The Elusive Coho

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Well, I just spent the last two mornings trying to land a coho on the Willy to no avail. Yesterday I hooked up with one about 7:45 a.m. and then lost him at the boat. That was the only bite I had in about 5 hours of coho fishing. About 6 boats on the water tuesday morning, and maybe 3 or 4 today...and no ho's landed. We could see fish jumping and rolling, but they had lockjaw.

Each morning, I fished for coho from sunrise to about 9:30 am.

This morning, I needed to land a fish real bad...any fish...so after I gave up on the coho, I fished for smallies for a couple of hours and landed 2 of them. The bigger of the two went about 2 lbs.

Then I started hooking up a lot of pike minnow. My fave smallie spot usually yields about 4 smallies to 1 pike minnow...but today was just the opposite. I landed 4 pike minnow in about 30 minutes. All fish caught on crayfish crankbaits trolled about 2.5 mph.

I switched out the treble-hooks on my crankbaits to a pair of siwash hooks, and wow! what a difference it makes in C&R. So easy to unhook the fish now, plus the crankbaits don't get hung up near as much.

 

[eugene1]

Nice to get the smallie and pike minnow, but those coho can be elusive... I know!

Good luck just keep putting in the hours,

 

[bass]

Well, I just spent the last two mornings trying to land a coho on the Willy to no avail. Yesterday I hooked up with one about 7:45 a.m. and then lost him at the boat. That was the only bite I had in about 5 hours of coho fishing. About 6 boats on the water tuesday morning, and maybe 3 or 4 today...and no ho's landed. We could see fish jumping and rolling, but they had lockjaw.

Each morning, I fished for coho from sunrise to about 9:30 am.

This morning, I needed to land a fish real bad...any fish...so after I gave up on the coho, I fished for smallies for a couple of hours and landed 2 of them. The bigger of the two went about 2 lbs.

Then I started hooking up a lot of pike minnow. My fave smallie spot usually yields about 4 smallies to 1 pike minnow...but today was just the opposite. I landed 4 pike minnow in about 30 minutes. All fish caught on crayfish crankbaits trolled about 2.5 mph.

I switched out the treble-hooks on my crankbaits to a pair of siwash hooks, and wow! what a difference it makes in C&R. So easy to unhook the fish now, plus the crankbaits don't get hung up near as much.

Thanks for the report Gettin' Jiggy Wid It. I have heard from others that the coho bite is pretty slow still. Most of them are expecting it to pick up with the rain.

I, especially my one finger, like the idea of switching out the treble for a siwash. Did you notice any difference in hookup ratio? I am always concerned with ruining the balance of the bait, did you notice any difference? Do you know what size siwash you used?

Thanks for any further info and good job. You did not get the silver, but at least you got the bronze

 

[troutmasta]

Thats my willie MO. Fish for salmon till I can't take it any more then go get into some smallies! Nice fish! What part of the Willy?

 

[osmosis]

Pink wiggler at 3.0 knots

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Thanks for the report Gettin' Jiggy Wid It. I have heard from others that the coho bite is pretty slow still. Most of them are expecting it to pick up with the rain.

I, especially my one finger, like the idea of switching out the treble for a siwash. Did you notice any difference in hookup ratio? I am always concerned with ruining the balance of the bait, did you notice any difference? Do you know what size siwash you used?

Thanks for any further info and good job. You did not get the silver, but at least you got the bronze

After I caught the first smallmouth on two treble hooks on a crankbait, I spent about 1 1/2 minutes trying to unhook him (after sticking my finger as usual).

The next 5 fish were all caught with the siwash set-up. Once it was "fish-on!", I never lost a fish with the siwash set-up, which was something that concerned me prior to going that route. Most of the fish had both siwash hooks lodged very securely in their mouths. I did have two powerful "strikes" that resulted in no hook-up (so two missed fish). But I think it's definitely worth the trade off -- the siwash set-up rarely gets hung up on the bottom and is super easy to free up when it does, resulting in more time spent fishing. Unhooking fish took all of ten seconds or so, also resulting in more time spent fishing.

As for the lure action, the crankbaits seemed to perform just as good or better with the siwash set-up. The hooks naturally assume the most streamlined position in the water. But you definitely want to use a small #10 barrel swivel to allow the siwash hooks to spin freely. In fact, I will look for an even smaller barrel swivel next time i'm at tackle shop. The tackle shop guy told me to just attach the siwash hooks facing opposite directions on the split rings, but that really restricted their movement and didn't look like a good set-up to me. When a fish strikes the lure and the siwash hooks are on a swivel, they just rotate right into his open mouth. Oh yeah, I used #2 Gamakatsu open-eyed siwash hooks, and they seem to be perfect size for small mouth. Those hooks are super sharp, super sticky. Here's a pic of the finished product:



Oh yeah, I caught most of the fish up near Rock Island, about a mile upriver from mouth of Tualatin. Very pretty up there.

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Pink wiggler at 3.0 knots

Pink wiggle wart was first lure i threw at the silvers...then fire tiger, red, and silver....nada. Next i tried blue fox spinners in pink, blue, and gold...nada. Fish jumping and splashing on the surface all around me...so cruel... :shock: