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King & Coho Salmon Fly Fishing ??

3K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Steelheader69 
#1 ·
Just wondering why there is not much discussion of king and coho salmon fly fishing on the board ?

Quite a bit is done in the great lakes tribs.. From what I have seen on this board it does not appear to be pursued as much by FF in the PNW ?

Could it be because the great lakes tribs are much shorter in length than the PNW rivers and the fish are much easier to here ?

Great lakes tribs are maybe 100 miles of river max, many less than 50 miles from the lake. Fish are easier to locate compared to 100s of miles up to 1,000+ miles of river such as the Fraser and Columbia drainages.
 
#2 ·
PM I think that there are several reasons why salmon fly fishing has not caught on out west here.

1. Salmon come in during some of the best steelhead fishing of the year and steelhead are 10 times the gamefish as any salmon.

2. Salmon rivers out here are almost always too crowded leaving no room for flyfishers

3. the people who do is successfully are very tight lipped about when and how because the fisheries are so crowded.

4 people don't own the 11-12 weight flyrods necessary for chinook fishing

5 we spend all winter throwing heavy sink tips and when June comes around we don't want to see them again until December.

I think the main thing is though that our best steelheading occurs at the same time as the Salmon fishing
 
#3 ·
I would add that some of us have been doing the coho salmon on the fly thing for over a decade and it's exploding lately. Besides it's about the most fun you can have with the bugrod... ON THE OCEAN! Those chrome-bright ocean feeder salmon are a total kick!

In late fall lots of people get flyrods busted by chum salmon, but they don't admit it. ;)

There are five pacific salmon species and steelhead running throughout the year, and yes when you can greaseline a summer run steelhead on the surface there is little incentive to fish for upriver salmon in the fall.
 
#4 ·
Thanks, yes I can believe those reasons.

It just appears the salmon fishery is so large in PNW there would be more fly fishing for them.

Throwing a sink tip 11 and 12 weight fly rod is not fun.

I built a 10 weight king salmon fly rod 18 years ago, which I thought would handle them, forgot about it. It is not strong enough for them. We do not have as large of salmon here either, 20-30 lb max, not 30-50 lbs like out there at times.

I was so sore at the end of those king salmon days. Could probably not do it now.
 
#5 ·
yep, they hit the head of the nail

I have an old 10wt I use exclusively for Kings/Chums. I rarely get it out though. It's not quite "fly friendly" during the fall salmon season. I've brought the bug rod with me MANY times on my yearly salmon fishing trip in October and on the frequent trips in Sept and Nov. But when you're surrounded by gear fishermen, you gotta jump in their boat (which is no problem for me, was raised doing it). Plus, you have to dredge bottom, especially for the kings (though I've had a couple hit a subsurface/dry on springer runs). I hate using sinktips, rather use floating with a weighted fly. But hate either. Rather use a standard WF with a standard tied dry or sinking fly.

But yes, I've caught MANY salmon (mostly silvers and chums) on the fly. In fact, had a little zipper on a route of mine I was catching 4-6 chums in just about an hour fishing during my lunch break. It was funny to see these morons who had no idea what they were doing, and here comes a UPS driver with a bug rod nailing chum after chum, legally hooked. I released most, kept the fresher ones. Have caught alot of silvers and kings, but most are in the salt or in the flux zones of a major river into an inlet.

It's done, but not often (usually there's the religous ones you'll see). I love to hit the cutts, silvers, and chums in the salt/flux. Will be hitting them shortly in fact. :)
 
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