Hooking Coho is Easy, Landing Them is a Different Story | Fishing with Rod
Casting and retrieving a lure is probably the easiest way to get a coho salmon to bite, but landing them is not always so easy as you can see in this video. Stay tuned until the last part of the video where I provide some tips on how you can lure fish better.
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My name is Rod, and I am an avid fisherman, fishery advocate, conservationist and educator in British Columbia Canada. On this channel you will find:
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Rod! These videos are supposed to be relaxing! But they aren’t when I keep yelling “don’t lose it!!”😂
You know I cannot hear you right? 😂
@@FishingwithRod Well that was abundantly clear by all the fish you lost😜
@@ChipDarby13 😂 So sad...
Ah, I love watching the videos imaging that I could know where these spots are AND be as lucky. 7 times this month and not even a single bite, whereas you my friend, seem to just have the fish gods on your side
catches fish all day. "thats one of my most frustrating days in recent years" must be nice rod lol
Hahaha, yeah we are definitely spoiled and often don't realize how lucky we are.
Thanks for another great video. It's reminding me that I've been spending too much time on the Fraser while ignoring the river I grew up on...
I' just had a long losing streak too. Good to see that it happens to everybody once in a while. That one day it ran dirty was great fishing though.
Hey Rod, one note about what you said in this video about telling hatchery vs wild fish. I've seen and heard from others that people are cutting off the adipose fins from wild coho in the mistaken belief this makes them legal. I've changed how I explain to others that a hatchery marked fish has a healed scar where the adipose fin was, not a missing adipose fin. I know you know but since you have a large platform and reach, the language around this is really important to get right. I really enjoyed the video and experienced the same thing the other day when fishing spoons, where it seems like half the fish were spitting my Prime Lure spoon right back at me. Still an absolute blast and a highly effective technique in the right water.
Just catching up on comments now and wanting to mention that there are plans to publish some content related to what you mentioned. Thanks!
i have had days like that! i swear coho are the hardest salmon to keep on the hook. they are so good at leveraging and spitting the hook because they go wild when hooked. great vid, Rod!
Thanks! When river conditions are low and clear, the bites are lighter so they don't get hook well to begin with, some landing % is always low in early part of the season.
Coho do seem to really like the chartreuse. Both on spoons and flies, it's been one of the top producing colours for me.
Thanks Rod, still all interesting for me, even though I am not sure I would ever feel confident fishing for salmon myself, at least without a guide. Maybe one day. Carol, from Sydney, Australia
You should try it when you're here next time! I's a pretty accessible fishery, I'd be able to help you a bit on where to go and what to use etc too.
Another amazing video rod! I’ve been fishing the vedder lately and still haven’t caught a thing rlly struggling to find a good spot all of the spots I go to are stocked with people and I’ve explored practically the whole river using chartreuse silver copper and orange some of my favourite PRIME LURES salmon spoons, hope you have some advice in-terms of spots also just want to mention as we are slowly coming into winter is that I rlly enjoyed your fishin for trout/steelhead etc video hoping you could do some more of those this winter found them rlly entertaining and would love to learn more about the bait and setup, anyway hope you didn’t fall asleep before you finished this. Best of luck Haven
Fishing this early in the season while river conditions are low and clear is really tough, especially for anyone who is new to this fishery. Once it rains, river comes up, it'll be a lot better.
Another excellent video Rod 🎣👍. I passed over the Vedder Canal on October 16th . It looked like light chocolate , I manly fish Stave river. As it's only a 5 minute drive. I adro your beep beeps 😂😅 . Great to see so many none hatchy fish 😊😊.
River so cool and clear the fish looks delicious. Would be awesome on the frying pan. You ever try the long litres I like fishing with them. Happy Thanksgiving also 🖐🏽👍🏽
Ever thought about trying braided line to reduce stretch and improve hook set? We did that with the bony mouthed snakeheads that got introduced around here and improved our ability to get a hook to stick ten times over.
I was using braided actually, the main line is 15lb PowerPro. If I was using mono, a lot more fish would have been lost. 😂
One of those days Rod i feel you😂😂 happen to me today too...lol
Try adding a barrel swivel, remove the hook, add the barrel swivel to the snap ring than attach the hook to the other end of the barrel swivel, so that when the fish is fighting there's no pinch point for the fish to pry loose. Also I see you are still casting with your right arm and retrieving with your right hand, so much work. Really enjoy the videos.
Definitely! Increased my landing rate in the salt-chuck.
There is already a barrel swivel attached to the top of the spoons
The swivel for the bottom where the hook is attached is so the hook is able to turn more freely, and so the fish is not able to use the spoon to pry itself loose because the hook is able to turn more freely. 😉
@@danamills2946 yes we all know what they’re for, as I said before there’s already a swivel on the top of the spoon where you tie your line. It does the same thing
@@BigFlipz509 Having it on top of the spoon does not do the same thing at all. My landing rate with spoons has ridiculously significantly increased after adding a swivel directly to the hook portion. The spoon itself pries up against the hook allowing it to come out. If the spoon itself is jammed against the side of the fish's head, how is a swivel above the spoon going to help at all?
Yeah those prime spoons with the chartreuse are the best
That was some really nice fishing. You nailed it on the hooks. A sharp heat treated hook is going to give you the best chance of landing a good sized fighter. Walleye are our main sport fish and there's plenty of lures on the market. I switch the hook if they don't muster up. Like you said, dont cheap out. You're just cheating yourself. When we do have our Salmon run, like your's, our rivers run shallow. My best luck landing them is to keep the rod tip twords their tail. It seems like if you give them that split second of slack they spit your hook back at you. But hey, its all in that moment when you feel the thump on your lure and set the hook. And if you're set up right theres going to be a few times you will get that rush. Always a pleasure to watch your video's Rod. Cant wait for the run to pick up!
Thanks! :)
I’m glad I’m not the only one that keeps on losing coho. 😅 My landing percentage of coho has only been about 25% this year.
I feel your pain.❤ Thanks Rod 😊
Hi Rod, I saw you lost a few fish due to line snapped. That is fishing but not catching. Thank you for sharing so many excellent videos and I learned so many lessons from watching your videos. I noticed you alway tied a simple fisherman knots to connect your terminal tackles. Actually the knots are very weak; you may want to try another ones to minimize the breakage. I have good success using Paloma knots for light lines and AG Chains Knots for heavier lines or lures. You may try them out tosee if they hold your lures better. This is just my opinion.
Actually only one of the fish snapped off and hat one was most likely to be a chinook (and very likely to be foul hooked too). Usually breakage is not really an issue for me if the fish are hooked properly. Those coho just come off the hook pretty easily which just about everyone would experience under low and clear water conditions.
When using spoons, do you always use a swivel on top? Doesn't having a swivel make the spoon spin instead of wobble/flatter? I want to try using spoons too but I wasnt sure if I need to add a swivel to tie onto or tie directly onto the spoon w/o a swivel. Great video as always! Thanks for sharing.
Yep! We always have a swivel between the leader and the spoon. When retrieved slowly like I did in the video, the spoon doesn't spin, it'd just wobble from side to side. If you speed up that retrieve by a lot, it will start spinning. The swivel is there to assist the fight. Without it, I suspect that you'd lose a lot more fish when the fish starts rolling.
@@FishingwithRodi think they fish best with a barrel swivel on both ends of the spoon
15:15 had to be a chinook. Did it take you a while to learn how to fish spoons? I feel like I'm not fishing it right and end up tossing it back in the tackle box lol. On a different note I've had days where I'm hooking coho left and right but just can't seem to bring them in 😂
Yeah that was most likely a chinook. I only had a slight doubt because there have been some big coho caught so far this season. I have done spoon fishing for 28 years now, and I would say this is the one discipline that I am best at yet each year there are days like this which make me scratch my head.
Hi Rod, I contacted you last year ahead of our trip to the Chilliwack area where you gave me great advice and we had an awesome experience at the end of September. That trip was a super success with big number of salmon and Sturgeon to 220lb and we are booked to return this year too, although a little later (First two weeks in October). I know 2024 is not a Pink year, which is fine as we don't really want to catch that species. We are all from Ireland and Scotland and salmon fishing is our thing, we have many years of experience and really only target larger species of fish like Chinook, Chums & Coho. Do you reckon travelling a couple of weeks later in the fall should see us getting into more of the three C's??
The timing is good! The first two weeks of October will be the tail end of the chinook salmon fishery, but there should still be plentiful for you to target. It'll be the peak of the coho salmon fishery, and chum salmon abundance will only increase throughout October. Chum salmon fishing is usually best in the first two weeks of November. My favourite time on the Vedder is in fact the last week of October when coho salmon fishing is still very good, and the first week of November when chum salmon fishing is at its peak, plus fishing pressure is usually much lower during those two weeks. :)
Hey Rod, by chance is your E6X rod paired with the Ballastics MQ spinning reel? It looks quite close to that reel and I've been pondering this buy for a week now. Thanks Rod
That's a Shimano Vanford 2500HG.
Nice rod man. Which model do you use? Thanks for the tips!
That is a G.Loomis E6X 1082-2S STR. It is my favourite spinning rod to use for coho when casting spoons and spinners. It's 9' long, rated 6-10lb.
What kind of backpack did you use in this video? I currently just hike around with a regular purple backpack with my rods sticking out with no room to store the net.
Do you think it would make a difference if you added a barrel swivel between the split ring and the hook? So the fish can’t use the spoon as a lever. The only thought I’ve had is the hook is that much closer the the back of the throat potentially.
Always a must!
Use some Dacron/braid and run a smaller trailer hook. Reduces leverage point, it's cheaper than adding a swivel, and the smaller hook sizes does less damage on non-target species (ie trout). I love the Prime Lure spoons but the hooks, while high quality, are too big I find.
Try twitching jigs for coho, they are favorite things to bite.
Twitching jigs is effective but has its place and time. When river is low as it is right now, too many fish are foul hooked while twitching especially by new anglers. Best to save it until deeper waters are available.
You have strong, sharp hook but they are thick. I would suggest a double hookset or a thinner hooks. Just my 2 cents. Love your videos.
Actually majority of the fish lost in this video were on the VMC Techset hooks which is quite a bit thinner.
Hi Rod, What is brand and model of net you are using? Thanks
That is a Moby Net, made in Maple Ridge BC. The model is called "DK Special". You can go into one of the fishing stores that carry their nets and order it if you would like to get one. There's a wait for sure though because the owner Don is the only one who builds those nets. You can also message Don directly on Moby's IG and order from him.
Maybe try tightening your drag up just a bit and set that hook a bit harder those salmon have hard mouths. Just a suggestion, great vids love watching them!
Yeah for sure. It's interesting to see a few comments that suggest loosening the drag while a few suggest tightening the drag. The initial hookset is so critical and it's gotta stick in there, but often after that coho tend to either run straight at you or away from you, and I find that is the period when they are lost. In this video, just about every fish was lost when the line went loose as the fish came toward me.
Obviously you know what you're doing, but just looking at the footage, it seems like the drag is quite tight and the fish can't take more than a few inches of line when it tries to run. I find I lose fish when I forget that I shouldn't be horsing it in. I could easily be wrong of course, it just appeared to me that way, also your rod seemed pretty maxed during the fight, maybe that's a factor too... pretty epic days though!
Coho don’t fight lol
@@andersbattiston8027you must be using 20# or higher 😅
Rod i have a question idk if you have ever fished the puntledge river on Vancouver island, there are coho running through and i was wondering if you think those lures you were using might work, do you know what gets them to bite?
I've never fished the Punledge, but you should be able to apply the spoon fishing technique for coho salmon in all the river systems.
Glad it's not just me, I lose so many fish, it's hard to seal the deal. I never count my chickens early, it's not over until the fish is on the bank. For some reason when fishing for Cohos, the cohos always get off the hook but the accidentally hooked pinks that you don't want never get off the hook.
I don't count the chickens until the fish are in the cooler lol. I've had all kinds of fish loss experiences. 16 years ago, I landed a really nice hatchery coho, brought it up (this was before we started using a net) a fairly steep slope, only to have the fish unhooking itself, rolling down the slope back into the water and swimming away.
@@FishingwithRod that sounds heartbreaking, but I think I can beat your story. :-p This year I had a coho in the net, I was trying to unhook the fish and somehow it got off the hook and flopped out of the net and back into the water. Btw I'm in Southeast Alaska. But you are right, it's not over until they are in the cooler! Thanks for your awesome fishing videos!
Ouch lol... These fish are heartbreakers.
have you ever tried the alouette river for coho ?
Not since many, many, many years ago.
Nice 😮
Thanks 😅
I lost 5 cohos this season only got one this year, this is one of the hardest season for me 😢
Losing fish early in the season is not uncommon. River conditions make them bite so lightly so more often than not they are not hooked well. I was frustrated but I wasn't surprised in this video for sure. Once it rains, the second half of October is way better when it comes to landing these fish.
Hey Rod, what color prime lure would you use for chinook.
Not sure really, I don't really target chinook salmon with spoons, but I did catch one on orange and gold the other day.
@@FishingwithRod those prime lure’s really seem to work great. Thanks
Went to vedder river this afternoon. Saw a lot of Vietnamese snagging fish there. No one did sport fishing. Feel soooooo bad. the fishing situation is never like several years ago now.
That's unfortunate. There are groups of people along the river who would not play by the rules of course, but the majority of anglers are trying to do the right thing. I would say two decades ago there were many more bad behaviours compared to now. That said, this year has been a lot worse than previous few years.
Is this possible or as effective with a float still attached or is it easier just to have two rods with you (if possible), one with your float setup and a second with no float and only lures?
The float and lure setups are completely different if you want to fish efficiently, so I usually carry both. The float setup is a baitcasting or centerpin setup, while lure is used with a spinning setup like this video.
@@FishingwithRod thanks Rod, always helpful!
I was always taught to keep your rod tip up when playing a fish (unless they jump, then tip down if you are fast enough). It seems you are playing a lot of them with your rod sideways, is this intentional?
It is actually. For Rivers i do this quite a bit for a couple of reasons. It's easier to bring the fish back if it is shooting downstream, sometimes I even have the rod tip sticking into the water. Coho salmon jump a lot, I find that I can keep the line tension better with this angle than having the rod straight up. If I am fishing in a lake or ocean, my rod is always pointing toward the sky.
Gotcha! I was taught this in an ocean (boat) fishing context so that totally makes sense. Good luck out there.@@FishingwithRod
I don’t think I have ever gotten that many bites in one visit EVER 😢
lol, some days I can't buy a bite.
Are you still allowed to catch and release on the tidal Fraser or is it closed completely
It's completely closed to salmon fishing right now, including catching and releasing.
@@FishingwithRod thank you
Twist your hook a tad so the tip isn't parallel to the shank. Might help your hookups.
How far inland is this and what river? just wondering from an islander :)
There are way more and better river options for coho salmon than where this video was (Chilliwack River). If I live on the island, I'd just be fishing there without going anywhere else.
Where’s abouts on the river is this?
@@maxkidds-brodie5089Rod is smiling, I ain't giving up my spot......
Where about? I don't remember... 😆 My suggestion would be to no focus so much on the spots but rather the techniques and timing. I can send you to a "good" spot and it wouldn't make a difference on the results. For example, the day after the third segment was filmed (where I lost a bunch including snapping one off), all of the fish had gone further upstream and the "good" spot had turned into a "bad" spot. Timing, technique, and experience outweigh locations.
Oh I know that spot, and so do a lot of anglers it seems these days 😂
In alaska,everybodys is using the pixies
Pixies were once very popular in Southern BC waters, around two decades ago. I remember they were used by almost every angler when throwing lures for coho salmon. That hype disappeared really fast for some reason, we have a pretty competitive lure market around here.
I know a village inuit where they fished Arctic char,they used only one colors of pixies,brass and red,and they order it by the case
Might just be observational bias, but you seemed to lose then with your rod tip high as they were fighting on the surface, maybe forgetting to drop your rod to keep them down? Not being critical as even after 30 years of consistent salmon fishing I’ve made the same mistake at the beginning of the season due to excitement,
Yeah I mentioned this in another comment actually. I don't always keep my rod tip down like that, only certain situations. I do it for coho a lot simply because I find that I can keep the fish on better when they jump.
Good to see bad days happen
Prime lures hooks are not the best. Replace hook and maybe add swivel. Working for me.
What hooks do you prefer?
Maruto sickle barbless open eye works best for me with prime lures spoons and spinners.
@@krzysztofr8598 Yep, those are in fact my favourites too!
Yeah, hooking a salmon is easy. Landing is really something else.