I haven’t gotten out to fish coho in Puget Sound as much as I was hoping due to a knee procedure that took me out for a solid 2 weeks in the heart of prime coho season on Puget Sound.
I did however get out several times and like every year, there are a few lessons learned worth sharing, so that’s what this blog post is all about!
Coho salmon fishing makes up the backbone of salmon fishing opportunities in Puget Sound. Some might argue that it’s chinook, and it’s true that chinook draws a massive number of anglers to the water, but the coho season offers the most accessible, long, and productive season, attracting anglers from all parts of Puget Sound.
One of my favorite aspects of Puget Sound coho fishing is that it’s often as simple as running out to one of the many points and deep water areas, dropping down 30-40 feet and catching fish after fish until you limit and are heading back to the dock while the sun is still coming up.
But what about when it’s more challenging than that? You hear the reports, you see the social media posts, and you get out and start trolling around with 50 other boats, and no nets are moving, no fish are biting. Then what?
Here are a few lessons I learned this year that helped me put more coho in the boat:
Fish deeper around lots of boat traffic
When there’s a lot of boat traffic in the area you are fishing, the coho will often run much deeper as compared to other conditions. Sure, there’s the rule of going deeper as the light level increases, but I’ve also seen a correlation to fishing deeper around a lot of boat traffic.
If you always fish deeper for coho, you are going to miss a ton of bite opportunities that happen right on the surface down to 30 ft of water. Just this past week, we were one of only four boats fishing around Jeff Head, and we got 11 bites in a few hours, with the vast majority occurring not down more than 15-20 ft.
I also experienced the exact opposite during a crowded West Point fishery a few weeks prior. I still got bit up top, but I really didn’t get into the fish consistently until I dropped down to 65-75 ft.
I fish a lot of weekdays and sometimes in places with not a lot of boat traffic. So it can throw me off sometimes, fishing around a lot of other boats, how there’s just not as much coho near the surface.
Part of the reason for that, I think, is that the boats end up dispersing some of the bait that might otherwise stay pinned to the surface, causing the coho that are chasing the bait to be deeper as well.
Don’t ignore bait presentations
One of the great things about fishing for coho in Puget Sound is how easy it is. Everyone has their favorite hoochie or spoon, but the reality is many presentations work quite well. There’s no use fighting about it since so many options are productive.
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I have my favorite flasher spoon combination as well as hoochies I’ve had the most success with, but I’ve also noticed that sometimes bait just absolutely crushes and outfishes everything else.
You might think you can’t catch coho any faster than you already do, but I’m telling you, try a few bait options right next to your other gear, and you may be surprised.
In my most recent trips, I was fishing anchovies in a bait helmet, and it was absolutely getting destroyed. I ran out of anchovies and switched to some cut plug herring that had been sitting in some green brine for about two weeks, and that also got bit equally as fast.
A lot of folks like to run a shotgun rod if they have three or more anglers on the boat, but don’t be afraid to run it deeper and chase the marks and bait as well.
You can troll an anchovy in a helmet quite fast, and even though cut plug herring usually doesn’t hold up to higher trolling speeds, you can leave them in the brine longer and really toughen them up to survive coho trolling speeds without a problem.
If you’re looking for more tips about how to catch coho, head here. Also, take a look at my Marine-Area 10 Coho page that will give you an up-to-date creel graph revealing the catch data for coho.
Some key tackle you will need to fish bait for coho
This cut plug herring bait guide will help you make the perfect cut each time.
You should also be equipped with my favorite fillet knife that is wicked sharp for making great cuts!
This Mike’s Brite & Tight Brine is exactly what I brined my cut plug herring with. Let them sit in it for a few extra days to and throw a little bit of rock salt in there to really toughen them up for coho trolling speeds.