Been itching to do some beach fishing for coho. It's one of my favorite methods for coho fishing, and North Beach at Deception Pass is just such a pretty area.

I got to the beach about 7am. Maybe 15 others at the beach. Used a 2.5 ounce chartreuse rotator that I put a 1.75 inch pink squid skirt on. I just cast out, and do a very fast straight retrieve back, at times almost breaking the surface with the lure. Coho love to chase, and I've found over the years I have more success with a fast retrieve than I do jigging the rotator back. Coho will follow the lure almost the whole way to the beach sometimes, so fish the lure all the way back in. I would get 50% of the coho I've caught from the beach fishing with this method, the fish hit the lure within 20 feet from where I am standing, in just 3-5 feet of water. The last piece is liberally using scent. I prefer herring oil coho fishing. It's the last thing that can get the fish to commit rather than turn around right at the beach.

Beach fishing can take some patience. You are waiting for fish to pass by the area you are at, rather than finding fish on the sonar out in the sound. Also, unlike fishing a river, you aren't moving up and down the river checking out different holes and seams. about 1 hour before, through, and 1 hour after tide changes I find are the most productive, though I've got plenty of fish over the years at all times of the tide.

Action was slow on the beach while I was there. I got my one, and it was the only fish caught until just before I left someone else got another. Hoping for the beach fishing to pick up over the next few weeks. Historically I've done the best mid September through the first few weeks of October. This year though most of the marine areas close end of September, 8-2 closing next Sunday.


Beach fishing is a great way for shore bound anglers that don't know the ins and outs of river fishing to have a chance at getting some chrome bright fish, and it's just plain a lot of fun.


Short video of the 1 I got this morning. You can see I hooked the fish pretty close to the beach. All of us on the beach got to see a very large seal chomp down on about 5-6 coho in a very short period of time. One of the fish he got was huge.

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