish and chips to go along with her clam chowder. I always stop by to enjoy fish and chips on my way to Port Orford. She also books fishing trips for local river guides. (541) 347-3905 Diane rents crab rings and sell bait to catch the freshest food available.
Tony from Tony's Crab Shack on the boardwalk in Bandon is a great ambassador for recreational enthusiast living in or visiting Southern Oregon and he loves to share his knowledge with you. Hear more from Tony on "Oregon Outdoors" Thursdays on KWRO 6130 AM. Email your report to tonyscrabshack7@gmail.com. Or at 541 347-2875
On 04/18 Tony's reports Crabbing from Webers Crabbing Dock is slow. Crabbing from boats in the lower bay is slow; plus the bar has been restricted most of the time because of the afternoon winds.
The Perch Derby today 6/09 is over, registration required begins on 05/01 and is sponsored by Tony's Crab Shack, the Bites On and Basin Tackle. No big fish recorded as of yet, however, the winning perch weighed 2.30 pounds
CRAB DERBY 2019 is scheduled to begin on 07/01 and run to the Cranberry Festival. The crab derby offers a chance for recreational crabbers registered In the DERBY to WIN BIG!!
The Port of Bandon at the Coquille River Estuary: Tony from Tony's Crab Shack at 541 347-2875 reports on the recreational opportunities available from Coos Bay to the California Border in the Bandon Western World. The Bandon Western World newspaper is a great source for current and future public attractions in the Bandon area.
One lucky crabber shared the following photos of his amazing crab catch at Webber's Crab Dock. He set his pots long before daylight and collected his prize at daylight. Click on the photo to enlarge the image. Our Thanks to the lucky crabber for sharing his experience with us. Bill
Bill's Crabbing Adventure from Webber's Crabbing Dock in Bandon.
Crabbing at the Coquille River Estuary: one of Oregon's premier crabbing bays the Coquille River Estuary is one of Oregon’s smaller bays ranking eleventh among the fourteen major bays. Crabbing in Bandon usually remains productive until the bay blows out with turbid brown stained water during seasonal Fall rains.
How to humanly kill Dungeness and red rock crabs is the question my wife wants me to answer. She can't stand to see anything suffer. Striking the Thoracic ganglion with a crab mallet kills the crab immediately. The crab does not suffer as it would if submerged in boiling water and neither does my wife. Killing and backing the crabs prior to cooking them shortens the total time it takes to cook and clean large numbers of crabs.
Click on the following video clip to view a professional crab shaker picking a Dungeness crab. Using this method cuts the time to pick a crab in half.Additional Information for Crabbing From the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Rim:
Click on the following links for additional information about taking crabs in the Pacific Northwest. Click on ODFW's website crab page or click on Washington State's information on recreational crabbing or click California's information on recreational crabbing. Click on Alaska's comments on Dungeness Crabs and on permits and regulations for SE Alaska. Click on Dungeness Crabs at Netarts Bay. Click on Species Profile for Dungeness Crabs PDF file. Click on Species Profile for Red Rock Crabs to view PDF file. Click on Dungeness and Red Rock Crabs to view information on taking crabs from Oregon's Bays and ocean water.
Tony's Crab Shack Annual Crab Derby. Catch a tagged crab and win the Big Bucks 100.00 dollars weekly and 1000.00 value worth of prizes from July 4th through the Cranberry Festival in September, that is if I got it right. Six crab tags have been turned in at Tony's.
Tony's May surf perch derby is over now and the winners collected their prize. Pay a 5.00 entry fee, land the largest fish posted to the derby and it is winner take all. Second place is a hundred dollar gift certificate and a fifty dollar gift certificate for third place.
The food Tony serves is great!, The fish Tacos umm umm are so good, I make the drive to Bandon to have lunch with my wife, Diane whenever I am in the area.
Tony’s cooks crabs for 50 cents per crab and backs them for an additional 25 cents per crab. Tony rents boats in the summer and fall months. Read Tony’s all encompassing Fishing Report in the Bandon Western World newspaper or the online edition at Bandon Western World.
Tony's Credo, "How To Be A Crab Ninja"
Over the years I have pretty much tried every trick in the book to catch Dungeness crabs in Bandon, Oregon.
In those same years I have learned one FACT, and that’s the fact that crabbing is an art, not a science. So many factors play into catching crabs that you can never hope to hit the Holy Grail and perfect crabbing every time you go out. You can however increase your odds.
The following list of tips will help you overall in your effort to catch legal Dungeness crabs.
1) Bait is important. Things that are natural to crabs seem to do better. This includes using fish carcasses, squid, clams and the like. Using these also have a downside in that seals seem to love these baits as much as the crab do. In a battle of you vs. the seal vs. your bait, YOU LOSE. So BEST tip on bait is protect it at all costs. Using a bait bag or bait box will often keep the seals at bay. It will also help to keep the crab on your bait longer.
If a crab pulls off a nice piece of your bait more than likely it’ll crawl off an eat it so something to stop them from tearing off chunks will improve your odds when using crab rings.
2) Location, location, location. Crabs tend to get pushed around with the tides and also tend to settle into channels formed by those tides and river flow. If you can find a place near this your odds go up. If you want to crab where it’s best for you, such as an enclosed boat basin your odds go down.
If you are crabbing and are catching at least some crab then at least you know they are there, if you are getting nothing, likely it’s time to move. I don’t know how many people I have seen crabbing in areas sheltered from the wind and far off the beaten path and whining how the damn crabs are not to be found, well DUH!
3) Crab rings aren’t for wimps. A Dungeness crab may be a dumb little sea creature but when the ground moves underneath them they have enough sense to think all hell is breaking loose and it’s time to get out of Dodge. So if you are using a crab ring and pulling real slow, YOUR crab are basically yelling “Wooooos” to you and crawling off your crab ring.
Pull quickly, you will get all the rest you need AFTER you have your belly full of fresh Oregon Dungeness crab, but until then, crab like you mean it.
If you can’t do this, get a trap that will at least keep them in for the most part. They are heavier and harder to pull but much less affected by pulling them up slowly.
4) Crab when crabbing is good. For every day of the year someone will tell you something about how to know when crabbing is good or bad. From salinity in the water, to months of the year that end in ‘R’ to the day after a storm, full moon, sewage spill or whatever. But if you REALLY want to know how the crabbing is doing, ask around the stores on the docks, they usually know. They can not only tell you how the crab are running but if they are full and meaty or have just molted. The staff at Tony’s Crab Shack always know what is happening since they cook many of the crab caught in Bandon.
5) Don’t be afraid to ask. Most crabbers on the docks are totally full of crap and will tell you they caught 30 crab yesterday, that’s just fishing. But they will usually help you with honest questions, like what bait are they using, or how best to throw crab rings, how to measure crabs and the like. But remember if someone asks you these questions it’s a time honored tradition to lie about your catch, you always caught 30 yesterday but today is slow.
Best of luck! Tony
Clam Digging: Clam digging in Coquille Bay is limited to digging softshell clams. The softshell clam beds are located in the National Wildlife Refuge at Riverside Dr on the eastside of the bay above Bandon. A very limited number of littleneck and gaper clams are located in the lower bay along the south shore. Some purple varnish clams are dug from the large tidal flat on the north side fo the bay at the entrance to Bandon Marsh. Mussels are picked from the rocky structure at Face Rock. Razor clams are dug along the beach south of Face Rock.
Internet Links of Interest for the Coquille River Estuary
Seen live Bandon's Coast Cam.
Tbone Tidal projections for the Coquille River Estuary.
Tidal Projections:Click on the NOAA tidal projections for Oregon. Scroll down to the Chetco and Rogue River Estuaries and click on your area of interest.
Click on the height of the river level for the Coquille River – At Coquille
Click on the height of the river level for the Coquille River – At Myrtle Point
Click on the following link to view the navigational hazards for crossing the bar at the Coquille River Estuary.
Recreational Advisories:
Always call the Oregon Shellfish Hotline at (503) 986-4728 or 1-800-448-2474 toll free outside of Oregon before harvesting clams or mussels for messages listing the areas closed to harvesting shellfish due to high levels of marine toxins.
Fish and Shellfish Consumption Advisories and Guidelines In mid July the State issued shellfish advisories for elevated levels of arsenic in soft shell clams and gaper clams. The CDAO does not recommend consuming contaminated clams or fish species of any species. The Oregon Health Authority has prepared a series of asked and answered questions about the soft shell clams taken from Oregon's Bays. Click on Questions and Answers (pdf).
However the purple varnish clams common to most of Oregon's Bays have tested free of contamination from arsenic; and to date the clams have not been contaminated by Domoic Acid or PSP that have closed the Oregon Coast to the taking of razor clams and mussels.
Oregon's Beach Monitoring Program is a part time program that occurs between Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September.
Oregon's Beach Monitoring program helps protect people who come into contact with beach water contaminated with elevated levels of fecal bacterium called enterococcus. The program does regular water testing to look for high levels of bacteria and issues a public health advisory when bacteria counts exceed acceptable risk levels.. Beginning in 2017 the EPA has implemented new higher standards to requiring Oregon to issue an alert notifying the public of the health risks.
New Beach Action Value for the 2017 beach monitoring season
The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) is beginning a process to adopt a new beach action value (BAV) for bacteria of 70 MPN that will be used as the basis for public health advisories at Oregon beaches starting in 2017. The 2015 and 2016 monitoring seasons will remain unchanged and continue to use the current BAV of 158 MPN.
What type of bacteria? Ocean waters are tested to see if a fecal bacterium called enterococcus is present. Enterococcus is found in the intestines of warm blooded animals, including humans. High levels of these bacteria show there is fecal material in the water and that microscopic disease-causing organisms may be present.
How does the water become contaminated? Fecal contamination can be due to multiple causes near anybody of water. Some of the reasons of contamination are due to: animal feces deposited by domestic animals and all wild animals including beavers, seals, migratory waterfowl and seabirds , swimmers with diarrhea, children not properly cleaned after using the bathroom, the improper disposition of diapers, the vomiting or fecal matter in the water, agricultural and storm water run-off, sewage treatment plant spills, inadequate or the absence of public septic systems, failing or leaking of both public and private septic systems or the improper disposal of boat waste. The list of offending agents is seemingly endless. Do your part it reduce contamination of our waterways.
The Algae Bloom Surveillance program advises the public when a harmful algae bloom has been detected in a lake or river. Not all blooms are harmful, but some species of algae, such as cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, can produce toxins that can cause serious illness in pets, livestock, wildlife and humans.
Please see the Oregon fish consumption guidelines for more information abut the health benefits of fish and how to make healthy fish choices.
