Coho Fishing
What a fantastic year for coho! Large numbers of coho arrived in early June holding strong through early August, and they were big! Many of these bright, blue-sided early coho were tipping the scales at well over 10 pounds. These fish were not likely returning to our northern rivers but rather were headed to the south or central coast – hence their early arrival. The strong early presence of these fish was a great indication of what was about to come in August.
August fly-fishing was outstanding! In the history of our fly-fishing program at HNNL it ranked among our top three seasons. Double-digit days were normal and not the exception in 2015. Some of our anglers were even lucky enough to tackle a Chinook on the cast fly! Although rare, such events do happen and when they do, watch out! Not nearly as abundant as previous years, our late season local coho seemed to follow a different pattern than usual. These fish weren’t found offshore chasing deep schools of herring but instead we found them regularly driving jack herring in amongst the kelp forests into very shallow water. While looking down you could often watch pods of coho cruising for feed. These fish seemed to really focus on surface presented flies. There were many days throughout August where anglers didn’t have to throw a wet line and could watch coho voraciously attack gurglers on the surface cast after cast.