Resident Coho Salmon Fishing at Jeff Head
I figured I would share another Seattle fishing report with you all. The Resident Coho Salmon may not be monsters right now, but they are biting and there are plenty of them out there. If you are looking to have fresh salmon for your next summer bbq, I would go fishing in Seattle’s Marine Area 10 for Resident Coho Salmon.
Sullie and I met at the marina to head back out to Jeff Head for a little Resident Coho Salmon fishing this morning. Isn’t it amazing how early the days start in the summer? We met at Edmonds at 6am and it was late enough that I was overwhelmed by this eager feeling…
Boy we had better get a move on! It’s already so bright outside and we haven’t even left the dock yet!
The breeze inside the marina was a sign that we would be dealing with wind chop today. Much different than yesterday’s fishing trip. We fought a little to get out there. The wind waves were about a foot high. Which is just enough to let you feel it in my Boston Whaler.
Seattle Resident Coho Salmon
Seattle’s Marine Area 10 has a number of areas where Resident Coho Salmon concentrate. But for some reason the general area south of Jeff Head is stuffed with them. Those early summer Coho Salmon are exclusively resident to Puget Sound. They don’t migrate out to the ocean and back, like their bigger cousins that come back at the end of the summer.
But the Sound is a fertile nursery. The Coho that decide to stay local end up growing quickly as the summer rolls on. What I love most about these fish is their aggressiveness. Right now they are thick as can be in Marine Area 10 and are hungry and growing fast. They gobble up everything and anything that looks like a protein source.
A Pretty Good Seattle Fishing Report!
I wanted to fish due south of Jeff Head, where there always seems to be a few tide rips in the open water. The wind was building a little, but it was still calm enough to see that there were a few messy tide rips around that should concentrate the bait and fish. I snapped on the same gear that we had fished with the day before, 11″ flashers (purple haze and a moon jelly/green glow), one Gold Star u.v. white/purple haze hoochie, one slim white Ace Hi Fly. Leaders are about 30″ tied with 40 pound P-Line fluorocarbon and Gamakatsu 3/0 Octopus Hooks.
We set up and started trolling and it wasn’t more than a minute and Sullie had a fish on! I scooped it with the net and we celebrated out first Coho Salmon to the boat this morning. The wind and the chop built throughout the morning, to the point where it was impossible to see if we were fishing around any rips. The fish were still around so it didn’t bother me too much.
The fishing was great and we weren’t without a takedown for more than a few minutes all morning long. We put three nice little Coho in the cooler and decided we would wait until we were ready to leave to keep our fourth and final Coho. We fished for a couple hours, which seemed like more than enough to feel like we put in enough effort to justify the run down. But eventually we caught what we decided was going to be our final fish needed to get our limit.
Saltwater Coho Salmon Limit And The Gear That Caught Them
Time To Break Out The Smoked Salmon Recipes!
The wind had gotten the best of us and we decided to make it an early morning. I am sure that if we stayed out, the Coho would’ve just kept on biting. When I got home I took the fillets from yesterday and today and brined them… Can’t wait for some smoked salmon candy!