Skykomish River, WA (Coho Salmon)

The Coho are starting to come in and so its time to try and catch some salmon that might be worth eating. Getting a late start Saturday we headed to the Skykomish River, to a new spot none of us had fish before. Before we got there however I spent some of my morning doing some research. Talking to the guys at Outdoor Emporium downtown and Creekside Angler out of Issaquah this is what I have learned about fishing for Coho. In the Puget Sound coho average about 8-13#, the like to eat the same things that humpies do but if you want to avoid humpies while fishing for coho then switch to a chartreuse color instead. Coho come in from the ocean via the Straight of Juan De Fuca and make a "Y" going around Whidbey Island to their respective spawning streams. Fishing in the ocean can be quite productive with pink or green flies around 2" or a little greater. Fish the same stuff in the rivers. At this point most the coho haven't made it that far up the rivers so, to fish a river stay low. This brought us to our new spot. The plan was to fish high bridge and another part of the Skykomish off of 192nd. Being as the Huskies were playing that evening we only fished 192nd. Dalton, Ben, and I all struck out on coho; I did manage to catch a pink. The pink are zombies right now and I would recommend calling it a season for those fish. Others around us caught a few coho. Saw one caught off the shore and gentlemen in boats were having much better luck. They like it deep is what we were told.

Location: Skykomish River, near mouth head of Snohomish, WA
Time: 1:30pm - 4:00pm
Rod: 8 wt w/ sinking tip; Dalton and Ben used spinners
Tackle: Pink Marabou, Pink Bunny Leach, and Green Muddler Minnow on the fly; pink and chartreuse 2" buzz bomb, dick nite's, jig, 4's or 5's vibrax and spoon on the spinner
Fish: 1
Species: Pink Salmon
Biggest Fish: 7#
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7.5/10