Unfortunately I'm not posting a great report for the kings which seem to be slow to show up in the sound and what everyone is after right now in Area 9 and 10, but this is a 5 star report for the Coho. Where did they come from? I've never seen them in here this thick, and let alone for late July. Honest to god it was like trout fishing out there today. They were jumping everywhere and biting just as well.

Didn't get out until 9:30am or so and worked the incoming tide.. Spent the first hour fishing in 60-80 feet varying the depths on my DR from 5 feet above the bottom to midway up in the column, couldn't find anything, except one dogfish...I was working a chartreuse/glow Coho Killer behind an 8" Chartreuse Hot spot. Smeared up in Shrimp Salt/Glitter Smelly Jelly (the vaseline stuff, not the liquid stuff) I had disregarded some birds that looked like they might have been feeding up in shallow water, but they were only in about 10 feet so I kinda motored past them when I was heading out and went out to deeper water in search of fish.

Around 10:15am the birds got active again which caught my eye as I was trolling nearby, this time they looked to be out a little deeper but still right nearby where I previously saw them. I trolled right along a line that parallels the shore, and went right where the seagulls and birds were hanging out and hit a shelf were it went from 70 feet to 20-35 feet. Shoot, am I really going to fish in 30 feet of water? Heck, why not, reeled my DR up to 24 feet and started working the shallower water..Soon enough, the fishfinder was marking fish EVERYWHERE and they were jumping all over as well. The action didn't take long to find my line. Within the next 45 minutes, I had one 6lber hatchery silver in the cooler and released 4 more Coho around 4-6 lbs, most hatchery and a few wild and lost a few as well. Every pass over the short stretch (75 yards) of shallow water meant a fish or a hit. DR was anywhere from 18-25 feet in 20-30 feet of water. I tried to keep my limit open just in case I found a king or a bigger silver. Dad wanted to come out when I radioed in that it was just awesome fishing, so I brought him out and we quickly landed 5 more, kept 3, and by 11:45am, we had each bonked our two fish and headed in to clean our catch. He fished a 5" plug off the downrigger with no flasher and was having good luck with that as well, including a hit that just tore off line when it hit and didn't want to stop but we lost it 5 seconds after picking it outta the rod holder. Wonder if that mighta been a big ol king...

Figured for kicks I might as well go back out and see if they were still biting. Headed out at 2pm, and again, fish were still feeding heavily in the exact same spot. Fished from 2:00 to 3:45pm, the action was a bit slower, but still awesome fishing, I got 4 to the boat and released em all, including a 7-8 lber silver, and I lost/missed a few more. The fish started to push in a little shallower in the afternoon, so fishing in 10-20 feet of water even produced fish. I had one fish take a plug at 3' on the DR in 9 feet of water.

The key was the Coho killer spoon. Every one of the fish I filleted had a stomach full of small skinny baitfish, candlefish/sandlance? Dozens in each of these fish. Anyways, it seems that shallow shelfs and coho killers trolled near the bottom is the way to go for the Coho right now. Deeper water isn't producing anything for me or any of my buddies who are fishing were we normally catch them (70-150 feet of water) but they sure are active up in shallow water. Seems like they are all preying on baitfish together and are heavily concentrated.

Can't wait for the next few weeks, hopefully the kings will be in thick and the quota will still be open...