Fishing in Marine Area 10 (MA10) for resident coho is red hot right now! Below in this article you will find what you need to put on your own clinic on the water and get your fast limits of MA10 Coho.
Pretty good click bait eh? Conditions may change, and the fish still have to cooperate, but still, if you follow the below program, you should see good success.
Please refer to our page on Puget Sound Salmon Fishing for deeper context and background on the techniques discussed here as well.
I posted a few of these tips several days ago on facebook.com/pnwbestlife. You should definitely like that page to stay current on where I’m fishing and what I’m learning if it can help you. I usually post updates there within 24 hours, and blog posts sometimes come within 7 days of a trip.
Best techniques for catching MA10 resident coho
Without a doubt, downrigger trolling gives you the best chance here as you can really cover some water fast. This fishery is all about finding the school and staying on the school for repeated hookups.
You can get these fish on deep-six divers as well, as they are not that deep. Especially if you get out on the water early in low light. As the sun comes up these fish will tend to be deeper. We did most of our damage on 45 – 55 ft of wire on the downrigger.
Another technique thing is you want to go fast! Not only does this help you cover water faster (to find the schools), but going fast will keep the shakers off of your gear and coho tend to bite a little better at 3mph+. If you are going with a strong tidal current you may be trolling at 4-5 mph.
You will undoubtedly find the All-Star Charters boat(s) out on the water if you spend any time on MA10. Look at how fast they are moving. And they usually have to catch 8-10 fish to limit and go home.
Best gear / rigs for catching MA10 resident coho
You will see all kinds of gear being posted as providing success for anglers going after these coho. I’ve seen red-label herring trolled in a hood. White ace high flies / hoochies with herring strips. But my favorite setup is this:
During the late summer for ocean returning coho, I use the same thing, but just swap the 2.0 for the 3.0 version of the spoon and it is just money.
Where to fish for MA10 resident coho
Don’t just fish where everyone else is. We had 4 hookups in 30 minutes all by ourselves in 550 ft of water south of Jeff Head.
If you have the Navionics app or something like it, use tracking. Go back over your tracks, and do donuts/figure 8’s over the school when you get bit. I bet you can guess where I got my fish based on the above photo!
Zig-zag your troll, between 200 ft and 550+ ft of water (or deeper). And even on that path, give your boat some wiggle to ensure that your flashers are being presented cross-current as much as possible to give yourself the best odds of a hookup.
Don’t just troll behind others when in traffic, hit areas nobody is traveling through. Watch other boats like a hawk. Look at what nets are moving. This is all about finding the school.
If you see someone hook up, make a beeline for the spot they vacated. For our last fish, we got bit on one rod, and it didn’t stick, so we quickly lost it.
We made a circle and got right back on the spot. We got bit again and lost that fish! (I threw away the hook after the trip). Then I saw another boat hook up in the same vicinity and just kept motoring along, so we made a direct beeline for where they were. As soon as we got into that area, the rod goes off again and this time we landed it to finish the day off.
I’m amazed how many boats aren’t doing this strategy…maybe they just like to “have a nice day on the water” 🙂
Here’s a link to our more complete page on fishing for coho salmon in Marine Area 10.