Lake Washington coho

Anyone ever fish for Lake Washington coho? I’ve found them to be pretty reluctant biters, but I’ve seen a couple guys do really well, so there must be a way to dial them in.

Seems like there are jumpers (which I haven’t had any luck on), and then also schools that move through at 40-45 feet (gotta check the notes on that, but that seems about right).

Without a downrigger, what would you recommend as the best technique for ensuring depth control when you can see fish on the flasher? And best offering for freshwater coho at that depth?

It would be very difficult to keep a spoon or hootchie with flasher at 40 feet and 3+ mph without a downrigger and a motor. The thermocline is at 10 m (33 feet) or better right now in the lake, so they should be below that. Leadcore, even with an extra weight of 4 to 8 oz won't stay down much deeper than 35 feet (I tried it as recent as this morning). Diver planes reach a max depth of about 35 feet at 1.5 to 2 mph under ideal circumstances, at faster speeds you'll just pull them up. I'm not much help, but those are the things I've tried that have failed. I've even tried a diver plane on the end of leadcore, that didn't work well either.

The best method might be to slow it down, and use a cut-plug herring at 1 to 2 mph. You should be able to keep that down with 6 to 8 oz of lead and thin braid. It works in salt water, might work in the lake too.

If you figure out the solution let us know.

Thanks...I might try that when the season opens in about a week. I haven't used herring before. What size? I guess staying at the right depth would remain somewhat guess work.

I would keep an eye on the fish counts before making a trip out.  Looks like the run is just starting with only 500ish coho through the locks according to the most recent report I saw.

Thanks...I might try that when the season opens in about a week. I haven't used herring before. What size? I guess staying at the right depth would remain somewhat guess work.

BallardBrad just bought a fancy digital depth/temp sensor for about $100 that you can hook to the end of your line that will record the maximum depth with temp, or record depth/temp in 5' intervals up to 300'. The goal is to figure out how deep different set-ups go with leadcore, just a sinker or a combo. We'll target the Lake Coho this year and post on what is working. I figure almost any medium size herring will work (green label), but other stuff like Brad's Cut Plugs might work too, anything that gives decent action at slow trolling speeds. Once the lake turns over the Coho should be up near the surface, if they haven't gone to the hatcheries yet. There are also resident Coho in there in the 3 to 4 pound range, Brad got one that was about 3 pounds last February near Juanita Point in 25 feet of water near the shore, that one went back in.