Coho salmon also known as silver salmon are one of the most popular game fish for anglers in the Pacific Northwest. Known for their aggressive strikes and acrobatic jumps when hooked, coho salmon provide exciting action once they enter rivers and streams to spawn in the fall. This article provides a complete guide on the best techniques, gear, and strategies for catching coho salmon.
Understanding Coho Salmon
Before learning how to catch coho salmon, it’s helpful to understand a little about their life cycle and behaviors. Here are some key facts
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Coho salmon are anadromous, meaning they hatch in freshwater, migrate to the ocean to feed and grow, and return to freshwater to spawn.
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They spend one to two years maturing in the ocean before returning to their natal streams to spawn between September and November.
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Spawning adult coho average 6-12 pounds but can reach over 20 pounds. They earn their “silver” nickname from their bright metallic sides.
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Males develop a pronounced hooked jaw called a kype during spawning. Females turn darker with less prominent silvery sides.
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Aggressive strikes and aerial jumps make coho a favorite among anglers. They eagerly strike lures and baits when entering spawning streams.
Best Places to Catch Coho Salmon
During their spawning migration, coho salmon concentrate in certain types of waters:
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Mouths of tributary streams – Coho will hold at the mouth of their spawning stream until ready to move upstream. Target mouths of creeks and rivers.
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Pools and deeper runs – Look for deeper, slow moving water where coho can rest during their strenuous spawning migration.
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Tailouts of pools – The transition from slow pool to faster run is a prime spot, as coho will hold to feed before continuing upstream.
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Inside bends – Bends create sloping gravel beds for migrating and spawning salmon. Target the inside part of bends.
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Around structure – Wood debris, boulders, and other structure break the current, creating eddies and holding spots.
Best Techniques for Catching Coho
When targeting coho salmon, match your techniques and gear to the type of water you are fishing:
Casting Lures
Best for: Pocket water, riffles, tailouts, and faster moving water.
Gear: Light spinning rod around 7-8 feet with 6-10 lb test line. Spinners, spoons, plugs, and jigs all work well.
Strategy: Cast across and slightly upstream, letting lure swing down and across holding spots. Vary retrieve speed until you find what triggers strikes.
Drift Fishing with Bait
Best for: Slower pools, frog water, and deeper runs.
Gear: Longer 10-13 foot rods allow floating or sinking baits to drift naturally. Add just enough weight for a bumpy bottom drift.
Strategy: Use cured salmon eggs, sand shrimp, or roe sacks and drift them through prime lies. Wait for subtle takes before setting the hook.
Plunking
Best for: Deeper runs along shore from bank. Can also be done from boats.
Gear: 10-12 foot surf rod to make long casts. Use heavy weights (1-4 oz) to anchor bait near bottom.
Strategy: Cast downstream and allow weight and bait to plunk down. Wait for line ticks or rod taps that signal a take.
Trolling
Best for: Covering water and finding active fish in lakes, wider rivers, and estuaries.
Gear: Rods with good backbone to handle hooksets at range. Downriggers or divers used to target specific depths.
Strategy: Run lures like spoons, plugs, and spinners at 1.5-3.5 mph until finding productive speed. Adjust depth until finding fish.
Best Lures and Baits for Coho
When it comes to enticing coho strikes, you can’t go wrong with these proven lures and baits:
Lures
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Spinners and spoons in sizes 3-5 and bright colors
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Crankbaits that imitate baitfish, especially plugs that dive 3-10+ feet
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Twitching jigs in 1/2 – 1 oz, dark colors with contrasting skirt colors
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Vibrating blades like the Blue Fox Vibrax for riffles and faster water
Natural Baits
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Cured salmon eggs in orange, pink, and chartreuse sacks or jars
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Sand shrimp, herring, and small baitfish either whole or cut into chunks
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Fresh salmon roe drained from a freshly caught female (check regulations)
Pro Tips
Here are some additional tips from experienced anglers for upping your coho salmon catch:
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Fish early morning and late evening when coho are most active and aggressive.
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Use heavier line (12-20 lbs test) to control fish once hooked in fast water.
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Vary retrieves until you learn what triggers fish that day – fast, slow, erratic movement.
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Downsize gear in low clear water and upgrade to heavier lures and bait in stained water.
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Set the hook at any hesitation or change in direction – coho bites can be lightning quick!
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Keep trying different spots until you locate where coho are holding. They school up in productive areas.
With their strong runs, aggressive biting, aerial acrobatics, and great eating qualities, coho salmon are one of the most rewarding and exciting fish species to target for anglers when they enter rivers and streams to spawn. Use these techniques to find the best places to catch coho, rig up properly, and employ proven methods to get your line tight with silver salmon this season!
What kind of water do coho salmon spend time in?
You can find coho salmon just about anywhere in a given river, however, they will certainly prefer some types of water to others.
The first thing to realize about coho salmon beyond needing to have water that provides ample protection is that these are some lazy fish.
Yes, you can find them in the same drifts as their larger and more physically powerful cousins (chinook salmon), but that will often only be the case if that’s the only place that offers the needed protection.
Coho love to congregate in slow-moving pools, back eddies, soft pocket water on the edges of fast-flowing water, seams, and lower portions of a drift (not quite the tail-out).
Sometimes we call this non-moving water frog water, and it can be a great place to target coho.
River fishing for salmon basics
There are many basics (and advanced tips!) to river fishing for salmon that I cover here, that you should review, but I will also try to summarize them briefly as well on this page.
This page will be more focused on coho salmon as a subset of river fishing for salmon knowledge.
One of the most important and often first things I explain to new salmon anglers is that salmon stop eating when they’re in freshwater.
Their existence as a calorie-consuming machine slows down and then stops entirely somewhere between saltwater staging and freshwater entry.
The sexual organs begin to mature and displace all other bodily activity of the migrating salmon.
What this means is that generally speaking, the goal in salmon angling as opposed to other types of angling doesn’t involve using terminal gear that imitates the primary food source of the salmon.
Now it is true that we will still get salmon to bite in the freshwater on stuff that imitates small bait fish or we will get them with plug-cut herring and a variety of other techniques, however, that is not always the best way or an effective method at all in some cases.
I like to divide the approaches to river salmon angling as appealing to a salmon’s sense of smell and taste, vs trying to trigger an aggression strike.
How to Catch Coho Salmon Spoon Fishing the Vedder River
FAQ
What is the best bait for coho salmon?
Usually the best tactic is a simple bobber rig. Suspend a size-2 to size-6 hook about 4-6 feet under a bobber. Bait with small spawn sacs, salmon skein, tube jigs tipped with waxworms, small pieces of shrimp, nightcrawlers or minnows.
What is the best depth to catch coho?
Fishing for coho is quite a bit different than your usual chinook tactics. For starters the fish are shallow. Best depths are usually in the top 50 feet of the water column, especially for actively feeding coho found this time of year. In recent years my most productive depths have been 25 to 35 feet.
What is the best time of day to catch coho salmon?
When it comes to time of day, since the coho are up in the water column, early in the morning is often the most productive. Later in the day when the sun is higher it can slow down a bit. This is less of a factor for fresh and aggressive fish like the ones you will catch off South Bowen or the Hump.