No offense but this thread is a great example of what's wrong with anglers these days. Too many people looking for the quick answer to catch fish.
Got nothing nice to say, don't say it.
OP is looking for tips to can help her in her future trips, not a short cut like those so-called experienced anglers always choose to believe. You can go out and keep doing the same thing, and not catch any without knowing why. To say that one should just keep going out there, that's probably the most useless advice which can be given. What if OP ends up watching someone long lining fish and successfully bringing in fish?
Here are some of my recommendations.
Personally, I find coho salmon in tailouts, stagnant pools, or waters where very little disturbance can be found. Coho salmon are easily spooked, especially when the river level is low, and more especially in rivers where fishing pressure is high. If you are fishing the Chilliwack/Vedder River system, you'll need to be familiar with the spots, which ones work best at what river level, which ones work best during which part of the season, etc. Over time, you develop a system and start reading the hydrograph, and pick your spots based on your past trips.
Fishing at the right times of the day is key. I like to be at the river before dawn so I can be at the spot where I want to fish before others get to it. Sometimes the bites occur at first light, but more often than not I find the bite suddenly starts an hour after first light for 30 minutes to 2 hours. If first light is not possible, then try the evening hours. Lots of time, during coho and steelhead season, the last couple hours before dark are the most quiet times on this river. Take last week for example, I had more success fishing in the evenings than early in the mornings because fishing pressure was almost absent in the evenings.
Using the right method. Float fishing with good roe is what most tends to stick to, but I've had way more success by casting and retrieving a spoon or spinner. Last Friday just before the river blew out, we fished a run where around ten other anglers were also working on. Most stuck to the tailout where it had been producing earlier in the week, by fishing roe. Only three fish were caught between the ten or so anglers. We chose to stay further upstream in the head of the run and flicked a spoon 20 ft out and retrieved as if we were bass fishing. That yielded four coho in about an hour.
You'll have another month to experiment, coho fishing should be good right until the end of November as long as the river comes back to shape. Lots of fish are still being intercepted in the Fraser so there should still be fresh fish coming into the system.
Good luck!
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Topic: Coho Bucketlist (Read 21163 times)