Siltcoos Oct.1 report

Opening day report:  the lake is in much better shape than the last few years, 65F, fewer weeds and no big algae bloom.  September rains have brought the water level up, they may have already cracked the dam a bit to clear debris, one more good dose of rain and we might get the first big surge of coho in. 

We covered the entire perimeter of the lake, counterclockwise, but didn't go up either arm. 

This is the 7th year that Pepper and I have fished it Oct.1, we are now 1 for 7 on opening day coho (in 2013, released about a 23" adult coho and retained a jack coho, since then, just SRC and bass on opening day).





Fresh 14" SRC that I retained to bake up for dinner, released another about the same size.   

Thanks for the report Roger! Great news on the water quality front. Coho numbers appear solid in many of the bays right now (judging by how many herring I've fed them these last couple weeks  ), so I’m hoping that’ll translate to a solid return to the lakes this year. I’ll be down there after we get some good rains!

Roger,  Thank you for your fish report.   
Definitely will get into Siltocos this year for some salmon action. 
Really appreciate your photos and inte.  Thanks!
Barb

nothing good to report from Siltcoos, Oct.13.   water temp 60F, water level has dropped (not due to drop more until...), sort of a disappointing late algae bloom, but worst of all, no sign of coho.  next big rain is key to this fishery.   

dam opening has been increased as of Sunday 20th, river moving nicely, first reports of coho being caught.   this is looking like an excellent week to fish the coho lakes.   

Great information here. Thank you so much

"If you ride a Hobie, remember to double your nuts and secure your seat!"
you can say that again!
"If you ride a Hobie, remember to double your nuts and secure your seat!"
 

Do you troll with your spinner as you're covering the lake searching for fish?  Or do you just work your way around casting and retrieving said spinner ?
How's the algae bloom??

Do you troll with your spinner as you're covering the lake searching for fish?  Or do you just work your way around casting and retrieving said spinner ?
How's the algae bloom??

it depends, if I am moving through areas the fish travel along, I will troll, especially if I see any fish rolling...but mostly I move between areas they concentrate in (west shoreline, south shoreline, top of both spawning arms, south side of small island east of the launch).  Near shore or up the arms, I either cast and retrieve or spin/troll (cast the spinner back while moving at a slow trolling speed, drop the rod in the holder, adjust my speed to keep it just above the weeds).  This lets me cover more water than just casting and retrieving.  That is how I got this shiny 28" buck today, top of the Maple Creek arm, 7' of water but with 4' of weeds coming up, I cast back maybe 25', rod quickly into the holder, pedal maybe 15 seconds, spinner running just above the weeds, fish on.      water level is up, they should be letting more water out, some algae floating in places but not that bad.

Nicely done, Roger.  Looks like a fantastic day.  Great day to be coho catching.

Nice one Roger!

Barb, I pretty much do what Roger described. Mix of troll and cast. When I troll, I try to hug the shore/weed line. Coho are like the bass of salmonids: they like hanging around weed beds, sunken timber, and structure. Treat it like you're bass fishing, and you'll do well  .

Nice one Roger! I'm looking forward to getting out there Thursday.

We passed by the Siltcoos ramp today and counted 10 trailers. We talked to a couple leaving with their boat who had camped there a month. They had four for the month.

(wink, wink),..I am getting reports of a steady flow of fish moving through, some light wind days coming soon and that is critical at Siltcoos, this is a beautiful lake to spend a late fall day on with a good possibility of it being interrupted by some coho chaos....

fish being caught on plugs trolled down the travel lanes, and lots of fish caught (nudge, nudge) in 3' of water above weedbeds in the arms, Maple Creek was hot first this year (say no more), beautiful high quality fish that have me encouraged about ocean conditions.  Fiddle Creek should get the next surge of fish...water temp has been about 60F, probably drop a bit this week...hard to find a better 'relaxed' salmon fishery....

and if you want to play the back-tees, head for Tahkenitch instead, a challenging lake but if this is a solid run, getting one at Tahk would be worth the trip, same strategy as Siltcoos, pick a spawning arm (5 mile or Mallard), fish your way there, fish it up to the shallows, keep your eyes open, active fish are biters.   I have never spent a day at Tahkenitch that wasn't special, beautiful place, and all I've caught there are jacks (and 1 jill).   

cheers, roger

 

I will plead guilty to any charges of posting pure fish porn here, but these coho beauties are Wednesdays fish on my boat:



and Fridays fish with a friend earning his first Siltcoos fish, these are great fish to target from a kayak or small PB.