Sometimes you’d swear coho salmon are related to piranhas..they’ll attack anything you put in their collective paths with reckless abandon. In other instances, however, they can be the most coy, brooding and annoyingly moody critters on planet earth.
Luckily, there’s a little secrete weapon you can hit ‘em with that seems to turn on even the most lockjawed silvers…
Read all about it in my article in the current issue of FISH ALASKA Magazine
Coho Kryptonite!
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay Last question…
when twitching a jig do you prefer jigs with beads or without?
thanks!!!
Generally without beads …
hey jd, for braided line what brand do you use?
I like using p line 20 pound braid but its bright yellow and floats,
think this would be effective or should I try something else?
Max, I’ve been running 20-30 lb. Power Pro in dark green.
thank you
hey jd I know it seems kinda pointless but could you post a page about pink salmon fishing? I don’t get out very often and my friends said just go pink fishing on the skykomish and have fun catching fish all day.. That all sounds great but I’m really lost and idk what to use or anything. Could you help me out?
Hey Eric,
Pinks on the Sky run every other year (on odd numbered years) so next summer is a good time to give it a try. Humpies are easy to catch…throw 1/8-ounce pink marabou jigs at them or small pink spoons like Dick Nites. They also will chomp pink hootchies fished on a 1/8-ounce jig head. Maybe as we get closer I’ll get into more detail. Thanks and Happy New Year!
thank you i appreciate it very much.
What spoons work well for coho?
what lures of any type has worked well for you in the past?
im going to the bogachiel and the hoh and everywhere on 101 pretty much.
thanks
2/5-ounce Little Cleos work well, plus No. 4 Blue Fox Super Vibrax spinners
what colors?
how do you think the hop motion would fair on steelhead guys it sounds like it would work well with them also.
Steelies love jigs under floats but you’d probably need some cold water to fish them with a twitched jig because that’s the only time you’re really going to find steelhead in the slower water that’s best suited to this technique.
what colors usually work best?
Champagne pink Conehead Bunny Leehes tied on size 1-4′s, took as many as twenty chromers to 22lbs at the top of the tide on the Karluk each day we fished.
A long time ago, I went to AK, and we did a 7 day drift on the Kanetok. We were catching fish, but I was not really catching what I thought was enough (never is). I got up before everyone, brought all my lures to the gravel bar, and started casting to various pods of silvers(coho). About the 5th lure. I put on a jig, it was all over at the point. Cast beyond the pod, rip it over the top of them and then rig it a bit, and one silver or two would blow out of the pod and slam it. I had maybe 20 jigs, and I gave some out to the guys but was pretty tight with the rest of them. My numbers were sky high after that. Purple with some pink were my favorites, and from that point on jigs have been it.
Yep, pretty much on like Donkey Kong once you switch to the marabou!