Beach Coho

My buddy Tim and I hit a MA 9 beach this morning from 7 till 11:30.
We each went 1 for 2. Nothing big, with both fish being in the 24-25" range, so 4 lbs or so.
Chartreuse over white or light gray was the ticket today.
Tim's fish put up a pretty good little battle.
Mine, not so much. It tracked the fly to within a couple of feet of the beach before it committed. Great visual, but once hooked up it did the prerequisite 3 or 4 360 degree death spins then one big jump which resulted in the fish landing on the beach. 10 secs, done and headed to the bbq.
Really nice day one the water with nobody around.

It was a bittersweet day for me. Today would have been my dad's 82nd birthday. Though he didn't flyfish, he taught me to fish and always took me along starting at a young age. I think he would have enjoyed the action today, regardless of the length of the fight.

Here's a pic of today's catch.

Perfect bbq size. Yummmmm.

Ok, I'm a little slow here. What's a "MA 9 beach"

a beach in Marine Area 9...

Nicely done, Brian! Way to fly the Bauer flag bro!

Will get lot's better soon. Have heard of 8lb's caught in the last couple of days in area 9.

...including one I flogged up this morning. They are most certainly here and hopefully they'll stick around for a while. More so than any other year, these fish are the softest biting Coho I've encountered. They are simply not grabbing the fly and turning. Stingers and eye popping strip sets seem to be key.

Strange how each year is different.

Today's fish was on a sparkly Shock & Awe:

Nice work Bill!

Those look great. The fly I've been getting them on has a body very, very similar to your last fly but with a heavy cone head (Shock & Awe).

John,
Poppers are a great way to find out if fish are around....and not hook them.
Then you can go back to the dark side with your Streamer Express and start hooking fish.
Nice patterns by the way.

Bill,
Way to keep getting it done!

I actually did really well on resident Coho this year in July using poppers over eel grass beds. I was getting a solid hook set on about 1 out of every 3 or 4 strikes. In years passed it would take 8-10 strikes before I got one to stick. Nonetheless, once the ocean fish showed up I got serious and went to the dark side...and haven't left since.

.

1 for 1 today.

I'm certainly no expert on ID's of salmon......but this photo seems to show a very narrow peduncle....perhaps a young chum?
Maybe someone can set me straight.

It had spots on the back that you can't see in photo due to the shadow. The eyes don't look like a chum. Almost certain it is a coho.

How'd it cut? Red or pale?
I was fooled a couple of seasons back because I wasn't expecting to catch a chum on a buzz bomb....but sure as heck, I did.....no teeth was another factor.
Not criticizing at all. Just know it's fooled me before. Have seen others fooled in the rivers as well with fresh fish.

Red meat. I've too have been fooled by mint chum!

...more carnage:

Nice work Bill!

They are getting fatter...