are you fishing Chico? gorst? Eating at this point is the furthest thing from their mind. They have no desire to eat anything for food value once they start to stage at the mouth of a creek.
There are plenty of places to catch fish that will take a fly, but a lot of the time the sheer amount of people in the water will spook them. If you have a lonely beach with staging cohos, you should be able to catch some on soft hackle or spider patterns, same with chums.