I have always thought that either eggs or spinners will get the cohos to bite in freshwater rivers but last year they would get lockjawed quite often. What else works on these fish in bigger rivers like the Cowlitz and others? We need something more to help us catch them legally or the fish will go to the snaggers and indians and catfood companies. Will some of you better silver fishermen help us real sportsmen beat those other groups to the fish this year? Thank you a lot! Slime de Boat

Don't know about the bigger rivers, but spinners work great in the Kalama.

When bait and Hardware aint workin
try a jig under a float,sometimes it's all they'll take.

Check out Silent Approach Jigs
they got a great selection of Coho favorites,along with the favorite patterns for Kings and Steelies also...tight Lines....Os

Here's another technique to try,

Tie on a 1/8oz. black marabou jig, no float, just the jig. Cast slightly upstream, and SLOWLY twitch retrieve, like you were fishing for bass. Look for backwater areas that fish are rolling in. This tech has turned some fishless days into multiple fish days for me on more than one occasion.

Eggs, have always worked best for me. But, when the fish go off the bite I sometimes try wiggle warts, casting them in the deeper water and retreiving slowly. Also, trolling them upriver slowly works well in the deeper holes, the colors to use change every year but I like rocket red, green pirate, blue pirate and silver chartreuse. I also cast spinners, homemade one's with lots of silver and orange. Blue fox's and a sleeper is the bolo spinner with the weighted body that is painted orange and the silver blade in a size #4 or #5 works great also I usually fish the spinners in the faster riffles although I've caught them casting them in the slack water areas also. If you are fishing a deep hole don't be afraid to tie on a 2-4 oz nordic. I like the green/silver and the blue/silver and vertically jig them. Sometimes it drives the silvers nuts.
Keith

I've even had success with just a plain corky and yarn set up. No bait. And this after trying bait the whole and bein skunked. Last year i switched to this and nailed 2 fish and landed one of them at the end of the day. Another positive is you won't have any of the smoltz of suckers buggin ya.

When coho get in a estuary mode, I would first try trolling a wiggle wart through them and if that didn't get any bites, scale down to a real small spoon or spinner. Size #2 blue fox (chartreuse), teeny tiny brass & chrome Dick Nites, and oh yes! don't forget a small bolo spinner.

There are some years though where nothing seems to work when the ho's are stacked up porpoising around the upper Snohomish. Through everything at them mentioned on the this thread so far...Nada!

Bobber down is right about them not bighting once and a while. In the estuary they will school up and mill around just under the surface of the water. Once they are spooked either by a bird or a fisher dude they will be lockjawed for quite awhile. The best thing to do is leave them alone for awhile or hope the wind starts to blow. I've found that they are less likely to spook if the wind is breaking up the surface. I have good luck on orange lures and flies.

A light blue/white marabou jig has been killer on silvers for me over the years. Also a straight white has been good as well as pink/white.

From my experience freshwater silvers love eggs just after a good rain when the river is dropping and has some color. When the rivers receed to low and clear i like to use a tiny tiny brass/silver dic nite on a 6-8 lb 4-5 foot leader. Always carry size 2 and 3 vibrex in silver and chartreuse or silver and blue for the times they hit hardware.

Like Sturza said, they will hit corkie and yarn or just plain old red yarn when nuthin else works.
The key with lockjaw Ho's is to try everything and be patient....

fish on

I second the Blue/Wht Jig offering.

Slime

This advice is mainly for the Cowlitz, since I fish it 90% of the time. I know it as good as any fishermen . Some people do fair fishing from there boats. Basically, they either troll wiggle warts or they free drift with eggs just like they do for summer or winter run steelhead.

But by far, my preferred method of catching silvers on the Cowlitz is either by spinners or jigs. It seems that every year on the Cowlitz, the silvers go nuts over one or the other. Lots of different colors of jigs work, but you will catch more Cowlitz and Toutle silvers on yellow & hot orange or brown& hot orange (or brown & red) then any other colors. I know that other fishermen do really well with other colors, but these colors are the best for Cowlitz and Toutle fish. My personal favorite is the yellow & hot orange color. I prefer using the ¼ oz. Jigs with either #1 or #1/0 hook.

When fishing the ¼ jigs, you need to let them go almost to the bottom of the water you are fishing in. When you retrieve it in, you need to fish it just like you would jig for crappie (slow with a small jerking motion). I catch more then my share of silvers by using these method on the Cowlitz and Toutle. Once in a while, depending on the hole that you are fishing, YOU WILL SNAG a few fish, but that is how you fish marabou jigs for silvers on the Cowlitz. About 80% of the fish I catch eat the jig! I can not count how many fishermen I have converted to fishing jigs on the Cowlitz, but it's a lot!

If you decide to fish with spinners, then I would recommend using Blue Fox spinners in sizes 3, 4, and 5. The best colors that always seem to work on the Cowlitz are red body with brass blade, red body with silver blade, chartreuse body with silver blade and blue body with silver blade. I also make a spinner with a hot red #4 French blade with brass and red bead's that also is very effective. The trick to using spinners for silvers is to fish them slowly. Slow retrieve is the way to go! Fish the spinner as slow as you possibly can while still keeping the blade moving around. Again, let the spinner sink to as close to the bottom of the hole you are fishing as possible. I always use scent, like smelly jelly, on my spinners. I never use scent on my jigs because it screws up the marabou. Silvers are not real shy, so use 10-12# line when fishing jigs or spinners.

During the last 2 years of silver fishing, I started using the K14 kick fish with a sardine wrap. They too have been deadly when fished in breaks of back water and current lines. My best colors are chrome with hot pink hearing bone. If you can't fine the right size or color jigs in your favorite store, you can get them through "Hurley Jigs" .You can call him at 360-864-4164. He's a local guy that makes great jigs at reasonable prices and he lives in Toledo, WA.

Good luck, and learn to fish jigs for silvers. You too will become a believer!

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

cowlitz/jigman
when giving preference colors on jigs are the multiple colors mentioned the color of the marabou only, or are you refering to the color of the jighead plus the color of the marabou?

In my opinion, the head color does not make that big of a difference in jig fishing for silvers. I usually paint my yellow & hot orange jig heads with orange metal fake on top of a white primer. On my orange/brown or brown/red, I usually paint them black. I only use finger nail polish, and it works great!

If I was going to use white/blue marabou, I would paint my head either white or blue (most likely white). Lots of guys don't even paint their heads and do pretty darn well with just plain lead. Many of times, I have caught so many silvers on one single jig that the paint is completely gone, and the fish just keep eating it until it has no feather left

The painting of the jig head just makes the jig really appealing to the other fishermen. It's the color of marabou or combo colors that really get them excited.

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

I was talking about the color of the marabou only. i agree that the color of the head makes little difference, I've caught plenty of fish on jigs with no paint on the heads. I usually do my heads with black paint.

when you troll warts you have got to experiment with the trolling speed. we have caught salmon, both kings and silvers in rivers trolling 4.5 mph more than a few times.

My experience has been that regardless of chosen gear the technique of using a slow to nearly stationary presentation is Rule #1 to getting silvers to bite in freshwater. Once they hit the freshH20 they are'nt feeding to gain energy. But they still have an inherent predatory response that causes them to want to bite certain colors, shapes and movement types of potential prey item...in this case our chosen lure. They also have a very strong territorial response that really becomes intense upon entry into the fresh...this what you see when fishing spinners, spoons and plugs. This type of behavior occurs where fresh fish have just entered a holding area and are sorting out there stations according to individual degrees of dominance. This also occurs when a group of fish are stirred up by a hooked fish, noisy boats passing overhead, or other disturbances. Just being packed together may cause agression. So whatever gear you choose you want to fish it in their face as much as possible. Unlike steelhead driftfishing you want your gear to literaly drag down river. As for choice of lure ...there are just to many choices...we all have our favorites and some work better than others in certain rivers, portions of those rivers and different river conditions. Have fun and be prepared to use any/all of the techs posted on this subject. Pack a little of each with you. They're all winners.

Team Coho Stalkers

Always FishOn!
Gooose

I have great sucess in the Snohomish system
using a size #1 Dick Nite spoon 50/50 brass &
chrome or purple with red tail tied to a three foot leader and a split shot to cast with.