CHARLESTON, Ore – A permanent rule is in effect June 1 allowing smallmouth bass anglers to use bait, spears, and spear guns to take smallmouth bass in the Coquille River system. There are no harvest size or limits.

The rule applies to the mainstem Coquille River and the East, Middle, North, and South forks. In the South Fork Coquille, spearfishing and bait use are allowed from the mouth to the U.S. Forest Service boundary near Powers.

The use of bait and spearfishing has been in place each summer since 2020 as a way to give anglers a unique opportunity to remove invasive smallmouth bass from the Coquille system.

Smallmouth bass prey on migrating wild juvenile fall Chinook salmon and are the primary reason why the Coquille system’s Chinook population continues to decline over the last seven years. While the Chinook did suffer from poor ocean conditions in the recent past, smallmouth bass continue to thrive and outcompete the salmon, even with electroshocking removal by ODFW, the Coquille Indian Tribe and other partners over the last five years.

The river system is perfect for smallmouth bass with its warmer waters and low flows, and juvenile fall Chinook salmon are vulnerable to them. Bass also eat Pacific lamprey which are culturally important to Pacific Northwest tribes. Native juvenile coho salmon and steelhead, sculpin, dace, and native crayfish are also preyed upon by the bass.

Since discovery of illegally introduced smallmouth bass in the Coquille River, these invasive fish expanded their range. The bass are present up to the Forest Service boundary above Powers in the South Fork, up to Laverne Park in the North Fork, and up to Sandy Creek in the Middle Fork.

Anglers can use access maps to the South Fork Coquille and lower Coquille and an updated map of smallmouth bass distribution to target these fish. ODFW has a helpful series of videos on spearfishing the Coquille River, including how to build your own fishing spear and how to filet a smallmouth bass.