Coho Salmon Fishing Guide
Freshwater · Water temp 46–68°F (ideal 59°F)
Quick Facts
- Also called
- Silver salmon, silvers
- Spawns once and dies
- Semelparous, like every Pacific salmon
- Versus chinook
- Warmer by about 6 degrees, so they hold higher in the water column
- Run timing
- Later than chinook. Kings arrive first and coho follow
- Typical size
- 8-12 lb, against 15-30 for a chinook
- Temperament
- Will chase. The most willing of the Pacific salmon on a lure
- Range
- Pacific coast California to Alaska, and all five Great Lakes
Overview
Coho salmon are the silver, and for a great many anglers they are the better fish to catch. They run smaller than chinook, typically eight to twelve pounds against fifteen to thirty, and they make up for it by being far more willing: coho chase, they come back at a lure that missed, and they will take a cast spinner from a river mouth in a way a king rarely does. Where chinook fishing is often a matter of patience and heavy gear, coho fishing is a matter of covering water.
Coho hold from about 46 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit with an ideal near 59. The number that matters most is not the ideal itself but how far it sits from chinook's 53 degrees. Six degrees is not a rounding difference: it is the reason Great Lakes and Pacific trollers run coho gear high in the water column and king gear underneath it, frequently on the same boat on the same pass. If a boat is taking coho on the shallow riggers and kings on the deep ones, that separation is the temperature difference made visible.
Like every Pacific salmon, coho are semelparous. They spawn once and die, so there is no recovering fish to catch afterwards and no second season for the same individual. They also run later than chinook, which is the other half of the pairing that defines an autumn on the Great Lakes or the Pacific coast: kings arrive first and coho follow them in, extending the river fishery by a month or more past the point where the chinook run has finished.
Optimal Conditions
| water Temp | 46-68°F, ideal 59°F |
| air Temp | 30-75°F |
| wind | 3-15 mph ideal, tolerate up to 25 mph; a trolling chop helps |
| pressure | Moderate sensitivity, behind temperature and run timing |
| light | Low. Dawn-led, but far more catchable through the middle of the day than chinook |
| best Seasons | The run (September-October), then late summer open water (July-August) |
Seasonal Patterns
spring
Open-water fishing for immature fish that will run the following autumn, high in the water column and often within reach of a small boat. Coho hold shallower than chinook throughout the year, and in spring that can mean the top twenty feet close to shore. A good season for numbers rather than size.
summer
Fish spread across open water and follow the temperature band they want, which stays consistently above where kings hold. July and August produce steady trolling on small spoons and flies run shallow, and the fish put on most of their weight in this window before turning toward the rivers.
fall
The run, and the biggest pre-spawn lift applied to any salmonid on this site. Coho stage off river mouths through September and push upstream into October, and they are notoriously willing in this period: aggressive, surface-oriented, and happy to chase a spinner or a swung fly. They arrive behind the chinook, which means the autumn fishery keeps going for weeks after the king run has wound down.
winter
Almost nothing. The fish that ran in autumn are dead, and what remains is scattered open-water fishing for the next year class on the Great Lakes and Pacific coast. In the rivers the season is over in the most literal sense available.
Best Times to Fish
dawn
The peak, as with most salmon. Fish are highest in the column and closest to shore in the first hours, and open-water boats leave harbour in the dark for good reason. In rivers the advantage is smaller but still real.
midday
Considerably better than it is for chinook, and this is one of the clearest practical differences between the two. Coho stay catchable through the middle of the day: they hold shallower to begin with, and their willingness to chase does not switch off at nine in the morning the way a king bite often seems to.
dusk
A strong second window, close behind dawn. Fish move back up and toward shore as the light goes, and river mouths in particular fish well in the last hour.
night
Little fished and little advantage in it. Some river-mouth activity after dark, but nothing that justifies planning around, and many salmon rivers are closed at night in any case.
solunar
Moderate solunar sensitivity, behind water temperature, run timing and river flow. Useful as a tiebreaker between two similar mornings rather than as a reason to go or stay home.
Weather Response
Mildly helpful in autumn. Cooling water brings the temperature band coho want closer to the surface and closer to shore, and a front that drops inshore water can concentrate staging fish. The pressure change itself matters little.
Pushes the band deeper and further out in summer, which means more line rather than worse fishing. In autumn a warm rain is the useful part, because it raises rivers and moves staging fish upstream.
Settled weather in summer gives a stable thermocline and predictable depths, which suits a trolling programme. In autumn a long dry spell holds fish in the harbours and river mouths waiting for water, which concentrates them and can fish very well indeed.
The trigger for the river fishery, exactly as for chinook and steelhead. Rain raises rivers and pulls staged coho upstream, and the fishing peaks on the drop afterwards rather than during the rise. A dry autumn stacks fish at the mouths; the first real rain empties them upstream within a day or two.
Proven Techniques
Shallow Trolling with Small Spoons
Coho gear runs high: small spoons, flashers with squid, and dodger-fly combinations in the top twenty to sixty feet, often on flatlines or planer boards rather than downriggers. On a boat fishing both species, this is the shallow half of the spread while chinook gear works underneath.
Casting Spinners at River Mouths
Where staging coho are within reach of shore, a size 4 or 5 inline spinner cast and retrieved quickly takes fish that would ignore a static bait. This is the most accessible salmon fishing there is, needs no boat, and works because coho will chase in a way chinook will not.
Swinging Flies
Coho take a swung fly readily, which makes them the friendliest Pacific salmon for a fly angler. Bright patterns in pink, chartreuse and orange on a sink tip, worked through holding water. They will follow and take at the hang-down, so finish the swing before recasting.
Float Fishing Eggs and Jigs
In rivers, a jig or cured roe under a float drifted at current speed through holding water. The standard river method for staging and running fish, and it presents at a controlled depth for the whole drift, which matters once fish have settled into a pool.
Twitching Jigs
A heavy marabou or rubber-legged jig cast into slack water and worked with sharp upward twitches. Developed specifically for coho in Pacific Northwest rivers and unusually effective on them, because it provokes the aggression response coho are known for rather than trying to imitate food.
Coho Salmon vs Chinook Salmon
Caught in the same water, often on the same boat and the same trip, and separated by six degrees of preferred temperature. That one number explains most of the rest.
| Coho Salmon | Chinook Salmon | |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred temperature | About 59 degrees | About 53 degrees |
| Where in the column | High. Often the top 20-60 ft | Below them, following the colder band down |
| Run timing | Later. Follows the kings in | First, from August |
| Size | Typically 8-12 lb | Typically 15-30 lb, sometimes far more |
| Willingness | Chases, and will come back at a missed lure | Needs the bait put in front of it |
| Midday | Stays catchable | Drops off sharply after the morning |
Chasing the other one? Read the chinook salmon guide.
Coho Salmon Fishing Questions
What is the difference between coho and chinook salmon?
Size, timing, temperature and temperament, and the temperature is the one that explains the others. Coho prefer water around 59 degrees Fahrenheit against roughly 53 for chinook, so they hold higher in the water column, which is why a boat fishing both runs coho gear shallow and king gear underneath it on the same pass. Coho are smaller, typically eight to twelve pounds against fifteen to thirty, they run later so the autumn fishery extends past the end of the king run, and they are far more willing to chase a lure. Both are semelparous and die after spawning.
What water temperature is best for coho salmon?
Around 59 degrees Fahrenheit, in a band from roughly 46 to 68. Laboratory and Lake Michigan field work puts the adult preferred temperature between about 13 and 17 degrees Celsius, with growth optima measured at 14.8 and 17 degrees and no growth below 10. Fifteen degrees Celsius is 59 Fahrenheit, and it is worth carrying that number alongside chinook at 53, because on any water holding both species the six-degree gap tells you which gear to put where.
Why are coho easier to catch than chinook?
They chase. Coho are aggressive and curious in a way chinook generally are not, will follow a lure and come back at one they missed, and take a fast-retrieved spinner or a swung fly readily. Twitching jigs, a technique built specifically around provoking that aggression rather than imitating food, works on coho and is close to useless on kings. Practically this means coho reward covering water and casting, where chinook reward patience and putting a bait in the right place. It also means coho stay catchable through the middle of the day, when a king bite has usually shut down.
Do coho salmon die after spawning?
Yes, all of them. Coho are semelparous like every Pacific salmon, spawning once and dying shortly after. There is no post-spawn season and no recovering fish to catch through the winter, and this site models coho and chinook as the only two species in it without a recovery state for exactly that reason. The practical consequence is that the run is a wave with no tail: the best fishing is in front of the spawn while fish are staging and still feeding, and behind it there is nothing.
When do coho salmon run?
Later than chinook, which is the useful half of the answer. On the Great Lakes and along the Pacific coast, kings begin staging and running from August, and coho follow through September and October, with river fishing continuing into November in many systems. That staggering is what makes autumn a two-month salmon season rather than a three-week one. Rain is the trigger in both cases: a dry autumn stacks coho at the river mouths where they are very catchable, and the first real rain moves them upstream within a day or two.
Why are coho called silvers?
For their appearance at sea and on first entering fresh water, when they are bright chrome with almost no markings beyond fine spotting on the upper tail lobe. The name is used interchangeably with coho across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. As they move upstream and mature they change completely, the males developing a deep red flank and a pronounced hooked jaw, so a fish caught at the river mouth and one caught twenty miles up can look like different species entirely.
Best Months for Coho Salmon
These are the months our scoring lifts coho salmon activity for pre-spawn or autumn feeding. Open one for that month's calendar.
Related Species
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