OREGON DEPT. OF FISH & WILDLIFE Host Public Meetings to Receive Input on 2026 Recreational Bottomfish and Pacific Halibut Seasons; See Survey Links below

OIOpublisher

As a reminder, ODFW staff will be hosting in person meetings October 6, 7, and 8 to discuss the 2026 recreational bottomfish and Pacific halibut seasons with anglers. The meeting on October 8 will be a hybrid meeting, available for folks to participate in person or remotely (online), for those unable to attend any of the meetings in person.

The meetings will be held in three locations:

Brookings: Monday, October 6, 5:30-7:30 pm at the Port Meeting Room at the Port of Brookings, 16330 Lower Harbor Road
North Bend: Tuesday, October 7, 6-8 pm at the North Bend Public Library, 1800 Sherman Avenue
Newport: Wednesday, October 8, 6-8 pm at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building Classroom 176, 2030 SE Marine Science Drive (also available online, info below)

Attendees will learn how the bottomfish fishery progressed this year with the lower harvest guidelines and more restrictive bag limits for black rockfish and canary rockfish due to recent stock assessments for these fish species. ODFW staff will discuss the pros and cons of both a year-round fishery and a four-fish general marine species daily bag limit with a one-fish sub-bag limit for canary rockfish and ask anglers for input.

For Pacific halibut, discussion will focus on the proposals that were adopted at the September meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council for further public review. There were two main concepts available for more consideration:

Restructure of the Columbia River subarea nearshore fishery to better suit the needs of recreational anglers, and
Frontload the Central Oregon Coast subarea quota to the spring all-depth fishery providing more flexibility on how to better use the subarea quota.

Presentation materials and an online survey for bottomfish fishing are now available on the recreational bottomfish and Pacific halibut webpages.