River Coho Thread 2024

Still trying to get on the coho board this year. Found plenty of moving fish in pocket water this morning. Unfortunately they were all old nasty chinook. They were so thick at one point, I probably missed a bunch of takes trying to avoid foul hooking. Did get one solid grab. Not what I was after but still fun. Hoping coho aren't far behind.

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Starting to think the sheer number of dark chinook moving through a local CR trib is somehow delaying the B run coho. This time last year the chinook run was effectively done and I was into chromer coho.

Hit it again this morning with @PurplePerdigon and we had a lot of fun with the nookies. Not fish ladder #'s like yesterday, but still way too many to count. We could see pretty much everything moving through and not a single coho was spotted.
 
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Those chartreuse “coho spankers” are basically a fly style I came to over the years trial and error. I found that with flashy synthetics, the more the better for salmon in most situations as long as they are small and jiggly with the bead head and the way they are dressed. I tie those exact same materials like that on a jig and twitch coho out as well as any over priced store bought jig. I don’t even use a painted jig head. It takes just a few minutes to tie this style as a fly or jig and they are about all I use. I tie them in all the standard bright colors that salmon like.

I think it’s pretty clear based on salmon eating hardware like spinners that the flash gets them going. So you can save the chickens and tie with dinosaur juice. Sorry tweed die hards, you will need to pinch your nose to fish these “coho spankers”! I love that name.

Chemist has been slaying so hard he should get his own Chemist’s Coho Spanker styled fly.
 
Shad said:
Usually, coho don't have those BIG spots on the back, but sometimes, they do. The jaw on that fish screams buck coho, every time. That's what sealed it for me. The slight "blush" on the side also indicates coho, plus the scale size. Kings turn a golden hue before they darken. They sometimes appear red, but usually very late in the game, and black is the more common hue at that stage.
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Just realized I was looking at the wrong fish. D'OH!

I still say coho, but now I'm thinking hen. I can definitely understand the steelhead leanings, now that I'm looking at the right fish 😊.
 
SilverFly said:
OK, I know I'm slow to catch on sometimes, but somebody please talk to me about rolled muddlers for coho (where/when/how.)

Heard about them as a go to fly for silvers for many years. I routinely use small, bright patterns for river salmon, so guess its the natural colors that have kept me from trying them.
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When I used to fish coho in rivers, I had very good success with a simplified and extremely sparse Rolled muddler, especially in the pre-dawn darkness and early light. Fished in typical coho cover, like right below falls and beside undercut banks. Small streams.
Hook: #6 streamer
Thread: any colour, not necessarily traditional red
Body: gold Diamond braid
Tail: mallard or none
Wing: wisp of mallard or none
Head: spun deer hair, leaving only a dozen or less hairs as a wing

It was a great change-up pattern to my usual Glo-bugs and Mickey Finns.
 
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I tie my rolled muddlers the exact same as above but I use a small sparse underwing of angel hair, either gold or orange and a gold bead head. I tie my Mickey Finn’s also with a gold bead head, gold diamond braid body and the same gold angel hair wing between the yellow and red bucktail. Both patterns are about an 1”-1 1/8” long and sparse. Both on #8 hooks.
 
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Blue Fox that I found on the bank for scale :) The muddler is tied a little fuller then I actually like but I tied my last batch “fur heavy” so cutthroat teeth could chew them to the right proportions and they could last a little longer. All the flies pictured have earned a spot in the coho box since I’ll probably be switching gears once the big river drops. That Mickey Finn is hammered but I’d still fish it.
 
Someone on the green river facebook post was insisting that a chum complete with forked tail dog teeth and purple bars was a coho because "it had spots". Someone else was insisting that a hooked nose area 10 chrome coho with it's square tail on full display was a "chum" because "it doesn't have spots"

Facebook is a funny place
 
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