Northwest Fishing Reports

How do you guys troll for Coho in Puget Sound

Do you guys use any of the following:

Coho Killers

Do you add a swivel for the hook? What size swivel? Do you change the hook? If so what size? What is your go to colors?

Coyote Spoons or Kingfisher Spoons

what size and colors? Anyone going for the bigger size?

what leader size and speed?

Do you fish the bigger sizes spoons on bigger depths? Do you fish the bigger size spoons (4 or 5inches) with flashers as well? 11" ones?

How do you choose the color for the spoon? Based on time of day, weather conditions, depth?

Do you prefer the hoochie with the skirt and some herring on the hook?

Where can I fish for and keep chinook at this point?

Appreciate in advance and hopefully not too many questions at ones.

Johns sporting goods in Evt has custom made kingfisher spoons that have a barrel swivel on the attachment location and stainless steel hooks with a barrel swivel on them. Thats what I was using for Kings when Ma9 was open. There is one called Herring Aid (not custom) that is hard to find but thats what I got a small king on after the short 10 day season was over (released). I think the san juans are still open and some areas south but I dont fish them so id look at the regulations on wdfw to make sure.

For coho rigs look here: http://www.johnssportinggoods.com/wp-co ... letter.pdf

I used the splatter back green & white purple haze hoochie/ ace hi combo last year and did good out of area 8-2. Tip the top hook with a salted herring strip or a chunk of herring and troll at 3+mph. Good luck out there.

I've had real good luck with Kingfisher spoons mostly for Chinooks but they also work well for Silvers. But get rid of those hooks. I replace them with Mustad 3/0 short shank Siwash. I posted this article in the article section couple years ago, and this is what works for me.

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I prefer 3/0 or 4/0 siwash hooks on my spoons and add a swivel, it helps keep the fish on when it's doing the death roll at the boat. I don't think one type of lure out fishes another with regards to coho or chinook, it's just a matter of preference. This last Wednesday I picked up my two coho, one on a spoon and the other on an Ace-Hi Fly while trying to avoid the masses of pinks. Depth, color and size are the most important features of the presentation. When I fish with hoochies, they get tipped with bait and spoons get slathered with scent. Green, white and black and combinations thereof are my goto colors for kings and coho. Go darker the less sun you have and go deep, 90 feet+, when the sun is out. For Puget Sound I tend to keep the lure sizes in the 4" range and smaller for coho and above 4" for non-resident chinook.

I tend to keep leader length the same for coho and chinook and just speed up when targeting silvers. This is more important with hoochies as they rely on the flasher/dodger to provide action. I use 3 to 4 times the length of the flasher as my standard for hoochies. With spoons and Brad's cutplug baits I go with a 5' leader so the flasher/dodger doesn't influence the action of the lure.

i prefer the 8" flashers about 2 in front of hootchies or ace high fly's. several different colors but mostly greens, blues, white/black, purple, glow or plain white. sometimes I put a herring or anchovey fillet on, used just the heads before when others in the boat were cutplugging herring and got fish. the pink ace hi fly did very well on coho at sekiu a few days ago.

I use both coyote and kingfisher spoons plus coho killers, canadian wonders, pt. defiance spoons and macmahon. various sizes. I have and old ediz hook spoon that does well but kind of afraid to use it sine I only have one and get fish taken by seals regularly. will be trying a loco spoon next week I found.

I use alot of plugs from ace hi, tomic, silver hoard, luhr jenson and some old wooden ones no longer made. white, white/blue, white green and glow. on good old wood one is an off white, almost yellow color. I bought some mylar blue and green silver hordes I'll try monday, tuesday, wednesday in ma 11.

come down to ma 11 or 13 to keep kings now. maybe 12 is open.

I'll try not to repeat others...

Troll speed 3.3 to 3.5. It seems fast but watch the underwater coho videos I did a couple years ago. Faster troll speed gets those flashers rotating and really increases the coho agitation factor.

I prefer 8" flashers and jumbo green glow hoochies with a herring strip.

14 pound DR cans, one rod 50ish, the other 90ish and adjust based on depthfinder.

Fun times coming soon as soon as all these humpies clear out.

I do things a little different than others. Instead of using using flashers and 36 inch leaders... I use 8 inch Shasta tackle sling blade dodgers with 10 to 12 inch leaders. I still troll this at about 2.5 to 3.5 mph though. Something I do to the dodger to give a good action though is put a little bend in the tail of the dodger to really get a fast erratic action out of it. Behind the sling blade... I have a 10 to 14 inch leader of 25 to 40 pound test with a silver horde ace hi fly or green/glow hoochie. I also have a fly/lure that I tie that does pretty well and is just on a double hook setup and uses pure UV tinsel so it is pretty similar to the ace hi fly. I like putting 2 beads and a 1.5 inch macks lure smile blade I front of all of these. I troll all of these with 4/0 brads hooks. The reason I use brads is because I found a store that sells them in 50 packs for only 6.75 and they stay sharp. I like gamkatsus too but those are a bit more expensive. I have used spoons a decent amount and have not had much luck on them. I have tried coho killers, kingfishers, and coyote spoons and have only had 1 coho on between all of those trys on those different types. It came on a green coyote.

fishing magician wrote:I do things a little different than others. Instead of using using flashers and 36 inch leaders... I use 8 inch Shasta tackle sling blade dodgers with 10 to 12 inch leaders. I still troll this at about 2.5 to 3.5 mph though. Something I do to the dodger to give a good action though is put a little bend in the tail of the dodger to really get a fast erratic action out of it. Behind the sling blade... I have a 10 to 14 inch leader of 25 to 40 pound test with a silver horde ace hi fly or green/glow hoochie. I also have a fly/lure that I tie that does pretty well and is just on a double hook setup and uses pure UV tinsel so it is pretty similar to the ace hi fly. I like putting 2 beads and a 1.5 inch macks lure smile blade I front of all of these. I troll all of these with 4/0 brads hooks. The reason I use brads is because I found a store that sells them in 50 packs for only 6.75 and they stay sharp. I like gamkatsus too but those are a bit more expensive. I have used spoons a decent amount and have not had much luck on them. I have tried coho killers, kingfishers, and coyote spoons and have only had 1 coho on between all of those trys on those different types. It came on a green coyote.

how efficient are you with this setup, considering it is so different than most of the ones mentioned.

anyone using the spoons with 4 to 8' of leader after a 11inch flasher with much luck?

what I'm coming across so far, trying to find a pattern, is that people use so many different leader lenghts, hard to tell the ones that are most efficient

also how do you decide on the color you use? do you use lighter colors on sunny bright days, or you're looking for contrast?

more setups we get, easier to find the pattern

would be nice to know how efficient those setups are.

Mike Carey wrote:I'll try not to repeat others...

Troll speed 3.3 to 3.5. It seems fast but watch the underwater coho videos I did a couple years ago. Faster troll speed gets those flashers rotating and really increases the coho agitation factor.

I prefer 8" flashers and jumbo green glow hoochies with a herring strip.

14 pound DR cans, one rod 50ish, the other 90ish and adjust based on depthfinder.

Fun times coming soon as soon as all these humpies clear out.

what leader size do you like to use?

also a specific 8" flasher you like more? brand color?

thanks

a tad on the short size for silvers, 3x the flasher so in this case around 24-30" on the 8" flasher and 32-36" on the 11".

I have a variety of flashers, no particular brand. As long as they have a good ball bearing swivel. The shallow rod color is more important I think, but the deeper rod (70-110 feet) it's black down there, so I'm not so sure color even matters. Glo would matter.

I generally do pretty good with this setup. I usually limit out with it and get lots of hits on it as I am letting out. I still think flashers work and long leaders work well I just favor this rig because the dodgers and leaders are smaller so it is a little easier to store and deal with.

I have lots of flashers also. My personal fav is Silver Fever. I have a couple Gold Fevers too. The flasher is meant to imitate the flash of a salmon going after bait, so the color should mimic that. Sampo swivels!

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Hey fishin magician, not to beat a dead salmon here, but can describe the bend you put on the back of the sling blade dodger? I like the idea of a lighter setup. Makes playing the fish a whole lot more fun.

Thanks.

John Martinis, Johns Sporting Goods in Everett, with his monthly report this time on Silvers and Pinks. His advice on Silvers isn't exactly what I do but pretty close. For Silvers the big debate on the Shipwreck/Mulk area is always close in or far out. John is a far out guy, I tend to do both.

http://www.johnssportinggoods.com/wp-co ... letter.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Last year was my first year trolling out there for coho since I got a boat that was "sea worthy." We did well following Johns rigs and advise, and also that article you wrote up BARCHASER. I too had equal results out deep and in close. Our best day last year was out deep when we got a double after marking a huge school. When out deep wasnt producing I would run in closer to about 150-200 fow and usually found a couple fish. I think the mistake I made last year was after catching one I would just keep trolling and usually went for a long time until we got bit again. This year I think I will try marking my gps and running over the same spot a few times and see if that puts more fish in the boat. Cant wait to get out there this year.

By myself today, got 2 Pinks and 2 Silvers and done by 8:15. Really small Silvers, 3-4 pounds and closer to 3. They both had a high fin so they were ocean fish not hatchery plants. Smallest I've ever seen for ocean fish in Sept. Fish on around me constantly so there are plenty out there just little guys. I'm curious if everybody else is getting small fish.

BARCHASER wrote:By myself today, got 2 Pinks and 2 Silvers and done by 8:15. Really small Silvers, 3-4 pounds and closer to 3. They both had a high fin so they were ocean fish not hatchery plants. Smallest I've ever seen for ocean fish in Sept. Fish on around me constantly so there are plenty out there just little guys. I'm curious if everybody else is getting small fish.

I went there today and got the same but for 2 people.

One silver about 3 - 4 pounds and the second 4 - 6 pounds. Same ocean silvers

I was fighting really bad the weather. How deep did you catch your silvers. I caught mines later in the day, around 10 around 120 feet.

The weather was not supposed to be this rough. Or was it supposed. Got sea sick and had a very tough time with my 15' Sylvan boat.

For me 50 feet on the DR seemed to be the magic number. When I quit it was getting rough.

BARCHASER wrote:For me 50 feet on the DR seemed to be the magic number. When I quit it was getting rough.

where exactly did you get the fish if I may? location

what's the best place to look for a accurate wind and wave forecast on puget sound

thanks