Was out all weekend fishing, and now that I'm back I feel as if I am somewhat qualified to give some advice (being somewhat qualified compared to people like Rod).
I'll start by saying, spoons vs spinners. It's an odd thing. I've seen a few people mention they have 0 luck on spinners, all luck on spoons. It is 100% based on river. This sounds very odd to many people - but it's true, and holds true every time.
Personally for me, on the Vedder, the coho do not like spinners. I'm not saying you can't catch a coho in the Vedder on a spinner, but I am saying you will be badly out fished by the guy next to you using spoons if he knows what he is doing. It's held true year after year for me on that river, every single trip. Many times I'll start with the spinner, simply because it's what on my rod from fishing the island, only to switch up to a spoon and limit out in 10 casts.
This weekend, same thing. I was being stubborn, because typically island coho seem to like spinners better than spoons. An hour into the morning I had hooked up one fish, and Kitty had hooked up 8 already. First cast after switching to a spoon, I got one. What makes it even more difficult, is on that same river, we went higher up in the system later that day. I ended up out fishing Kitty 7 to 1 on the spinners now, they wouldn't touch the spoons. It never hurts to constantly switch up to figure out whats working. Below is a list of colours I'd never leave home without (for coho). This will depend on where I'm fishing obviously, for example, the only river I've fished where I found they liked blue is indeed the Vedder, blue would be at the bottom of my list on the island. Colour also definitely changes preference based on what system, time of day, run of fish (summer vs early fall vs late fall run coho). All these things take hours on the water to figure out... and it's why I keep a detailed journal.
I'll start with the Vedder as many of you fish there... Spoons are the go to. Stick with solid metal finishes on the Vedder in my experience. Brass/Silver, Copper/Silver are always getting fish for me. If those haven't worked, I'll run a brass/orange. Last thing to go out would be a blue/silver. If you don't have access to R&B, and only want to buy Gibbs from the stores locally, the blue illusion coho spoons are hard to beat. I've also had some very good days on the small (3/16) gold hammered crocs with the orange stripe. One piece of advice I'll give - keep changing until you start hitting fish. By changing it up, I don't necessarily mean changing colours right away. I'd stick with silver/brass and start by a simple cast retrieve (2/5 or 3/8 are best for this, smaller is better for frog water). If the cast retrieve isn't working, cast out and jig the spoon with minimal reeling in right along structure. You will need a sensitive rod for this, as many times the coho hit on the flutter/drop and it's hard to pick up on. After that, try simply swinging them if you're in moving water, then try casting up and "rolling them" by letting the spoon bounce bottom with a small lift every time it hits to prevent snagging. Once you've tried all of that, then switch colour. I wouldn't try different things for more than 10 casts in a row without success - if they want it, they'll let you know quick.
The main spoon colours I use for coho, in order, even on a new river until I figure out what they want are:
1) Brass/Chartreuse - never leave without one of these, especially on the island, they are deadly
2) Brass/Silver
3) Brass/Orange
4) Silver/Orange
5) Silver/copper
6) Copper/orange
7) Silver/blue
One I haven't really check out yet is the brass/green, looking forward to giving that a try,
Spinners:
1) Copper blade/orange body #1 on the island
2) Gold blade/chartreuse body a close second
3) All silver
4) All copper
Many more I will be trying out this fall... and I'll let ya know how it goes.
Hope this helps a bit for the new metal chuckers out there, it is a deadly method once you're keyed in!
Cheers,
Dan
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Topic: Spoon/Spinner colour combos (Read 13516 times)