If you read my report from yesterday’s trip out of Edmonds you know we had a good day. Well, today was like yesterday on steroids. I’m telling you, the fishing in Area 10 is official off the charts in my book. I’m thinking it has to be that with Area 9 closed to boats these fish are coming in unmolested and they are in larger numbers than would normally occur. So if you can get out there do it and do it now!

We launched from the Edmonds Marina at 7am and motored past the fleet down to the oil docks area. There were a few boats here and there but spread out so it made for easy trolling. My plan was to run one rod off a downrigger at 35 feet deep and the other off a Deep 6 since it had been so effective yesterday. I ran the Deep 6 set up at 60 feet of line out. We used the same gear as yesterday - a blue Arctic Fox Trolling Fly salmon series on the rigger and a generic hoochie this time glow white on the Deep 6 rod. Each had a herring strip added and the smaller 8” red flashers.

Gear all down and fishing by 7:30am, within ten minutes the Deep 6 reel starts screaming out line as we hook up fish number 1. JoAnn plays the fish in to my awaiting net and we are on the board. How easy is that? But wait, it gets easier…

Ten minutes later the downrigger rod explodes but the fish comes off. Reset gear and then the Deep 6 again goes off. As JoAnn is playing this fish the downrigger rod pops off with a fish. JoAnn has a great fish but I totally mess up and knock the fish off at the boat. Rookie move! I grab the downrigger rod and reel in a resident coho, which is my just desert for losing her beautiful ocean run fish.

Not long after the Deep 6 rod again goes off. I absolutely love seeing this set up get a fish on, more so than the downrigger rod. There is just something about seeing a rod double over and hearing the reel scream off line. There’s nothing like the sound of reel clicker in the morning. JoAnn brings this fish in and this time I again almost mess up with the netting job, but catch the fish as it comes out of the net on to the motor platform. I grab him and bring him in. Thanks Thunderjet for the over-sized motor platform.
Three fish, one to go and it only took a few minutes as again the Deep 6 rod fires off with fish number four. It’s a smaller ocean run which we decide to keep. Limits completed in one hour and ten minutes, including a flubbed and lost fish at the boat. All clipped, no un-clipped fish. Amazing., done fishing at 8:40am.

Here’s a critical observation I’d like to suggest. Coho like a fast troll. I saw nets and fish being caught, but not like the success we had. I think the primary factor was our speed. I set my ifish solutions itroll to run us at 3.7-3-9 mph with the tide and 3.0-3.3 mph into the tide. The bump setting on the itroll would add another 0.3-4 mph every couple minutes for ten seconds. I think this had a big part to play with our success. If you’re fishing flashers you want the flasher to spin. They won’t spin if you don’t go fast. You will still catch fish, but not as many, in my opinion. I base this statement not only on what we saw today but also on underwater downrigger footage we took a few years ago. The coho just turn on when that flasher is fully spinning. So if you think you are trolling faster – go faster! Coho are incredibly aggressive when they are on the bite and these fish are definitely on.

I hope you have a chance to get out in the coming weeks for some amazing Area 10 coho action.

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