Having had some luck last week I decided to give the Lk Washington coho fishery another try. With the heavy rain we received I figured the fish would be heading to the north end and making their way up the slough. I ran up to Kenmore and fished the channel until 11:00am with no luck. I hadn’t seen any fish jumping or rolling up north so I figured I’d try the Kirkland/Juanita area again. In fairly short order, I had my first coho of the day in the boat. A nice 5lb hen, that hit a pink mini squid behind a silver 10” Abe and Al flasher trolled just about on the deck in 60’ of water. Another boat fishing the area picked up three fish shortly thereafter and then the bite was done. Over the next few hours I tried a variety of gear, determined to find a combination to entice the fish to bite again. In doing so, I managed to pick up a 14” kokanee on a standard Brewster area sockeye rig tipped with shrimp and 3 Large cutts on a pink Brad’s mini Cut Plug loaded up with herring scent behind a Big Al’s Plaid Fish Flash. Near the end of my fishing day I went back the Abe and Al flasher setup, this time in an 8” size and pulling a white mini hoochie with a smile blade. This rig picked up another large cutt and 15 minutes later something must have really wanted the hoohcie as I had a violent takedown that managed to snap my 20lb leader just above the hook.
I used to be certain that the masses of fish being picked up on the sonar in this area during this time of year were sockeye, as I had inadvertently hooked a few in the past. This year, at least some if not all, may be coho, as I have yet to have a sockeye on the end of the line.
I’m not sure how much longer the fish will hang out in the lake, the water temps coming out of the slough were in the low 60’s. I’ll probably end up giving it one more shot next weekend, especially if we get some fresh fish through the locks.

---