Newport Bay’s Nocturnal Bouillabaisse

Bring the lantern, scrounge some mussels off the rocks, buy bait or go with streamers, crappie jigs or saltwater lures and you can catch a wild assortment of fish off Newport's Jetties. You can also fall on slick rocks, or get slapped with a sneaker wave. So reasonable caution and a companion seem in order. Given reasonable luck and the usual mild fall weather, and there's a shot a fall Chinooks.

However, the consistent action comes with ¼- to ½-ounce white jigs fished off the South Jetty for greenling, rockfish, jack smelt and perch. Set a lantern down near the water after dark so it draws in shrimp and baitfish and jig along the rocks in the light circle. Both incoming and outgoing tides produce.

Bait anglers can also do well here with steelhead by fishing two or three hooks three, five and seven feet under a float. Pile worms, sand worms, shrimp and mussels all work. Use a fairly substantial float and, if you like a white jig instead of a sinker get the job done. The idea is to drift baits along the jetty so they attract fish, but don't snag.

This system also works well a casting distance up tide from the rock walls which run perpendicular to the south jetty. Cast at a 45-degree angle out into the current so the baits swing in an arc across the face or back of the submerged wall. Spinners and jigs can be fished in this manner as well.

Bottom fishing off the "Narrows" sides of the jetties is productive for those who bring lots of terminal tackle. The North Jetty has had recent work done and isn't as rough as in prior years. The cove on the north side of the jetty, like the end of the beach on the other side of the harbor, can be rather decent for perch and such.

If the ocean's rough, you can hang a light off either the Embarcadero dock or up Yaquina Bay at the "natural gas" pier. The last may be high and dry at low tides.

This kind of nocturnal fishing dovetails with the estuarine salmon action from the narrows all the way up to Elk City. The usual trolling and bank fishing methods work. Prime spots are off King Slough and from in the narrows all the way up bay to Sawyer's Landing. A few locals do very well fishing large spinners from the jetties and bay banks. Glow in the dark spinners deserve a try too.

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