When coho salmon first arrive in the river from the ocean, they are aggressive and territorial. Saltwater coho are known for following/eating fast baits and fighting acrobatically. When they decide to enter the estuary and then move into tidewater they're primed to make the journey upriver to spawn. If you can get a twitching jig falling in front of a coho, there's a good chance they will react to it!
In this video we display coho salmon fishing at it's best! You'll see underwater footage of fish, some great drone shots courtesy of Cameron Black (http://www.gonecatchin.com) and all the best fishing footage you know and love from Fishing Addicts Northwest! There is even some seagulls fighting on the intro scene.
Twitching jigs were our preferred method this season. Silvers slammed twitching jigs in a surprising number of conditions (usually 3/8 and 1/2 oz jigs.) We were catching fish in high, off-color water, gin clear low water and seemingly everywhere in between. Another interesting thing we noticed is that on different days the coho would react to different retrieve methods, sometime fast twitching, sometimes slow, often erratic. Many times they would grab it on the fall.
The Pacific Northwest received a fantastic run of coho in 2014. We spent many days and weekends on Columbia River tributaries and Coastal Oregon rivers. Join us in this video about Fall Coho Fishing.
Filmed by Fishing Addicts Northwest & Cameron Black Edited by Lucas Holmgren Media
Song: "As Far As That Goes" Music written, performed & produced by Lucas Holmgren copyright 2014 Featuring Daniel Sarkela on Electric Guitar & Mandolin
2 comments
Agree twitchin is killer for Coho. Here’s a YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54KGzdI4Fv0) of 3 huge Coho taken with jigs in 18 minutes. Coho hold in back water calm holes on the river since they don’t require the oxygen that Steelhead need. The higher the water in a river, the more captive the prey. Coho move up river and tend to hold in pools just below the next set of rapids. They also need to ‘sleep’ and rest so you might not see them roll, but they’re there. Spread your casts all over the pool by throwing toward shore to let the jig drop into the deeper holding part of the hole. Then start little twitches by lifting quickly then let the jig fall while reeling a little of the extra line in. The fish will crush the falling jig once they ‘wake up’. If you nail one, they’ve woken up and the action can be hot.
No one is going to like this video except for the people reeling in the salmon. Everyone else would like to see info on rod length and weight, specific bait info on bobber weight, egg mass size, drift pattern, length of leader, how many inches off the bottom, line mending techniques, did you switch off and on from eggs to throwing spinners., etc,etc.