OK,

So what is your favorite technique for fishing silvers in the river? I've always seemed to have decent luck with Steely style spoons and corkies in the past but I know there are lots of different ways people like to fish. So, what do you use?

Also, How ebout using a Dick Nite spoon? What size? What color? How long a leader? What kind of leader? How do you fish it?

I'm asking because I have been offered a seat in a drift boat for Saturday on the Sky and would like to know ahead of time how others like to fish for them

Plugs can be deadly on coho if your in the right spot.Look for them jumping in some of the slow water.Orange Firetiger,Dr.Death,Blue Pirates are all good.

Ditto on the wiggle warts. Try small spinners in bright colors (orange, cherise, blue pirate, charturese), eggs in bright orange or red, and Dick Nite spoons. Under various conditions, these will all work.

Or not....... There are times, perhaps more often than not, that nothing works. Absolutely nothing. Coho will be rolling and jumping everywhere (almost into your boat!) but they will not touch anything. When this happens, keep moving. Find another hole with more cooperative fish.

Also, be sure to use a very slow retrieve for all of the above lures.

Baitwraped U-20. Cast , retrive slowly, and hang on!!!
This was my go to lure before WDFW made me go to single point babless in the Chehalis system.

My go to method for silvers in the tribs would be to cast and retreive slowly a "HOT PINK" wiggle wart.If no luck then switch to a forest green / silver blade blue fox spinner,size depends on depth.If both of these aren't producing then go with diver bait if legal.If all three of these fail then switch rivers or get some beer and watch some football.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Nothin beats one of my Silver Slayer spinners in size 4 or 5. I like to fish my spinners in slower water. Bait and/or jigs under a float works too. If you get desparate tie on a 12 foot leader and start tosing. (JOKE)

Wow! This board is great! Thanks for the responses and keep them coming!

One of my favorite techniques that was until recently a secret of O.P. guide Bob Kratzer is jigging a 1/4 ounce jig.

If you find coho in slack water, which is common, simply cast your jig, let it drop to near the bottom and jig it back to you. Try to imagine the jig making 10 inch hops up and down as you slowly retrieve it. Lift your rod tip about ten inches, drop it fast and reel in the slack as it drops. Coho will slam this. I have gotten dozens on my home made jigs. I use a Gami 1/4 ounce jig head and tie on Flashabou. Best colors seem to be cerise, copper, red and blue.

Great board

I cannot believe that Dick Nites have not been mentionened. For me along with probly most of the other snoho coho fisherman it is a size 1 or 0 dick nite in either silve/black dots, 50/50. silver/green and silver/chartuese. my .02 cents

Dave,
Your jig method is very interesting and sounds easy.
I'll have to give that O.P. secret method a try!
Appreciate your info very much!
This is awesome board!!

Summer-Run

Dave's right - swimming jigs is a great method. I got lazy this year and stuffed 1/4 oz jigheads into a couple of small hoochies. Works great so far - and faster then the vice/thread/flashabou thing.

Hay bank of Duvall, how is the drift boat working out?

Gary-

I'm headed up to the Snohomish on Sunday for a little bank angling. Send me an email if you want to meet up.

Dee

I'm new to silver fishing.........35+ yrs.

1. In tide water----Plugs, wiggle and Mag, pink, orange, blues.

2. Spinners---Around snags, logs, brush---Blue fox----Silver blades-- Chartreuse, Blue, pink, Fire Tiger

3. FST's, Dick Nite's----Mostly a let out the right amount of line.........put in rod holder. The dick nites, can be cast and retrieved "Very, very, very, very" slow.

4. Kwikfish---wrapped........

5. Bobber and jig

1, 2 and 3---Are in my boat, ALL the time from October----January........

"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"

Stuffing a jig in a hoothie sounds like it would act the same as using a Gitzit with a jig. Gitzit's are very effective for Bass and rockfish. I know a friend of mine was fishing a Gitzit on Lake Washington a few years ago up by 520 and had a 9lb silver hit it. Might have to try one in the river! I tried one once on the Snoqualmie a few years ago and had a large whitefish grab it.


Thanks to everyone for all their techniques! This really helps. Now I just have to get out on the river more and try them out!

Thanks for sharing all your Coho secrets!!
I've learned a lot just from this post!!

Summer-Run

I like to use a mtalic blue/ siver bladed blue fox across the face of a tailout when they have been spooked by other anglers

I prefer the Krocodile spoon in hammered nickel finish with an orange flash or stripe, and I always switch out the hooks that come on it for a Gamaktsu siwash. This spoon has almost always caught Silvers for me in the rivers.

It's weird cuz in the salt the old joke adage "it doesnt matter what color you use, as long as it's green" seems to hold true, but in the rivers the orange on chrome or nickel has always worked best for me. I also fish the smallest Dick Nite (half and half) on a 3-ft leader with a sliding egg sinker, but sometimes you can't keep the Dollies and Cuts off the little spoon. But the Kroc has consistently got me hook-ups over the years, more so than anything else.

If I can't get them to hit spoons I switch to "Plan B" -- side-planing with plugs.

Hey Dave - (PSS don't tell anyone) I guided the Alagnak up in AK and the jig was my coho killer. 1/4 to 1/2 oz depending on the water, in colors - Cerise and Chartruese rabbit hair. Another place besides slack water that jigs work really well is the area slightly down stream of a bend in the river where there is a sand bar on the inside that drops off as the water moves to the other bank. The water will kind of "dance" where this occurs, and the holes usually deep. The fish may not be noticable all the time but they stack up in these holes just below the lip of the sand. As soon as one of these jigs pops over the lip into the hole you'd better hold on. The really seem to key on the vertical dropping motion.

A typical day up there between 3 guys was 80 to a 100 fish. No Joke. Your arms were worn out.

Depending on the water conditions I also like to toss hammered brass spoons, the half oz variety. Speaking of, these things are getting harder then hens teeth to find. The real brass spoons not the lightweight brass plated tin POS ones. Anyone have any leads?

BW - It's opened up a bunch of water for me - THANKS!!

The hoochie/jighead thing has me looking for bass tubes in the right colors - bright greens, orange, pink...ect. It's much easier than tying jigs.

For those who suggested using jigs for coho I owe a thanks. My boy and I each caught one today on jigs, one about 5# the other about 15#...beautiful fish. We fished them just as suggested, cast out, let them sink, hop once or twice, let sink, repeat. We also caught and released about 4-6 others that we foul hooked. All were caught on blue/black marabou 1/4oz. We tried throwing blue fox spinners and wiggle-warts with no success.

Thanks again!

RM

TC: I bet you wont be surprised that I learned about jigs for coho on the Alagnak. They are my go to coho lure anytime I can find fish in water soft enough to work them properly.

They are not yet popular in B.C. But I'm headed to the Vedder next week and hope shoe those Canadian coho how well they work.

Hey Dave ,hope your not coming up till we get some rain ,it's mostly white chinooks right now,although there fun on the light tackle.Looks like rain is to start tuesday or wednesday ,then the coho will come in droves.I have been trying the jigs ,but under a float ,this week I'll give em a shot as you mentioned ,the harrison has some nice dead water that will suit this technique.Only problem is I'll probably end up catching every chum in the vicinity ,good for the roe supply I guess.

DK:

I'm coming up Wednesday. If the river is still low I will fish sturgeon. If the rains are on time it may be good by friday.

I find the chums are much more apt to take a jig under a float that one that is jigged. I tried the jigs in the Vedder last year but the chums were so thick I kept foul hooking them. I did do very well on coho using the jigs at the mouth of the Vedder.

You ever try fishing the Harrison ,fly fishing for coho off one side of the boat with a sturgy rod off the other ,gotta love it.If you see a blue North River with Bent Rods on the side ,stop and say hello.

I would like to thank everyone for their excellent advice. Unfortunatelhy nothing we tried yesterday worked but I'll be sure to continue to try them.

Thanks!

Hi All

Just a little piece of information. I noticed a few boats on the OP using the jig/pink hoochie method for the 1st time 7 or 8 years ago. I tried it over there with no luck. On the other hand, I have talked to people who have had great success with it over there.

I have had success using the above for humpies. They just slam it.

Dave

I am going to have to get a lesson on the jig technique from ya, I have yet to catch a fish doing this. The only way I can catch those Silvers is with the Dick Nites.

Instead of hoochies, I prefer to use the pink steely worms. The pinks and silvers nail them. Kings and steelhead will gobble them now and then too.

Just grab some gammi jig heads in the 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 ounce range, and some 4-6 inch pink worms and you are in business. Cut off the first inch or 2, and push the worm on the hook like you would for bass fishing. You want it swimming to you with good rising and falling action.

The thing I like best about this method as opposed to the dnite approach is that the strikes are much harder and you can often watch them chase it down and smash it. If the fish are biting - you'll know it. If they aren't - you just accept it and move on. No one can say you are 'floosing' with this approach. But you do have to be careful not to snag. If done improperly, this method can result in lots of fish snagged - especially if the fish are in thick. In that situation, a float and jig or float and bait is the ticket.

BTW - looking back on the post about catching 2 fish and foul hooking 5-6 others - all I can say is that you were not doing it right or you were fishing in an area with too many fish and jigging should not have been tried. That foul hook to legit hook ratio is terrible. Reminds me of the drift fisherman who snag 10 fish per 1 legit at the mouth of the wallace when the chum are in. Terrible sportsmanship in my opinion. Accidently snagging fish here and there can't be helped sometimes, but if you accidently hook fish after fish - is it really considered an accident? (off my soap box now)

*** edit to add that I'm not attacking the guy who shared his trip success with his son above. When you are new to salmon fishing, foul hooking them accidently is to be expected sometimes. It's the guys how do it for 'sport' just so they can brag about the 30 salmon they caught that get to me. **********


My guess is that you were just jigging wrong. You see buzz bombers make the same mistake. Yes, sometimes yanking the jig 2 to 4 feet straight up and letting it drop back down can draw savage strikes - but it will also result in many snagged fish. THe upward motion should be deliberate, but not forceful. Just lift the tip 4-18 inches, and then drop it down allowing a slight bow \ slack line to form. I purposely do it slow enough that if I feel a bump, I stop, so as to not drive the hook into the side of a fish. Since 90% of the bites will come as the jig free falls, you don't have to worry about missing strikes while raising the jig.

Cast out, let sink to bottom, but don't let it settle or you'll risk losing it between rocks. Once you do this enough, you'll get to know the snaggy spots vs the clear spots very well. I rarely lose jigs now. I hit bottom, then start cranking the reel and jigging as I slowly crank - raise tip, drop, raise tip, drop - sometimes I'll drop back down to bottom once or twice - but jigging at mid depth or near athe surface is often just as good as being on the bottom.

Anyway - the approach is not 'bottom bouncing' or 'hopping' the jig off the bottom - it is swimming the jig (I call it "free jigging") through the water in an effort to draw a strike from any aggressive fish in the hole. And they will chase these jigs from quite a ways away. It's a very exciting way to fish. But it can be a downer if you do it wrong and have to waste a bunch of time dealing with foul hooked fish...