Alaska Coho Salmon Facts and Fishing Tips

Fish Alaska Species Guide: Coho Salmon

by Marcus Weiner

In their ocean form, coho are silver, with white bellies and gums, and have small black spots on their backs and upper lobe of their tails. Then when they enter freshwater, they began to slowly darken, and end up with dark heads and red bodies at spawning time. Males will ultimately develop hooked upper jaws called kypes.

Mature Alaska coho salmon return to spawn in rivers from July through October. Fertilized eggs remain in the gravel until the following spring, as embryos live off their yolk sacs. Newly hatched coho emerge in May or June, then will spend 1- to 3 years in rivers, or up to 5 years in lakes, growing larger before heading to the ocean. Most coho stay at sea for about 18 months before returning to spawn. They average 8- to 12 pounds; fish over 20 pounds are caught. And since they feed so aggressively at sea, later returning fish will often be the biggest of the year for that run, all things considered.

Best Places to Fish

Some of the best places to fish for Alaska coho salmon include the following rivers: Situk, Kenai, Tsiu, Togiak, and Nushagak. Saltwater hotspots include Valdez, Seward, Sitka, Craig, Icy Bay, Yakutat, and Kodiak. Saltwater anglers target silvers starting in July in Southeast, and August in Southcentral. Catchable fish remain in the ocean through August and into September in many locations. Freshwater anglers can reliably find coho in rivers in August through September; some runs continue well into October.

Numerous Ways to Catch Silvers

There are numerous ways to catch coho salmon. In saltwater, anglers mostly troll or mooch for coho. Trolling-minded anglers typically use downriggers, flashers and a natural or artificial bait. Natural baits are most often herring (either whole or plug cut) while artificial baits include spoons (Coho Killer and Kingfisher are two good options by Silver Horde), spinners, hoochies and flies. Mooching anglers use banana weights and plug-cut herring.

River Fishing

In rivers, conventional anglers troll spinners, backtroll plugs, side drift Soft Beads, free drift jigs, cast and retrieve spoons and spinners, and cast and retrieve twitching jigs. Fly anglers most often dead drift egg imitations, swing streamers, or strip topwater patterns.

Discerning anglers may choose technique-specific rods for each application, but if you are unable or unwilling to go to those lengths, you could get away with: an 8-foot spinning rod, rated for 10- to 20-pound-test line, with a fast action; a 9-foot baitcasting rod rated for 10- to 20-pound-test, with a medium action, and a 10-foot, 8 weight, fast action, fly rod.

Match the conventional rods with reels with about 20 pounds of drag and capacity to hold 200 yards of 30-pound-test braid. Choose a quality 8 weight, large arbor fly reel and load it with a weight-forward floating line, or an intermediate line. Better yet, get a spare spool so you can have both lines ready.

Ocean Fishing

In saltwater, Alaska coho salmon are aggressively feeding, so if you find the bait, you’re closer to finding the salmon. They are typically located in the upper 2/3 of the water column, so rely on your fish finder and test different depths when you are trolling. For moochers, either drop down to the depth that fish are being marked, or start at the bottom and work your bait to the top. In rivers, coho like to hold in softwater seams, at slough mouths, tight to structure like submerged trees, basically in any current break you can find. Whatever your preferred technique, look for those types of locations and you’ll catch more coho.