Was wondering where a fellow might find some decent bank acsess for the coming Coho run. I'm not asking for any zippers,....just an idea where to explore for some decent bank acsess! Dont want your secret holes or acsess points, just some help for a dry sider who would like to do his own foot work but needs some direction! Thanks for any replies in advance!

Steelyman,

Coho are my favorite fish to catch!

I don't known if you knew that I wrote and article on this board about a special method that I had developed to catch coho on jigs but you might want to do a search and read it if you have not yet had the opportunity to do so. Try looking under "Learn my hottest method for jig fishing coho!"

Tacoma biologists are predicting over 10,000 fish a week back to the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery this fall. They had a return of over 82,000 last year to Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery! They said that they are expecting "double" that number this year. If true, that means that the Cowlitz Coho runs could reach 164,000 to the hatchery.

There is only limited foot access on the lower Cowlitz, with the "Barrier Dam" being the number one spot. If I was you I would be looking for access in the upper Cowlitz area instead of the lower Cowlitz. Tacoma will be taking 90% of those coho and trucking them to release sites such as Lake Scanewa (Cowlitz Fall dam) and releasing them there for their upward journey. The people that I have talked to who have fished the lake (both on shore and out of boats) have raved about how great the coho fishing was last year. You can expect the same if not better this fall!

Other great places to fish are Gust Backstrom Park in Morton on the Tilton River. The WDFW also has a release site there that get a pretty large share of the Cowlitz River coho.

There is also a release site in the Packwood area that has been excellent for bank excess and fishing in the past. The entire upper Cowlitz should be good fishing for coho if Tacoma's predictions are halfway accurate.

I hope this will help to catch a few nice big fat coho this year

Good luck,
Cowlitzfisherman

Just look at all the topo maps of the SW Washington Rivers and you'll find places to catch Coho this year. The Elochoman, Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis, Wahougal to mention a few. Lots of places and some to fish if you just want to go after them with a fly. If you're a fly fisherman, look me up.

Mike "steely" Mann

Elochoman, Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis! Stay out of the Wahougal, thats the last place you wanna be

The Snohomish and Skykomish Rivers have great runs of coho. Most of the fish are trapped at Sunset Falls and trucked upriver to the upper part which is full of nice holes, watch out for the thousands of boulders though. The only problem with these rivers is that the coho here are known for going lock jaw. I've found the best way to catch them is with a small nickle and gold Dick Nyte spoon under a float with a splitshot. I will be doing most of my coho fishing this year on the Puyallup, Carbon, and small streams flowing into the Hood Cannal.

Jay

anywhere in the columbia river tributarys, we are going to get a big run. They made the daily bag limit for coho 3 each, as it said in the columian on thursday. I agree with kingfisher, stay away from the washuogal!!!