Coho Salmon Fishing in the San Juan Islands | Gear, Locations & Tactics

0:00 All right. Hey, welcome to Fishing for a Reason. I'm Scott. >> I'm Jamie. >> And we're going to talk about probably the most exciting time of year really in August and September of the year, and that's Coho Fishing because why? They're going to open up the season. There's not going to be just three days of fishing. And we get to fish from August 1 until my birthday. Actually, a day after September 30. We'll talk about some gear. We'll talk about some locations where to go and then we'll talk about some things happening around the islands and we'll have some good fun. But it is a it's a real good time of year. No pun intended. And in this episode, we'll talk about a little bit of the science Jamie wants to talk about. We'll talk about the returns coming back this year.

0:46 And then again, maybe we'll look at a couple of days of currents and tides and see what it's going to be like out there. What do you think? That sounds pretty good to me. And if you have never, okay, if you're new to fishing, and I know some of our audience is just getting into targeting all things that you can in the saltwater, but coo are one of five different salmon species. And we'll talk a little bit about how to identify them as well. But if you hear people say the term silvers, they are referring to coo. For some reason, all the fish species seem to have two names. So, silvers are what we're going to be talking about specifically. They are so much fun to catch. Even though they're not the largest of the salmon of the five salmon species, they are the most acrobatic. These things, they can just

1:32 bite aggressively. Sometimes they'll grab your lure from the top of the water before you've even sent the clip down. They are just active and moving. And once you get one on, they'll flip out of the water. They're just a blast to catch. So much fun. And you'll never get tired of landing these guys. It's also a pink year, which is a little bit of a smaller fish. These guys are only about what 3 to 5 pounds. So, if you have kiddos or family members or friends in town from another area, it is an epic year to get them on their very first salmon because there's a ton of fish around in the fall, late summer, early fall. So, that's what we're going to talk about today. >> They are they are the most fun, but I also have to prepare you. You will lose fish more than you will most other species of fish.

2:17 >> These guys are just talented. >> The coo, like Jamie said, the way they jump around. And even the pinks, I'll tell you, the pinks fight pound-for-pound. A pink will put up a good fight on a rotten railro too. So >> sometimes it'll surprise you. You're like, that's just a pink when it comes up. But yeah, it's fun. >> So we're gonna talk about the coho first, the behavior and feeding. And Jamie is gonna take you down this trail. So many puns. So seasonal movement. These guys are August is one of the peak seasons for coho. I don't know. September is pretty darn good, too. I would say August, September is definitely peak season for coo in our region. Most of the fish grow big in the Pacific Ocean and are now returning through that straight of Wanda Fuca and into the Salish Sea on their way to their natal rivers. And actually, I want

3:03 to just show you this amazing tool. So inside of our community, we have a inner circle. And again, I always put a plug in for it because it's just such a group of really incredible humans. And when you have a tighter knit group of anglers that you can share reports with and share tips with, you just grow and elevate so much faster. So, if you're the kind of person who wants to get good at fishing fast, this community could be a good fit for you. Email us at supportanglersunlimited.co with the subject line catch more fish and I'll give you more information so you can hop into our community. But we teach this little thing inside of our community. I think it's worth pulling up right now just so you guys can see it and study it. Okay. So, if you Google Salmonscape, you'll get to this website.

3:49 We will link it down below as well. And if you click the little interactive map, you accept the thingy and then you're going to see a big map of Washington. So, you'll want to go to the side here and click fish distribution. It'll drop down a menu and you can see all these like little rivers that highlight. And as you tick through, you can see what streams have documented presence or spawning of specific fish. So you can see as we go through fall shinook streams, co-host streams, which is what we're talking about now. And then also popping over to the legend and seeing what these color codings mean. >> So yeah, as you look at that, you can zoom in and look at specific rivers. in it for the Scadget River or the the Noosack or the Nquali. You can go down and see. Let's go coo. Just look at all

4:37 the coho. There's coho everywhere. And this is the skycomish going back up into Arlington. But yeah, it's just a good visual tool to look at where the fish are going and think about where they might be coming through. But a lot of them are coming through area 7 and that's why we're talking about that right now. Yeah. So, >> lots of aggressive hungry ocean coo are around during that time of year as we just talked about. So, the San Juan Islands can act like a funnel for these specific salmon, which makes it really fun to fish for them. >> And so, the numbers this year, if you've seen the Puget Sound forecast, it's actually up just a little bit, like by 5,000. So, not many. So, the season should be pretty similar to last year. And I feel like towards the end of

5:23 September really it was pretty lights out fishing out there and it was limits were pretty easy to come by. So don't expect too much different. Interestingly enough, Hood Canal has a much smaller return than last year and also the Columbia River has a smaller return this year for 2025. Puget Sound numbers are 727,000 this year coming back compared to 722,000 and Wild Coo is down just a little bit. But in area 7, starting I think September 7 through the 30th, we get either or. You can keep Wild Coo in area 7. So that's exciting. And then Hood Canal, they have 16,000 returning. They had 36,000 last year. So yeah, little bit lower there in Hood Canal. And then

6:10 like I said, I don't have the Columbia numbers in front of me, but they're pretty easy to find if you Google it. Yeah, should be a good coho year. It'll be a blast. Some guys will actually catch these fish from shore. So, you'll see people shore fishing. They'll also pick up some pinks. And that kind of brings us to our next topic. How do you target coo? Do you do anything different than when you actually target kinks? >> Honestly, the gear is pretty similar. I might tie my leaders a little bit different actually or not. I think for the most part, the gear is the same. I'm probably going to use a squid or hoochis towed behind a flasher. The fun thing about these is that you can do surface stuff. So, if you use like a diver or a banana weight with some kind of spoon behind it, they love those things. Even

6:56 a plug. I've done banana weight with a plug behind the boat without a downer and that's really fun to do. Bait works really good as well. And then like Jamie said, casting from the shore with a spinner or a buzz bomb. You will catch pinks and coo over in like Deception Pass off the beach. That should be good this year. If you're going to fish the hole under Deception Pass bridge, really a banana weight with a dodger or flasher and then some kind of lure behind it works great. Or bait again. >> So, I've actually never done the hole and I had never heard of it until somebody that we one of our club members actually explained how that process works. Do you mind telling you fished the hole before, haven't you? >> I have. What is it like? >> It's crowded. There's usually 25 or 30

7:42 boats and you're in a space about the size of half a football field >> combat fishing. >> And then you're you're staying in line with the current and doing loops or staying in one place. A lot of people try to get close to the rocks on the I guess that would be the south side of the bridge is where it's at. And we could actually zoom in maybe and show you. I'll just show you on Salmonscape here. So Deception Pass coming from Fidago Island over to Whidby Island. Everybody will be stacked up, right? This is the south bridge. The pass island is in the middle and everybody's in this little hole right here under where it says pass. And basically just doing loops here. You can get there if the current's creating a little eddy there. It'll be spinning and you want to

8:30 be in this. And then if you get pushed out, you just do a loop and come back and then you're in there again. And if the water starts flooding in, guys will come over to this cliff right here and fish over here. And you can pick up fish over in there. That's where everybody will be. And there'll be some big fish coming in there again probably mid to first couple of weeks of September to late September. This will be pretty fun and exciting. As far as targeting the coo though in other places, I probably do. They are going to tend to be in the higher column of water. So closer to the surface, you can catch them on the surface. You can catch them 30, 60, 90. So, you know, kings, I always say I'd air towards deeper. I think co I'd air

9:16 towards shallower. Maybe starting at 90 on both and then as the coo see where they're at. Stagger your gear if you can and then find out where they're hitting and then probably going higher towards the surface from 90. And then don't be afraid to go down to 130 and try it also because they may be down there that deep, especially if you're out typically fishing in five or 600 feet of water. You don't have to be right up against the bank fishing for these. And depending on where you're at, the water will be five or 600 feet. So places like down at Edmonds or Everett or out at Eagle Point and Pile Point, you'll be in pretty deep water. So, >> and Eagle, when I think of CO, targeting CO, my me memories immediately flash to the west side of San Juan Island and

10:03 going to Eagle Point and Pile Point. Love fishing for Coho out there. They're all over the place. And like Scott said that you asked me earlier what adjustments I would make. I fish exactly the same. So, I'm probably going to be running bait in a hood because it's so much fun in my opinion to fight a fish with no flasher between you and the fish. and coo are just going to aggressively annihilate anything that's right in front of their face. The other benefit that you do have is not fighting a fish with the flasher. So, what we'll what we typically do is we'll run bait on one side when I'm fishing bait and he's going to run gear on the other side. We just see what's hitting more and like Scott said, we'll stagger the gear at different depths. But primarily, we're trusting our sonar. Also, watch your sonar. It's going to show you where the fish are at.

10:48 >> You'll find the bait balls. You'll find stacks of fish. When you find coo, there's a bunch of them and it's just lights out fishing. You'll have double headers on and it's a whole lot of fun. So, make sure that you double check the regulations. There's no minimum size with coo. You can just keep anything that you catch. >> Yeah. No men's size. >> Yeah. No men's size. And they eat. They eat really well. I think there's been a debate. Actually, this would be a fun comment conversation. So, if anyone's tuning in to the YouTube channel, comment below. Do you prefer kings? Do you prefer coo? Do you prefer sckeye? Can you tell a difference? The one thing that I do think coo have in comparison to kings is a really bright filt. Their

11:35 fillets are so bright red, beautiful. So, they fillet up really nice. They taste incredible and they are one heck of a fish to fight. So, we don't make huge differences to our gear. We are going to cut to a video. We did have a gentleman reach out to us and give us a suggestion that he would like to see a little bit more of some tying and rigging. And Scott recorded a video of how he rigs up a hoochie for coho. So, we will cut to that video right now so you guys can see that entire process. Hey, good afternoon guys. So, a lot of questions come up about tying two hook rigs for either herring or to put into your squid or your hoochie. So, I'm going to show you what I do here. We've got a wide assortment of things here. Here you can see in front of us. I was looking back through my old stuff and I

12:20 used to just go out and buy you can buy these Eagle Claw leaders pre-tied for two hook. You can put those in a squid and they work. The quality of the hook on them, how sharp they are, that's something that's to be debated. We went tried to go exclusively to these owner. This is a four and I will typically I'll tie a three up front and then a little bigger in the back. A four out in the back. Jamie likes to use two odd and so we have an assortment of those as well. But basically, you're going to tie this thing up. You'll end up with two hooks on your leader. And then you can slip your either slip a crippled herring helmet onto it or you can slip it onto a hoochie. And we also we sometimes will use these noses for the hoochis to puff

13:06 them up and make them a little bit bigger to make them hold their shape. And you can also add some glitter, some myar inserts underneath the squid. That also adds a little bit of attraction. So, what I typically do, I'll just start out with I've got some 30 lb leader here. And I would absolutely not go any lower than 30. And in fact, I've gone exclusively to 40 just about, but I just happen to have this for the demo. But I use I look through my bag and I have 25 and 30 that I've been using for years. And really, you want to be up there ready for that big fish that's going to come in. So, I'll start off with about 48 in or so of leader. And I just cut that. And then you've got two hooks. Your bottom hook, your first one,

13:53 you're just going to take this and you want to go through the front side of the hook. So, from the top of the hook down. And then you lay the line over it. And then you're just going to wrap it. And you keep wrapping. A lot of debate on how many times you're gonna wrap this. I like to go about 10. Nice even number for Jamie. And then you're going to take that and you're going to run it through the back to cinch it down. And when you cinch it, you want to be careful. You want to maybe wet it a little bit. And then when you pull that nice and tight, it it gets all nice and neat there. And then you got little tag end. You can clip that off.

14:39 And there you go. There's your bottom hook. So now your top hook. This is another big topic of debate. How far do you want your top hook? If you're using purple or black herring, you want the hooks to be a little further apart. So you want that tail hook to lay right at the tail of your herring, the size of the herring you're using. Okay, I want to show you this again because the first hook we went through the top and then we go through the back to tighten it down. The second hook, you're going to go through the back twice. So, you go through the back and you come down here and you set your hook distance. I like to be I used to do three fingers or so in between the hooks. So, something about that for a

15:27 squid or for your hoochie. And I like to offset them. So you got them pointing different directions. And then you just want to do the same thing. You want to just start wrapping. And sometimes it can be a little tricky to get started. But you wrap again nice 10 times. Eight. Nine. And it you got to keep it tight because it wants to come undone a lot. Hold that little lubricant so it doesn't weaken the line when you tighten it up back through the back. And then pull it tight. And you can

16:13 cinch those up. Tighten it. And then you see that you got a nice little hook. And then they kind of it takes a little bit to get them to hang the exact right way, but you can adjust them a little bit. adjust this guy a little bit. And that's how I've been doing that. If you want to put your Let's do a Myar insert. This is Delta Tackle. Key point is to do this before you stick the before you tie a knot or tie it onto your flasher because the knot will not go through the squid usually. And we'll just do that.

16:59 And tell you what, kind of like the way this one's looking. I might take this out this week and try it and I'll report back to you. But that's your two hook squid with a myar insert and red hooks. And I tell you, I don't know if the red hooks make a big difference. I feel like they I feel like it does. It's like an attractive. You know how you got lures with little red eyes on them and things like that. I like the red hook with the squid right there. That's my That's one of my go-tos for all salmon species. coho. I would probably put a Jamie's convinced me that I need to go to bead chains. So, I'm putting bead chains on the end. And then again, the length of your leader, we run

17:46 them a little bit shorter than a typical coho killer or spoon behind a flasher. And that's probably a pretty good length right there. And then by time you tie this end and shorten it up, you'd have a pretty good rake there. So, yeah, that's 47 in. I'd probably I wouldn't go any longer than that. And I'd probably even shorten it up a little bit to about right there. Maybe to about 40, something like that. So, like I said, by the time you tie your bead chain on, cut off a little excess. That's a pretty good length right there behind a flasher. Okay. Okay. So, we're getting ready to fish for cuho. We tied up this squid with a myar insert to Red Hook rig. Right now, we've got probably 48 five or six inches of leader. I'd

18:33 probably When I tie this to a bead chain, you tie this to your leader and then this hooks right onto your flasher. So, I will This was 47 or so inches. So, I'm going to take about probably that probably make it about that long right there. And then I'm just doing a I do a uni knot. This is maximum chameleon line. I started using this is a liter packet 30 lb test. Like I said, I wouldn't go any less than 30 and I've graduated to buying 40. This is just stuff we have left. So, we tie this up,

19:21 wet it a little bit so the friction doesn't weaken the line, and then you just basically tighten it up. Tighten it down. It'll create a nice knot there like that. Trim that up and then pick your flasher. Now, your flasher color is a lot of it is personal preference. I happen to have an purple with a blinky. I'd use that. So, this hooks onto your swivel. And then your bead chain slips right onto your snap lock here. And there you go. And we ended up with Yeah. about 38 in 38

20:10 inches of leader there. I think that's a solid coho. We're going to we'll test this thing out next week and report back on how it does. You could put herring strips on it. I just hook it right on there. Use a piece make sure there's piece of skin on it to help it stick on the hook. >> So, shout out to Bill. Thanks for the suggestion. And if anyone else wants to see us record any types of topics or if you have any suggestions for content, we would love to hear it because this is really fun for us to make. >> Yeah, there's what I do. I like red hooks. I would air a size four. Four odd hook I think is plenty big enough. Some guys use five. We had a discussion about guys even going up to a even bigger one like a six on their spoons if you want

20:56 to but it's a lot of it's personal preference. Thing is we're pinching barbs so that that makes it even more difficult to keep them on and they are going to the thing with these things they're going to get to the surface and then they're going to start jumping and you want to counter what they're doing. You still have to think about your gear that's in the water, but do you want to pull it out of the water to clean up your deck? And if you get a nice like 10, 12 pounder, and I suspect there'll be some of those coming in, you probably want to clean it up as best you can. And keeping the momentum on the boat, turning into it a little bit to keep it on one side are all good tactics. And then of course figuring out your netting game plan, how you're going to do that. They will definitely fight. What else? Other gear issues using the same rod and reel that we use on everything. 25 30

21:43 pound mono and then the standard downrigger setup. Hoochis, squids, coho killers, all the stuff you use for kings I think are going to be good for coho as well. White lightning coo killer. >> I think that sounds good. Let's talk about salmon ID. That's another common struggle that people have is if you're newer to fishing, how can you tell these fish apart? And if you go, I think it's like page 84, don't quote me on that, but inside of the WDFW rules and rags book, there is a page with salmon ID, it shows the fish in its entirety, as well as a closeup of the tail and the mouse, side profiles, and a description of each. So, you can ID them as they come out of the water and make sure that you are keeping

22:29 what is actually legal. So, let's talk about that real quick. We'll quickly share our screen so you can see the different ID fish and the differences between them. So, first we're going to talk about the Chinook salmon, which is the one that's pictured here on top. And it's got large black spots on the back and the dorsal fin and both the upper and lower loes of the tail. So, it's a little hard to see on here. If you look inside of the book, you'll probably get a better view, but the upper and lower loes of the tail are going to have those large black spots. And to me, the easiest thing to distinguish a shinook is their mouth. So, let me see if I can find the closeup. There we go. So, the shinook jaw, you can see how dark that is in comparison

23:16 to the coo right here. He's got a white gum line. So, that's a really quick way to ID. And shinook just have that girthier look to them in their profile. You >> see the tail there in that picture as well. Yeah, here's a good tail pick as well where the it's got those small spots on both loes of the tail. Let me see if I can get a good here. You can see it right here. The tail of the shinook versus the tail of the coo has just a few scattered spots and usually on the upper lobe with silver streaks at the base of the tail. So, you can see those silver streaks in comparison to the shinook tail. And it's helpful if you take a good look at this before you go

24:02 fishing. It's very hard to successfully ID fish when you're in the moment if you have no idea what you're looking for. So, I do encourage you to make sure you take a little bit of time, know what you're looking for before you see it and do the best you can as you are IDing fish. And if you're not sure, just make sure the fish is in the net in the water as you ID them. And when in doubt, let it go. Like honestly, if you're really not sure, you're better off just releasing the fish. So >> if it's a 20 pounder and you can tell it's probably a king. >> The hard ones are when they're like a 10 lb, 12 pound and you're like, "Oh, this one I'm going to keep." And then >> you can also like the pink tail, you can see the spots on it. I always say they look out of focus and they're much

24:47 bigger than the spots on the tail of a king. And then the scales on a pink will be like pinpoint size and they'll be falling off the fish all over the boat. >> It's almost like it's shedding. It's slimy and it's >> glitter. Looks like glitter on the boat. And you even in the picture a little bit you can see the scales are a little bit bigger on the king. That's your fish ID for the day. And then of course making sure the edipus fin is clipped. >> Yep. And just in case you're not sure, this is a clipped fin. This is an unclipped fin. and considered a wild salmon. >> Okay, so there's your fish wrecky for the day. Yeah, the coho should be a, like I said, should be a fun season. I guess we can share deep zoom and show you where we're probably going to be

25:33 going this year. We mentioned Eagle Point, Pile Point, the whole west side of San Juan Island, up to Open Bay, which is up here up by Henry Island. That's a pretty well-known and good coho spot, but you can fish almost this whole side. Me and Jamie have actually fished before the whole distance just to do it. >> Just trolled it >> kind of if the water depending on the water going with the current, but really last year it felt like you come out over Salmon Bank and you get just over the edge into deeper water and these fish are going to pull up in this area right in here and then all the way to Eagle Point. And if you don't have your limit by then, then you can go head out towards Pile Point and then West Beach.

26:19 West Beach start to get these fish that are coming through Deception Pass. They'll start to pull up here as well. That can be a good spot if you want to try that. Don't want to run all the way out to Eagle Point. The limits are two or four. You can have four fish total. That's two extra pinks plus your one shinook or your two coo. So, daily limit two, two additional pings, release shinook, release wild coo, and then after September 7, you get to keep wild coho as well. So, two coo, either hatchery or wild, and then two pinks on top of that. So, four fish total per person. So, it's a lot of fun. And I would love to know from those of you that are tuning in, what is your favorite rig to

27:06 use when you are targeting coo? We would love to hear what it is in the comments. I'm a bait fisherman. JDF hoods. What's your go-to, which you already talked about? >> Probably Coho Killer. Yeah, Purple Haze Coho Killer is my I think my go-to this year so far. >> Yep. And if you have not gotten your Resurrection Derby tickets, that's our final little shout out for you today. Go to psafidalgo.org. You can find information there or go to the resurrection derby.com and purchase your tickets for the Bellingham Bay King Derby which by the time this podcast airs the final day for you to buy tickets is going to be Wednesday. This

27:52 Wednesday the 13th, that's when we will shut down the opportunity to grab your ticket. But it's a super fun time. If you want to know more about what it's like to fish that derby, go check out the previous episode number 27 where we dive into it deep. But yeah, we're gonna be catching some kings here in a weekend. So, lots of fun, lots of opportunity this summer. I hope you guys are having a fantastic time and we will catch you next week. Same time, same place, same channel on the Fishing for Reason podcast. So, bye everybody. Thanks so much. >> Tight lines. >> Bye.