I think I saw your boat on the Komo4 evening news. I saw my boat Sunday night on Kiro7. They were showing a clip from this years sockeye season on Lake W. ( I had a fish on in the clip ) And they were talking about Coho Fishing opening-up on the lake.

I noticed a guide was buzz-boming the point with his client all morning. Just watching them made my arms sore. Bummer to have paid $120 to jig a buzz-bomb all morning only to get skunked.

And that leads me to hand out some fishing tips on silvers. I think every boat out there at some point nagged me for my secret. Of course I didn't give in.

When your fishing for silvers, you have to think like them, and what point of their life cycle they are in. At this point in the lake, they are in transit across the lake and hitting some of the larger holding areas on their way to Issaquah creek where most of them will spawn. Fish intransit to spawning grounds in fresh water holding areas like Yarrow Pt. have a tendancy to mill around. These fish when they mill around are usually jumping for joy and launching themselves clear out of the water or are rolling on the surface which alot of people mistake for feeding on the surface. Other things you might see that are characteristic of the intransit milling fish are two or three fish thrashing around chasing eachother on the surface. Some of these fish are also trying to shake the sealice off their bellies. Most of the fish, almost 90% of these fish will be glued to the bottom just off ledges that drop into deeper water.

One thing I noticed was a few folks trying the old dodger/flasher set-ups. This might work, but seldom pays off. Reason being when Coho enter fresh water they have already begun a transformation to a spawning phase of their life cycle. They begin to turn color, their gullets swell closed, they start to grow some nice teeth, and they turn from feeding activites to territorial disputes. All the dodger or flasher might do is spook up these fish up off the bottom and get them to suspend for a few minutes before they school back up on the bottom again. I noticed this happening after each pass a person made with the flasher set-up.

Now from this comes lure selection. Are you going to use something like a flasher/dodger set-up that typically gives fish the impression that its feeding time when they really aren't in the mood for that? Also when it comes to buzz-bombs and darts, your imitating a wounded bait fish fluttering down which most of the time Coho are reluctant to hit when they are in that phase of their life cycle.( notice my previous post...the guy with the buzz-bomb hit fish very early on. Why? a feeding instinct at best which might last briefly after sunrise)

So in this case we switch from lures that draw feeding instincts to lures that imitate a smaller fish, maybe more along the spawning phase then the rest of the fish are, that way the fish are more intimidated by a lure of this type. Coho usually within 2 weeks of hitting fresh water will turn color. That magic color is a dark greyish/red that the Coho turn. Find a lure thats darker then they are, and imitates a smaller fish and coho are bound to get upset whenever its swimming through its area. Coho have a tendancy to occaisonally nip at one another with their teeth and try to get the upper hand on their partners during this phase.

Its safe to say that your best bet knowing all this at this point is to pull some redish colored plugs. Plugs piss off Coho, They hit them with agression and anger! My favorite choice for Coho in fresh water is a deep diving steelie-wiggle-wart in flame red with tiger stripes and a rattle. Yes you might think its weird me and my partner were fishing them off the down-rigger, but if you compensate for the amount of feet your plug would dive, then your going to be right in the zone.

It was funny, this old timer that swears by his spoon he was using, was amazed in dis-belief after we hit a fish and within a minute of us re-rigging the downrigger had another fish on. He mentioned in all the years of his life he had been able to fish on lake Washington for Silvers he said he had never seen a person catch two silvers that quickly.

All it takes is a little "fish thinking" I call it.

Anyways, Ive followed these fish all the way out from Neah bay. I fished them 5 miles offshore,Seiku,Port Angeles, areas 9,10 and 8.2. The Snohomish River. The Sky, the Carbon and now Lake Washington. And in each place, I caught them using "fish thinking".

Anyways, I hope I made a little sense here since I'm working on my USCG certification and most likely will become a part-time guide next year.

Goodluck, I hope my tactics help out!
Tightlines!