Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum

Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: CohoKiller5 on October 05, 2008, 05:17:21 PM

Title: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: CohoKiller5 on October 05, 2008, 05:17:21 PM
I got up early before the light and headed to cottonwood to start my day.  Fished there from first light till about 7:30.  No fish, not a bite.  No one even had hooked a chum or spring. (line of 8 guys maybe)  I got out of there fast as thats what exactly had happend the day before.  I headed up to Wilson rd. where i tried again to get my first coho of the year.  Again same thing.  The water was a bit murkey but otherwise conditions were good.  A guy just up river hooked a nice clean female chum and i was glad to clean his fish to keep the roe he didn't want.  Fished the run for about another hour and could not intice a bite.  I was short floating... the guy who hooked the female chum had long liters but still managed to get a clean hookset.

So off I went again to venture for the elusive coho!  I drove up to tamahi and wandered around for a bit.  Lower area there was reports of coho being caught.  The guy i talked to said he hooked a wild one early in the morning.  I ventured a bit higher up river near the big rock.  To my surprize i found 3 coho lying on the bank!  This made me pretty excited so i walked back to my car and grabbed my gear and rod and headed upriver above the big rock and crowds but still below the bridge.  I fished the pools of slack water inbehind the rocks.  It only took about 10 short drifts and i had my first coho doing arials off the end of my line.  This only lasted for a few seconds tho as it did a good enough job jumping around to pop the hook.

I casted into the same area once again and after another 10 - 15 cast or so another coho took the bait.  More arial acrobatics took place and i laughed a bit as the coho leaped into the air jumping onto exposed rocks.  It wasn't huge... maybe 5-6 lbs but after a quick spirited fight i had it on the beach. 

The 1st Coho of the year for me so as you can tell i was VERY excited.  Turned out to be a doe, and a very clean/silver one at that.

Picture from my crappy cell phone camera i took.

(http://www3.telus.net/public/bretthav/Brett/Coho1October5th2008.jpg)

WOOHOO!!!
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Stratocaster on October 05, 2008, 05:25:46 PM
Nice fish!

Cottonwoods seems to have flattened out quite a bit so that may be why it hasn't produced like last year.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the
Post by: one more cast on October 05, 2008, 06:32:09 PM
Congrats Cohokiller....persistence paid off and that's a nice looking fish.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: CohoKiller5 on October 05, 2008, 09:11:06 PM
thanks!  yeah cottonwoods is definalty not like it was the years past.


After travelling/fishing other areas of the lower river i have not seen any or heard of hardly any coho being caught on the lower river.

I imagine this due to the water being low and the coho just flying through to get to the deeper waters of the upper river where they can find pools that arn't full of chum/springs.

I visted the Fish hatchery for the first time today and was astonished to see how many coho were in the holding slots.  I would say there were easily over 100 fish if not over 200 coho mixed in with the springs in the holds and in the lower river/holding  area.   The fish are for sure making thier way up the river!

Hopefully next weekend will prove to be more productive.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the
Post by: bigguy on October 05, 2008, 10:16:40 PM
Cohokiller, great job.  I hope that this weekend will see the same results for some of us.  Looking forward to an awesome weekend of fishing and some quality time with my son!  That is a nice coho killer, keep it up! :D :) ;)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: luvnlife on October 05, 2008, 11:12:09 PM
Nice fish... way to go!
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Sinaran on October 06, 2008, 02:56:41 AM
what a beauty! :)
congrats on the job well done!
i am still seeking for my first coho of the year as well, hopefully this week i will end my drought~
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Murmillo on October 06, 2008, 10:20:53 AM
Nice Fish..
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: armytruck on October 06, 2008, 08:09:10 PM
Nice fish cohokiller . fishonsteelheader an I  headed up river at first light sunday and landed a couple beauty springs . After returning them back to the river we pounded lots of water and turf to find that elusive coho . We spotted a few moving by a few times but were not interested in our presentation . We decided to go down lower river but it was slow so we went right back up . Between the three of us we smacked into twenty plus fish , unfortunately  , not one coho but it was well worth it  ;D(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/albums/armytruck/009_G_002.jpg)(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/albums/armytruck/011_G_001.jpg)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Rodney on October 06, 2008, 08:26:45 PM
Lovely catches everyone. Armytruck, is that second chinook salmon adipose clipped?
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: armytruck on October 06, 2008, 08:31:28 PM
Yes Rodney that was a clipped spring . 8)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: CohoKiller5 on October 06, 2008, 08:46:52 PM
I never knew they clipped springs.  All the chinook i seen at the holding troughs at the hatchery all still had there adipose fines still intact.


Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Rodney on October 06, 2008, 08:49:14 PM
With the clipped chinook salmon, send the head to DFO so information of the fish can be obtained from the coded chip. Fred's Custom Tackle is one of the collection depots for these heads.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: armytruck on October 06, 2008, 08:59:12 PM
I thought it was a huge Coho when the fish got close .It  came right in close to shore real fast . I seen the clipped adipose , then the tail with all the spots on it . Sure enough I had a nice clean spring . Back to the water he went  :P . It was fun  ;D
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Rodney on October 06, 2008, 09:02:43 PM
Being a meatfisherman, I just assumed that you kept it. :-[ ;) Good stuff. :)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: armytruck on October 06, 2008, 09:21:38 PM
Being a meatfisherman, I just assumed that you kept it. :-[ ;) Good stuff. :)
OH , OH I see  where this is going there my little  friend . ;D  ::)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Rodney on October 06, 2008, 09:22:52 PM
Oops, came out wrong. ;D I meant, ME being a meatfisherman, I just assumed that you kept it. :P
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: CohoKiller5 on October 06, 2008, 09:23:38 PM
ahhahah i just realized that bigguy is my dad


lol
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: armytruck on October 06, 2008, 09:26:41 PM
That's ok my little pikeminnow :D :D ;D 8)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the
Post by: bigguy on October 06, 2008, 10:43:26 PM
Cohokiller5 keep that to yourself, I don't want any responsibility!  Remember your old nicname!!!  ;)  We caught several andipose clipped springs in Renfrew this summer.  They are releasing more all the time, I guess.  Rod are more hatcheries throughout the province making the clipping of springs more common or is it restricted to just a few hatcheries?
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: Rodney on October 07, 2008, 12:49:34 AM
My knowledge on hatchery marked chinook salmon is limited so I cannot comment on that. There are a couple of hatchery staff on the forum so I'm sure they'll answer these questions when they see them.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: FlyFishin Magician on October 07, 2008, 08:46:02 AM
Speaking of hatchery clipped springs - here's one I released.  I didn't even know it was clipped 'til I saw the photo a couple of days later!  There's a discussion about this on the "other" fishing forum.   :D

(http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v351/128/42/637281730/n637281730_1008160_9219.jpg)
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: FlyFishin Magician on October 07, 2008, 08:52:27 AM
...and back to the topic at hand...nice coho ck5!  The only coho I've landed so far are 3 jacks.  Lost a couple of adult coho - one right at the beach.  They're there, but not very active - in fact, they seem quite skiddish.  Also, I'm hoping the main run hasn't arrived yet - I suspect the coho that are present are holding in certain areas of the river and staying away from all the chum and springs.
Title: Re: october 5th. Almost, disapointing,but the 1st coho of the season saves the day!
Post by: bkk on October 07, 2008, 12:08:05 PM
Most of the hatcheries mark some of their chinook for assesment purposes. To mark and code wire tag each fish is expensive ( about $0.15 - $0.25 per fish) and most of the budgets for that have been reduced or eliminated a few years back. If you add up all of the chinook juveniles released by the DFO facilities, the amount of money needed for marking is large. It was either reduce the amount marked or cut production so the marking was reduced along with some production cuts. Sure would be nice to get that funding back but I don't see that happening any time soon.