Fishing Nehalem Bay is what a lot of Manzanita regulars do while everyone else is on the beach. The bay sits right behind town, sheltered by the sand spit of Nehalem Bay State Park, and it holds fall chinook, sea-run cutthroat, perch, Dungeness crab, and enough softshell clams to keep a family busy at low tide. You can fish it from a boat, a kayak, a dock, or the bank, and you can be back at the house with the catch before the fog burns off.
Licenses and the current rules
Everyone 12 and older needs an Oregon angling license, and salmon require a Combined Angling Tag. Crabbing and clamming need a separate shellfish license, which is cheap and sold at the same places. Buy online through ODFW or at Kelly's Brighton Marina or the Nehalem Bay Marina on Highway 101, which also sell bait and rent crab gear.
Seasons, bag limits, and closures change every year, and Nehalem Bay salmon rules in particular have gotten tighter at times when returns are weak. Check the current ODFW regulations for the Nehalem before you go, and check the shellfish safety hotline before clamming or crabbing, because harvest areas close during biotoxin events.
Fall chinook: the main event
The Nehalem's fall chinook run typically builds through late August and peaks from mid-September into October. In the lower bay, boats troll cut-plug herring or spinners along the channel edges on the incoming tide, from the jaws up toward Wheeler. Bank anglers work the Wheeler waterfront and spots along Highway 101 with spinners and bobber-and-eggs. Kayak anglers do well on calm mornings near the Highway 101 bridge and the mouth of the North Fork.
Tides drive everything. The last two hours of the incoming tide and the first hour of the outgoing are the prime windows, when fish move up the bay with the salt water. The bar at the bay's mouth is dangerous on an outgoing tide against swell; small boats should stay inside.
Crabbing: easier than it sounds
Dungeness crabbing in Nehalem Bay is genuinely beginner-friendly. Rent a couple of rings or traps at one of the marinas, buy a bag of bait (chicken, turkey legs, or fish carcasses), and drop them off the public dock at Wheeler or from a boat in the lower bay. Soak 15 to 30 minutes for rings, longer for traps, pull, keep the legal males, toss the rest back.
Best crabbing is late summer through early winter, and the best tides are the slack water around high tide when the crabs are not fighting current. Bring a gauge and know the size and sex rules; ODFW checks. A pot of fresh Dungeness back at the house is the best meal in Manzanita and it costs you a shellfish license and an afternoon.
Clamming on the flats
The tide flats at the south end of the bay, accessible from Nehalem Bay State Park, produce softshell (mud) clams and some cockles. You need a low tide of about a foot or lower, a shovel or clam gun, a bucket, and a willingness to get muddy to the knee. Go out on the falling tide, not the rising one. The flats are wide and the water comes back fast.
Kayaks and small boats
Nehalem Bay State Park has a boat ramp and calm launches on the bay side. The Wheeler dock and Nehalem's city ramp work too. The upper bay from Nehalem to the state park is protected and beautiful in a kayak: eelgrass, herons, seals that follow you. Wind picks up most afternoons in summer and blows straight down the bay, so paddle in the morning and let the wind bring you home.
Renting a kayak is easy in Wheeler. Pair the paddle with a hike up Neahkahnie or a walk on the seven-mile beach and you have a very good day. More options are on the Manzanita things-to-do page.
Cleaning fish and crab at the house
Please do it outside. Puffin Lane, our four-bedroom about a ten-minute walk from the beach, has an outdoor hose and a spot for exactly this, plus a big kitchen for the cooking part and a cedar hot tub for after. Double-bag the shells before they go in the trash, or the raccoons will hold a party you did not authorize. If you catch more than you can eat, the freezer is yours.
A quick season calendar
- Spring: perch and sea-run cutthroat in the bay, clamming on the low tides.
- Summer: crabbing improves through August, kayaking is at its best, fall chinook start showing late.
- Fall: peak chinook, September and October, plus the best crabbing of the year.
- Winter: winter steelhead in the Nehalem River above the bay, crabbing still good on calm days, storm watching when it is not.
Nehalem Bay is not a secret, exactly. But it is the kind of place where a family with two rented crab rings and no experience walks off the Wheeler dock with dinner. Check the tides, buy the licenses, and give yourself a morning. The beach will still be there in the afternoon.