Chrome Cohos Continue in Mid December

The river fishing for coho continues to be exceptional with plenty of bright fish in the system...and it's December. Ray and I had two days to run the upper Cow this weekend and landed dozens of fish. No need to keep the colored up smoker fish and of course the un-clipped are released. We still ended up with a big pile of fish.

Bank fishing at the access points on the river is winding down or these areas are getting fished out. The sleds and the commercial guides still know how to put fish in the box, but the small eddy holes produced well for us. It's tough for sleds or drift boats to put much pressure on these tight spots, so the fish were just in there waiting for us.

***A word of warning if you're going to try this. The water is running cold and fast, air temps are at or near freezing and small eddy holes are often bordered by trees and strainers. Your white water skills should be solid and your equipment needs to be perfect. You don't learn to ski by jumping off 60' cliffs in the back-country, and fast flowing winter rivers in this area are not a starting point to learn river kayak fishing skills. 'Nuf said.***

Coho kype makes them look angry!  Great looking fish. 

Did you try anything other than jigs?

Right on, looks like a hell of a ride. 60' cliffs in the back country have always tempted me. Thanks again for sharing!
Hugh

I can't believe the number of coho on that section of the river, and yesterday we only saw two sleds there all day long. This time I only hooked one tomato and the rest of the fish were decent colored and the meat will be good table fare, no smoker required...

Talk about lights out fishing. There's nothing cooler than hooking a 10-12 lber sitting in the kayak on the river and listening to the drag scream as the line follows the fish around, then look over at your fishing buddy and see he's also hooked up!

All I used for the weekend was this jig. It works on all kinds of fish..

Nice report guys!  Looks like a ton of fun.

-Mark-

Very nice!! Nice jig and great report!

Looks like great fishing.

The video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smLZuiTBVxY&feature=youtu.be

  Great video Todd. That looked like it was a real blast. Thanks for sharing with us all.

Great report and nice fish guys!

Great fish and pictures, but I really enjoyed the video - good stuff!

We pulled some more chrome cohos out of the Cowlitz the past two days. Fish found in usual eddys and available frog water. River is running high.