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Have you ever found yourself casting at schools of beautiful coho that seem to not give two craps about whatever you throw at them but like to remind you every few seconds that they are there by rolling and jumping constantly? This video is for you! I talk about looking at river flows to pick the right day to fish, not just for water clarity, but for when the fresh biting coho are present.
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0:05
Hey guys, BMW Best Life here. Another
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video. I know it's been a while, but I'm
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making some more content here. And I
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want to talk about because it's October.
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I want to talk about co fishing and
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trying to time river flows for coho. Oh
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my goodness, this is a topic, right?
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There's so many things we could cover on
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this topic. Lots of meat on this bone.
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If you've been fishing rivers for coo
0:28
long enough, you've encountered a
0:30
situation that will cause you to
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absolutely pull your hair out, maybe
0:34
throw all your tackle in the river,
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maybe consider dynamite, or maybe
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consider, you know, illegal snagging,
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which we don't condone on here. That's
0:42
no good. Don't do that. But you know
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what I'm talking about. The lock jaw co
0:47
situation. Big, bright, beautiful coho
0:51
that you can see in the drift. They're
0:54
rolling around. You're getting excited.
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Oh, you know, and about a couple hours
0:58
into it, you're like, "Oh, man. This
1:01
this we haven't had a bite yet." They're
1:04
rolling. You lose track of time. You
1:05
know, you make cast after cast after
1:07
cast and they're just rolling around.
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You're like, "We've tried eggs. We've
1:10
tried spinners. We've tried twitching
1:11
jigs. We're throwing beads.
1:14
Everything. What's going on?" Right?
1:16
That's what we're talking about today.
1:18
The lock jaw coho situation.
1:22
I don't know that it gets
1:24
much brighter.
1:25
River fishing for coo and specifically
1:29
what the water flow movement is all
1:31
about and predicting which one of these
1:32
suckers is going to bite and how to
1:35
target them. So, all right. My friends
1:36
know I'm obsessed with looking at river
1:40
flows during this time of the year,
1:42
right? I wake up in the morning, I have
1:44
my coffee, I check the weather, and I
1:46
refresh all my favorite river gauges and
1:48
I go, "Okay, all right. Let's see what's
1:50
what's what's happening, right? How much
1:52
water did they get? We going up? We
1:54
going down? How high did we get to?
1:55
Because I'm trying to plan the perfect
1:58
coho excursion, right? I want to time it
2:00
perfectly. The coast, you know, some of
2:03
these rivers are an hour and a half,
2:04
two, two and a half hours away, and I
2:06
don't want to be driving all all the way
2:08
out there wasting my time. So, I'm
2:09
trying to like I'm trying to plan the
2:10
perfect trip by looking at the computer
2:13
screen and my phone screen trying to
2:15
figure it out. Because look, the river
2:17
flows don't just determine like how a
2:20
river fishes and the clarity and all of
2:23
that. That's important. It also tells
2:25
you about the run of fish and the and
2:27
the scenarios, right? But what I'm
2:29
talking about is like, you know, every
2:32
every tide when the when the run is on,
2:34
every every, you know, tide change, you
2:36
got you got fish that are coming into
2:38
the river and they're, you know, these
2:41
coo, they'll shoot up river at kind of a
2:45
um a decent pace if the water flows are
2:48
there. But a lot of times what happens
2:50
is is the water flows aren't there if it
2:52
hasn't rained in a little while, right?
2:53
And so they stack up in the tidal areas,
2:56
the lower parts of the river, places
2:58
where they've got decent decent pools
3:00
and deep areas, and those can be great
3:02
places to target when it hasn't rained
3:04
in a while, right? Uh you get those tide
3:06
fishing on the tide, throwing spinners
3:09
or eggs, they could be great biters. Um
3:12
if you t get the wrong tide though,
3:14
you'll find the lock jaw situation again
3:16
where fish have been stacked there and
3:18
they're not biting very well and it can
3:20
be kind of frustrating. But when the
3:22
rains come and the water rises, the fish
3:25
are going to shoot up river. And what's
3:27
important to realize though is that that
3:30
um let's say let's say the fish have
3:32
been stacking in that lower section for
3:33
a week. The fish that arrived a week ago
3:37
and just stayed there, we'll call these
3:40
the late fish, right? Their biological
3:42
clock is ticking, are going to act
3:44
differently than the fish that just
3:46
arrived on that last time, have only
3:48
been there for a short period of time.
3:50
So, when the water comes up, all these
3:52
fish are going to go up river, but the
3:53
ones and you're like, "Okay, cool. I'm
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going to I got this perfect spot way up
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river, and I'm going to time the river
4:00
flows. I'm going to intercept these
4:01
fish." Well, if you're too early, one,
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you might not have the water clarity you
4:04
want, but but two, the first fish that
4:07
are going to arrive up there are going
4:09
to be these um I call them late fish,
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right? They've been sitting around the
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lower water for low low part of the
4:15
river for a long time and their
4:17
biological clock is ticking and they're
4:19
not very motivated to bite. They're
4:20
definitely not going to bite if they're
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traveling. Like let's say you pick a
4:24
spot where you know it's it's not quite
4:26
they're not quite holding there. They're
4:27
just traveling through, right? Maybe as
4:29
the river drops they'll start to hold
4:30
there better. But you if you're too
4:32
early, you're gonna get really
4:34
frustrated targeting those traveling
4:38
urgent like late biological clock fish
4:40
that are just they're just screaming
4:42
through. They're like, "Uh-uh, I'm
4:43
getting up river to spawn. I only got so
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much time. Not going to slow down. Not
4:47
going to they don't care about your eggs
4:49
or your spinner, whatever you're
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throwing at them. They're just going to
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blow right on through." Now, wait a
4:54
little bit longer as the river's
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dropping. you know, those those um those
4:59
bright fish that just showed up to the
5:01
lower river, they're they're like, "I
5:02
got time, right? I'm going up river. I'm
5:04
taking my time." And if you can find if
5:07
you find those fish, if you intercept
5:09
those fish, they're great biters,
5:11
especially if you find them holding,
5:13
right? But even when they're traveling,
5:15
you can get a few to go. Although not as
5:17
good as holding fish. And this might be
5:19
obvious to some of you, but for if
5:20
you're new to this, it's important to
5:22
realize the best biters are fish that
5:25
recently arrived in a place and they're
5:27
holding, right? They're they're their
5:30
senses are alert that stuff is going
5:32
past them and they're and they're
5:34
they're interested, right? A fish that
5:36
has been holding in the same spot for 24
5:38
hours is dramatically less interested in
5:41
everything going on around. they're
5:42
almost like in this like uh uh mode,
5:45
right, where they're just they're just
5:46
not they don't care what you're what
5:48
you're throwing at them, right? And
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they're just ignoring it entirely. So,
5:51
it's really important to to to time the
5:54
river drop and the water dropping in a
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way that you intercept fish where
5:58
they're where they're moving up and
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they're stopping and they're resting in
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a good holding spot, right? And and you
6:05
can do that by by looking at river flows
6:07
and keeping a journal of, you know, past
6:10
times that you've gone in and different
6:12
spots and the way that the the the way
6:14
that the river and the fish act on
6:16
different river flow levels is going to
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tell you and teach you over time how to
6:20
plan and time the perfect trip. But
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you've got to be paying attention to
6:24
these variables so you know how to
6:25
repeat your success. If you if you
6:27
figure it out, you'll know how to do it
6:29
again and again and again. You can get
6:31
those late fish to bite, too, but they
6:33
got to they got to slow down first. They
6:34
got to hold. As soon as I I have had
6:37
this happen to me as the you know,
6:39
you're fishing a spot, fish are run
6:41
blowing through uh and as soon as the
6:43
river drops enough, these fish, they
6:46
slow down and they hold, right? And as
6:48
soon as that happens, it's game on and
6:51
you start catching fish. One thing when
6:53
when fish are holding and they're in
6:55
kind of schooled up together, they're
6:56
actually they actually will get
6:58
competitive for the offering. So you'll
7:00
go from no bites, no bites, no bites to
7:02
wham, wham, wham, one after another and
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the sleigh, the salmon slaying is on.
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Um, and that can happen for both these
7:09
kind of more colored up late fish as
7:11
well as the bright sort of ontime fish
7:13
that are taking their time. Um, as long
7:16
as they just recently started holding in
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a new area, you're going to have good
7:20
fishing. So that's the key. That's the
7:22
key to figure out here. In terms of
7:25
methods, uh, again, I have preferences.
7:28
Some of you all might have different
7:29
experiences, but when I'm targeting
7:31
traveling fish, you know, usually I'm
7:33
trying to throw eggs in a travel lane
7:36
under a bobber. Uh, I might co be
7:39
covering water. Let's say you're doing
7:40
it from a boat, right? You're covering
7:41
traveling spots and you're tossing blue
7:43
fox spinners, right? Have wide attractor
7:46
attracting range, right? They can see it
7:47
from 10, 15 feet away. That big size
7:50
five, size six blade spinning through
7:52
there, right? that's gonna you're gonna
7:53
you're gonna those fish that are
7:55
interested in biting, they're going to
7:56
see that spinner from a long way off and
7:58
and and you're going to get bit. Um I
8:00
like twitching jigs as well, but I tend
8:02
to think of twitching jigs as more
8:04
something um I'm going to use for
8:06
holding fish. It works for traveling
8:07
fish, too, but I'm I'm thinking holding
8:10
fish. It's really deadly to work
8:12
structure, work through areas with
8:14
twitching jigs. Bobber jig works great
8:16
on holding fish, too. Um another thought
8:18
is plunking for traveling fish, right?
8:21
Get the spin fish out, fill it with some
8:22
tuna, plunk that sucker, and see what
8:26
happens. Throw it in a travel lane.
8:27
Coho, you know, bite spin fish really
8:30
really really well. Um, so that that can
8:33
be a great technique as well. The bottom
8:35
line is your river flows are telling you
8:36
what to do, how to approach this. If it
8:38
hasn't rained in a while, you go lower.
8:40
When it rains a lot, you got to go
8:42
higher. Right? Something in between, you
8:44
go middle, right? That's how that's how
8:46
and don't try to be the first one on the
8:48
river. A lot of times, one, you might
8:50
not get the clarity, but two, you might
8:52
not get the biting fish if they're if
8:53
they're blowing through there and
8:54
they're and they're the the the
8:56
biologically motivated fish. You know,
8:59
couple three two three days sometimes
9:01
after that water starts after it peaks
9:03
could be could be primo um to go to go
9:06
find those bright uh ontime fish. So, um
9:10
you know, they say don't leave fish to
9:12
find fish, and that's largely true. I I
9:14
practice that with most fishing
9:16
situations. I don't p when it comes to
9:19
coho though, man. Leave lock jaw coho to
9:22
find biting coho. Screw that. No lock
9:26
jaw coho. They'll drive you crazy. You
9:28
won't get anything from the experience.
9:31
Uh move on, right? Just go go find
9:34
another there's other fish somewhere
9:35
else that are biting more than likely.
9:38
Um if you sit there telling yourself
9:41
don't leave fish to find fish, don't
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leave fish to find fish after four or
9:44
five hours, you know, you're you're
9:45
you're done. So, um, yeah, that's my
9:49
that's my take on it. Maybe you have a
9:50
different take. Feel free to correct me
9:52
in the comments.
9:55
All right, there's so much more that
9:56
could be shared about this. What
9:57
questions do you have? What what
9:59
observations do you have right on this
10:01
topic? Uh, I might do a membersonly
10:03
video on this if there's a lot of
10:05
interest and questions on a there's so
10:08
many deeper topics that kind of branch
10:10
off from this one that we could get into
10:12
about how exactly to to be successful in
10:14
this. But, let me know, right? Let me
10:16
know what you're thinking and uh you
10:18
know, drop me a comment, hit me up, and
10:20
uh you know, we'll we'll figure it out.
10:23
Hopefully, I get some more content out
10:24
here as I'm doing a little more fishing.
10:27
Uh still hunting going on, too. There's
10:29
a lot going on. So, I'm doing my best.
10:30
Thanks for being a subscriber uh and uh
10:33
supporting my channel and uh yeah, drop
10:35
me a like, comment. Yeah, whatever. Get
10:38
I'll see you out there hopefully on the
10:39
water and uh the right right water
10:41
situation and say hi. I love meeting you
10:43
all when uh when uh you all say hi or
10:46
whatever and and we chatted up. So, um
10:48
yeah, good luck out there. Uh catch some
10:50
cold, catch some chum. It's almost chum
10:52
time. It's almost time for chum
10:54
apocalypse. Uh so uh yeah, have a great
10:57
have a great