May 15, 2026 — On a sunny morning in Garibaldi, Oregon, Jesse Coon offloads his catch. Men in waterproof fishing bibs pack salmon into ice and hose out the boat, named Steel Fin.
Standing next to stacked coolers of freshly caught fish, Coon pulls out one of the Chinook salmon his crew just caught and explains how it senses bait in the water.
“If you look at it really close, there’s actually pores — holes right there — and that’s their nervous system. And they can sense electricity that’s put off by bait fish, and every living creature,” he said.
But to find salmon, Coon has to travel miles offshore, searching for dense shoals and burning lots of fuel. Oregon’s commercial troll salmon season opened April 14, but the biggest catches typically arrive later in the summer. It’s still early in the season, and it’s hard to know how good the fishing will be.
Since the war in Iran began in late February, another factor is compounding that risk. Diesel costs have surged, cutting thousands of dollars from already thin margins.
“ It just makes your decision-making harder on when to go and when not to go, and whether to go a little early in the season when the fishing might not be quite as good. It just really feels like a gamble,” he said.