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[Chehalis_Steel]

Hey everyone
I'm in the middle of tying some Calfornia Neals for Coho and I need some advice on what color I should use. In the last few seasons I've only used chartreuse and it worked pretty well. What other colors would be worthwhile to try? "Chum green" looks pretty good but I'm not sure how well it will work compared to chartreuse. Besides that, are there certain colors that work better under different lighting conditions?

[bobby b]

Ive had success on both green and copper ... copper early in the day, green late in the day.

[John Revolver]

sparse tinsel, silver, blue , turquoise , bright greens.

I've always had the best luck with sparser flies.  Also, always use a non-slip loop knot on the fly so it has more action. this is key. good luck out there!

[RalphH]

olive olive and more olive.

A well modified olive wooly bugger is my most consistent coho fly. I make the body from plastic or sparkle chenille, Ice dub and UV ice dub, olive UV palmer chenille. I put some  gold polar flash in the tail, 4 to 12 strands. olive dyed grizzly saddle for the hackle. A gold bead or conehead .

Tie it big tie it sparse. Sizes 6 to 12 2xl to 3xl.

Got my first cohoes of the season today!

[243Pete]

Bright days with clear water it's black with black flash/ tinsel after first light, at first light it's peacock/ greens.
Cloudy/ colored water it's olives and chartreuse colors.
Purples and pinks with slightly more colored/ darker water in slightly bigger sizes like bunny leeches with marabou collars and a fair bit of flash.

I dunno, so many people have so many choices in colors, patterns and sizes and ect, I say it's how you present the fly mostly as I've had friends and myself catch coho on the oddest patterns and colors at the most random times when one believes that a certain patterns should work for that situation.

Hit two late in the morning on the single hand but couldn't get them to stay. 

[RalphH]

I haven't seen anyone use a black fly for decades but I recall an old gentleman on the Vedder showing me a black fly back when I started out:

size: #8 black Salmon
thread: hot pink
Body: copper tinsel
hackle: blue hackle fibres
wing: black bear
head: hot pink

this was before crystal flash, flashabou etc and it was an attractive pattern. I have been think of tying some. I've also caught a few coho late in the season on black wooly buggers while targeting trout.

I can't say I have found much correlation between color and light conditions. I tend to cycle through colors when the bite goes off. As I said an olive wooly bugger is my first choice more than half the time. Second is a gold version rolled muddler (wood duck wing,gold tinsel body) or standard or olive muddlers. Yellow and red flies third; the KCK mainly but a Mickey Finn is still productive. Yellow/red or orange combinations is a good choice in tannin stained waters though still my olive WBs out produce them for me. I have a variety of other patterns. Many people on the Vedder and Harrison prefer blues though other than some fish on blue and silver Xmas trees it hasn't been a big producer for me.

I keep experimenting, varying standard patterns and trying new but Idon't think it is the fish that change much but more the preference of the anglers.

[BBarley]

Wondering what makes the hatchery relatives down in southern BC so different than the brutish big cousins to the north? Usually use big flash intruders and flashy tinsel body flies up north. Favourite of mine is a big bucktail with a blue polar bear/krystal flash wing/throat over a tinsel body with a stubby white hair tail. Seems like the hatchery fish like sparse and slim as with most other presentations.

Very curious why pellet raised pen fish have such a curious predisposition as adults to minnows when alot of wild native run fish seem to have a different mentality when returning to spawn.

[spoiler]

blue is a very good color for Coho especially when tied on a small sparse fly. Sometimes this is the key to catching those tight-lipped fish in low clear water conditions. Another good pattern to try at first light is a bright pink marabou pattern with some flash tied in.
Usually only good for the first 20 minutes and then switch to smaller sparser patterns. Never rule out black. It's one of those colors that can really trigger a bite when nothing else is working. It's also my go-to color for summer run Steelhead. Any black marabou design with a bit of flash and bright colored head will work. Another good color is gold flashabou. I have caught so many Coho over the years on gold spinners and spoons that it just seemed natural to use gold for flies and it works!

[Chehalis_Steel]

blue is a very good color for Coho especially when tied on a small sparse fly. Sometimes this is the key to catching those tight-lipped fish in low clear water conditions. Another good pattern to try at first light is a bright pink marabou pattern with some flash tied in.
Usually only good for the first 20 minutes and then switch to smaller sparser patterns. Never rule out black. It's one of those colors that can really trigger a bite when nothing else is working. It's also my go-to color for summer run Steelhead. Any black marabou design with a bit of flash and bright colored head will work. Another good color is gold flashabou. I have caught so many Coho over the years on gold spinners and spoons that it just seemed natural to use gold for flies and it works!

I have had success with very flashy gold body rolled muddlers as well as black marabou egg-sucking leech. This was mostly in slightly colored water or low-ligh conditions. But blue is the one color that I haven't really used. I will definitely give that a try this season with some blue california neals and rolled muddlers.

[RalphH]

I don't think there are any significant differences between hatch and wild fish here. Perhaps others can weigh in?

However most of the streams and rivers I fish within 1 to 1.5 hours of my home have more (most years) wild or unmarked fish than hatchery fish. The usual pattens for the local all apply with some difference by stream.

I have fished for coho up north and pattern selection does seem to be different, as least as far as the flies my guides selected for me.

I'd also note I don't fish the Vedder/Chilliwack much for coho with a fly or at all - unless I have to. Most inclined to fish a drift rod or spin gear there. Was hoping to do more this season but maybe not this week with all that rain out there.

One thing that may account for our coho here preferring small flies may be that they feed on sticklebacks their last month in stream and perhaps small bait in the chuck.

Wondering what makes the hatchery relatives down in southern BC so different than the brutish big cousins to the north? Usually use big flash intruders and flashy tinsel body flies up north. Favourite of mine is a big bucktail with a blue polar bear/krystal flash wing/throat over a tinsel body with a stubby white hair tail. Seems like the hatchery fish like sparse and slim as with most other presentations.

Very curious why pellet raised pen fish have such a curious predisposition as adults to minnows when alot of wild native run fish seem to have a different mentality when returning to spawn.

[243Pete]

Blue and white twitch jigs worked really well for a buddy last week, even after first light he still managed to get some coho to take so I don't see why a blue fly wouldn't work well.

Black is just something I've used years ago especially on the Cap, works really well in certain pools and I just feel that with brighter conditions the color doesn't stand out to much sort of like a bright light bulb when compared to colors like hot pink or chartreuse.

Hook: L11S-3H size 4-6
Head: Medium to large bead head in either copper or black
tail: Black crystal flash about a little longer than shank length
body: Black palmer chenille medium
collar: Black Shlappen trying to keep most of the feathers about half the length of the hook shank with 2 wraps

I don't fly fish the Vedder much either but once and a while when you can find a nice run without to many people it can be fun and relaxing, a little extra bonus for being able to hook a coho or a chum on a fly that is no bigger than the first digit of my thumb.

I would have thought that most of the time the reaction that coho give for striking small flies or even large flies is more of a protective/ aggression towards predators or their eggs like small fish, leeches and other such things that lurk below.
It's possible it's a feeding reaction to seeing small fish like sticklebacks.

[bigsnag]

I don't think there are any significant differences between hatch and wild fish here.

You are right, I don't think so either.