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Chehalis Late Fall Coho! Spinners, Jigs and some tips on trip planning for Salmon and Steelhead
Feb 5, 2025
My friends and I jumped on a trip with Best Seattle Fishing Captain Cary Hofmann on the Chehalis River and we were on the Coho getting bit all day!
This video is much more than just showing off our catch, I try to explain exactly what and why we had success in a way that you can hopefully apply to your favorite fishery. Whether it's late fall coho, the winter steelhead season we are about to enter or next year's chinook run. Some fishing tips apply across the board!
There's some good comedy relief here as well in terms of fishing humor as we have a little bit of fun.
I could have made this an hour long video just talking about trip planning and coho technique, so what are your questions on this topic? Happy to answer them in the comments section!
I also highlight my new PNWBestLife hoodie that will be available for purchase so you can rock a brand that is all about harvest recreation in the great PNW!
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0:00
all right in this video we're going to
0:01
cover how to Twitch jigs for salmon
0:03
we're going to talk spinner techniques
0:04
trip planning for salmon steelhead wear
0:07
on the river to find these Critters just
0:09
keep watching me and my friends went on
0:11
the Shameless on a jet boat trip and got
0:13
it done fishing these late fall co-hosts
0:16
all right so we caught a lot of fish but
0:18
I'm here to tell you and explain kind of
0:20
the methodology behind uh how we caught
0:23
the fish how you can repeat that for
0:25
your own do-it-yourself trip for coho
0:28
we're about to go into winter steelhead
0:30
season uh Chinook it's all the same
0:32
mindset and thinking when it comes to
0:34
setting up a successful trip
0:37
[Music]
0:40
foreign
0:57
[Music]
1:08
yeah mine didn't bite super hard either
1:10
another happy one
1:13
all right
1:14
look at that look at that
1:17
in Alaska even the trees have salmon
1:21
oh come on that's great I love it barely
1:26
in there
1:27
that one wrapped about six wraps around
1:29
yeah
1:30
well we could break it and always go
1:32
back and get it we know where it is oh
1:34
what is that
1:38
what kind of oh
1:40
Alaska
1:47
and someone's line is in my way where I
1:50
want to Castle cheers
1:53
man oh you got to put up with some of
1:55
the shenanigans here because this was
1:56
fun we were giving Connor a hard time
1:58
he's a really good fisherman a guide up
2:01
in Alaska but we we had so much fun just
2:03
just busting his chops giving him a hard
2:04
time as he kept he kept snagging up uh
2:07
constantly and was having trouble
2:09
hooking that first fish with the with
2:10
the spinner but once we got him on
2:12
twitching jigs uh he he was absolutely
2:14
tearing it up maybe maybe he's just a
2:17
better uh you know jig Twitter than uh
2:20
than spinner fisherman who knows right I
2:21
mean do they do they use do they use
2:23
Spinners up in Alaska is that is that a
2:25
thing come on Glenn
2:28
nice
2:30
[Music]
2:37
[Music]
2:38
look at that Chrome brake
2:47
right
2:51
[Music]
3:07
I got him
3:10
I'm out of there
3:12
I should probably call though by the
3:13
time you get the rods
3:16
[Music]
3:25
[Music]
3:30
thank you
3:35
[Music]
3:39
what's up
3:41
[Music]
3:51
so first of all you gotta know where in
3:53
the Run are you right in this case it's
3:55
November and we're chasing coal which
3:58
means we're we're near the end of a
4:01
majority of the push of Coho that are
4:02
coming in these Rivers so if we were to
4:04
fish down on the lower end of the river
4:06
that would probably be a mistake and so
4:09
we were we were further up River and we
4:11
were targeting uh both Hatchery and wild
4:13
fish the regs allowed us to keep one of
4:15
each but uh we it's important to know if
4:18
you're gonna Target Hatchery fish you
4:20
want to know that there's a hatchery
4:21
Upstream of where you're fishing and if
4:24
if there is one Upstream you can look at
4:26
these escapement reports which we've uh
4:28
pnw bestlife.com we've got these Nifty
4:30
graphs that show you the rate of arrival
4:33
of these fish to the Hatchery so you
4:34
could see from this one that uh all some
4:36
of the a lot of these Hatchery fish are
4:38
bound for this Hatchery which is an
4:40
upper trip on the Chehalis and you know
4:42
there's a few hundred fish a week coming
4:44
through here which gives us not a ton of
4:46
fish to fish on they're gonna gonna be
4:48
spread out but it's enough to get it
4:50
done and and have some decent fishing
4:52
which which we caught major you know for
4:55
the most part we got most of our fish
4:56
were Hatchery fish you know the other
4:58
thing is is when when it's late and the
5:01
water is colder a lot of times you're
5:03
not going to be able to find these fish
5:05
by uh just looking for rollers you know
5:07
coal are notorious for being in the Frog
5:09
water rolling all the time you know and
5:12
making it known where they are but in
5:14
colder water they don't roll as much so
5:15
you got to be able to read water you
5:16
gotta know where they are you gotta look
5:18
for the softer current edges the Frog
5:20
water you know the slack water uh the
5:22
water near structure you know we give
5:24
Connor Mr Alaska a hard time because he
5:27
kept he kept uh snagging up uh you know
5:29
Jigs and Spinners but part of this he's
5:31
casting into where these Prime Holding
5:33
waters are which means you're gonna lose
5:36
some gear and that's part that's just
5:37
part of the part of the deal so we're
5:39
not moving gear you're not fishing right
5:41
you know when it comes to what you're
5:43
using uh you know in colder water you
5:45
generally want to go bigger you want to
5:47
go bigger Spinners those size five size
5:49
six blades you want to go brighter
5:51
colors when it comes to twitching jigs
5:53
you know you're trying to get their
5:54
attention they're they're they have less
5:56
activity in colder water this is true
5:58
for for salmon and steelhead right so uh
6:01
compare this to say the Cowlitz where
6:03
the water's damn controlled it that that
6:06
water temp stays more constant
6:07
year-round and there's a lot of pressure
6:10
on the on those fish you know boats
6:12
going back jet boats going over them
6:14
constantly you got to use smaller stuff
6:16
uh when you fish the Cowlitz in there
6:18
they're not as good of biters for a lot
6:20
of that that same reason so it's really
6:22
important also to have the right
6:23
technique you know with the Spinners
6:25
we're trying to we're trying to move
6:26
those spinners just enough to get that
6:28
blade spinning and and no faster right
6:31
you want you want to feel that that
6:33
blade spin on the tip of your rod and
6:35
have a sensitive enough Rod to to so
6:37
that you can really tell that the
6:39
spinner Blade's working you reel too
6:41
fast and you're not fishing as
6:43
effectively as you could be when it
6:45
comes to twitching your jigs you know I
6:47
got a link to the a video I put together
6:49
on how to Twitch jigs but the downstroke
6:52
is more important than the upstroke it's
6:54
important that that's there's slack in
6:56
the line as you see uh with Connor's
6:58
twitching motion here or what I do to
7:00
hook my fish on a twitching dig is
7:02
you're you're creating slack and line
7:04
with that downstroke and that's what
7:06
allows The Jig to dive and that creates
7:08
the action that Coho like and trigger a
7:11
strike so if you're still out there
7:12
looking for Chehalis uh trip or Grace
7:15
Harbor area Rivers for Lake Coho you can
7:18
get it done with the same approaches
7:19
these same techniques but you can also
7:21
take these lessons and apply it to the
7:23
winter steelhead season whatever we're
7:25
going to get up here in Washington or
7:26
maybe down in Oregon and uh look at your
7:29
look at your River look at your your
7:31
your water temps and your where your
7:32
hatcheries are where your dams are and
7:35
plan accordingly right look at how many
7:37
fish are arriving back at the Hatchery
7:39
and you could turn that into a
7:40
successful trip all right finally a
7:42
shout out to Carrie Hoffman that's
7:45
Seattle fishing taking us out having a
7:48
great time on his uh on his sled there
7:50
on Taylor's that was an absolute blast
7:52
definitely one of the guides that I'm
7:54
gonna fish with again I fished with a
7:55
lot of guides over the last 15 years uh
7:58
and and definitely uh Carey Hoffman's on
8:00
my short list of um of awesome guides to
8:02
have a trip with I also I just got this
8:05
in the mail today this is the pnw best
8:08
life uh hoodie here uh forest green kind
8:12
of engaging demand for that if you want
8:13
uh one of these I still got a price good
8:16
price from the printer but um probably
8:18
around 50 somewhere in that range
8:20
um uh drop a comment uh email me at uh
8:24
Kyle pnw bestlife.com and we will make
8:27
it happen
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