Hunters Island

About Hunters Island

Hunters Island sits off Gold Beach, Oregon, an outer-exposed rocky drop-off where the bottom falls through waters from 0 to 50 feet. The structure holds a strong rockfish and bottomfish population, with Black Rockfish peaking June through August, Blue Rockfish showing in March and April and again through summer, and Cabezon active across much of spring and late summer. Chinook Salmon run best July through September and Coho from June into October, both worked by trolling cut-plug herring, whole anchovy, and trolling spoons behind flashers, with mooching whole or cut-plug herring as a supporting approach. Lingcod turn on in January and February over the rock, where jigging metal jigs, swimbaits, and leadhead jigs targets fish tight to the drop-off, and the same jigging tactics take Black and Blue Rockfish along with Cabezon. Pacific Halibut move through March into August and respond to drift fishing herring, salmon bellies, squid, and leadhead jigs across the deeper edges of the structure.