Non-Fly Coho 2026
- Thread starter speedbird
- Start date
speedbird
Life of the Party
I’ve been doing pretty decent this year, just haven’t been posting. Area 9 has treated me much better than 10. I caught a nice 5.5 cookie cutter out there yesterday but besides that it’s just been resis every time I’ve fished. Today was different. For starters I fished a brads wiggler for the first time. First fish on the boat came from that surface rod and it stayed good till 9:30 or so.
area 9 was 3 hatchery fish for 12 wilds. Among those wilds was the biggest coho I have ever seen, let alone caught.
My buddies are insisting it was 12-13 at best. Having caught a 10lber some years back, I honestly think 12-15 is a realistic range for how big it could’ve been. Unfortunately, we will never know. The picture does not get a good angle as we were rushing to get him back in the water without dropping him. (He was in the boat since I missed the fin) I could’ve lied about catching him in 8-2 or 10 and honestly no one would’ve been any the wiser. But instead today became the day I threw a derby winner back.
After this fellow was released we headed down to Edmonds and finished our limit with 3 resis.
Another wild too pretty to not share from area 9. Solid 6-8lber but he fought like hell.
area 9 was 3 hatchery fish for 12 wilds. Among those wilds was the biggest coho I have ever seen, let alone caught.
My buddies are insisting it was 12-13 at best. Having caught a 10lber some years back, I honestly think 12-15 is a realistic range for how big it could’ve been. Unfortunately, we will never know. The picture does not get a good angle as we were rushing to get him back in the water without dropping him. (He was in the boat since I missed the fin) I could’ve lied about catching him in 8-2 or 10 and honestly no one would’ve been any the wiser. But instead today became the day I threw a derby winner back.
After this fellow was released we headed down to Edmonds and finished our limit with 3 resis.
Another wild too pretty to not share from area 9. Solid 6-8lber but he fought like hell.
speedbird
Life of the Party
Thoughts on where the big boys bleeding was coming from? A lot of people are saying the gills but I did not see any blood coming from the gill openings while I got him back in the water. I hate to think he’s dead and seal food instead of on a spawning bed.
The area 9 selective fishery for coho is a shame in my opinion given their higher rates of mortality than chinook, and the disproportionate amount of coho that need to be released in order to find a clipped one
The area 9 selective fishery for coho is a shame in my opinion given their higher rates of mortality than chinook, and the disproportionate amount of coho that need to be released in order to find a clipped one
The data is really clear that poor handling leads to higher mortality - but still, the way that people handle fish here mostly sucks. it is illegal to bring a unclipped fish inside the gunwale of your boat, but you see people doing it all the time, like you did. Whether or not that fish was injured by being hooked, or by thrashing around in your net, it was most likely doomed to die by being brought on to your deck and kept out of the water for however long it took you to get it out of the net and take your picture.
Also, probably not a great idea to post a picture of yourself doing something illegal on the internet…