Fall in the Northwest means millions of salmon heading home up big rivers, small tributary rivers, and creeks. As the weather gets colder, the coho fishing heats up as anglers look to chase those last few days of salmon fishing for the year. I love chasing coho salmon because they fight hard, the acrobatics of the coho jumping out of the water, and just how many different baits and colors you can catch these silver salmon with.The first time I really targeted coho, I stayed true with solely fishing spinners of every color, both casting and trolling in the boat. Coho love big, aggressive and vibrant baits from hot pink colors to fast action baits. When I go chase coho salmon, I love fishing with these lures and baits. Spinners – The most popular and common lure to chase coho. Big and flashy spinners will get the attention of coho, and the takedown when casting or trolling. For me, spinners have been super successful on any part of the river chasing coho, and the ease of swapping colors and styles makes it easy to find what the coho want. SpinFish – Coho love feeding on bait, and using SpinFish is a great lure to use if you don’t like using herring or anchovy. I love the ease of SpinFish with just stuffing with some bait and sending it! The best part about Spanish is not only the motion of the lure, but how long the bait stuffed in the SpinFish will last. And if a coho short-bites the SpinFish, you can leave it in the water and keep fishing with it, something you can’t do with straight bait.Plugs – Probably one of my favorite coho fishing baits just for the massive takedowns, I love back trolling plugs, but also forward trolling plugs in shallow water. I love to long line a plug out the back of the boat and just see what happens. More often than you think, the plug gets a bite just from being obnoxious and fast-actioned.Herring – Coho in the ocean love chasing fresh bait, and herring is one of those solid baits to have all season long. Some days the coho will not leave the herring along, and you will go through a few trays of bait easy. But coho love to strip or short strike the herring, so be prepared to have a fresh herring rigged to swap out. Salmon Eggs – Nothing beats some cured eggs under a bobber. Using a good blob of eggs cured with ProCure or other egg cure / attractants will help get the coho to bite eggs the farther up the river you fish. And always carry multiple different kinds of eggs, with different cures, as the coho might want a specific scent or cure one day versus the next day.Jigs – Taking a jig and moving it up and down the water get the coho fired up! Fishing with jigs continues to be more and more popular, and the number of colors and styles continues to grow every year. I love when a coho will chase a jig moving up and down, especially when they bite the jig on the drop then you have to make a massive hookset! Just be prepared to lose a few jigs in shallow water, don’t ask me how I know!
