The Coho are here!

[Born to be Wild]

The coho are here but the season isn't. The ocean coho season is only about two weeks away (Sat. June 21).

The coho showed up in the Depoe Bay area about a week ago. The commercial fishermen have been incidently catching them for a week now and from top to bottom while fishing for chinook. Sounds as if some of them are running pretty deep.

Appears there are a lot of them but they are very small at this point averaging only 3.5 - 4 pounds presently I have heard from more than one commercial fisherman.

One commercial told me that it is about a 50/50 split of hatchery to wild. Sounds comparable to last years average. He also made the comment that the natives are averaging larger than the hatchery fish. Imagine that!

Maybe someone can take an educated guess how much larger they will average in two weeks when the season opens. They grow like crazy this time of year in there adult stage.

Hope everyone pratices some good catch & release techniques on the all so important wild coho. The commercial fishermen simply slide a gaff hook down the leader and free the barbless hook from there mouths. The fish never leave the water or see a net.

Looks to be a great season with a lot of chinooks mixed in.

I posted this on the main board also and hope that is proper. I felt it important for as many fishermen as possible to take into consideration the catch & release aspect of the thread. I do know a couple private sport boats and a 6 pack charter that release the wild coho the same way as the commercials. They put the net down when they see the fin and grab the gaff.

Dan

[ 06-05-2003, 11:24 PM: Message edited by: DepoeBayDan ]

[Mark Mc]

Good post, Dan. The one challenge is that a lot of anglers can't tell it's a coho while it's still in the water; this takes some experience as you know. So in order to look at the gum line or the other close-up traits, they have handled the fish. Maybe not as much of a problem here since a lot of the masses (i.e. non-salty dogs) don't even fish until "coho season" opens up because they don't realize there is such a good chinook fishery here early in the year. Maybe we should get some good in-the-water photos of coho for ODFW to make educational info from. - Mark Mc

p.s. - in optimum conditions (like all the krill they can eat, every day), salmon will gain a pound per month.

[ 06-06-2003, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: Mark Mc ]

[skein]

My experience with coho is they are so wild that it makes them hard to release without netting them - unless you exhaust them first. I really subscribe to the idea of no nets, so what do you guys do with a wild (as in thrashing) wild (as in native) coho you want to release unharmed?

Tips?

Skein

[Threemuch]

With a barbless single hook, I can usually shake them by giving some slack and a couple of rod whips. If not, I would rather play them to exhaustion and release them in the water by grabbing the hook shank and turning it upside down rather than netting the fish. I think if you net a salmon it is probably a deader. They lose half their scales.
KB

[Born to be Wild]

Mark MC,

I think that figure is more like a pound a week. I am not sure, but you can see the difference in size of the coho's landed on a weekly basis.

Here's a quote from *** Clerk off the same thread on the community forum:

I have been told that depending on Ocean conditions they can gain ½ to 1 pound a week that they remain in the ocean… :shocked:

But that was told to me by a fisherman and you can never trust we fishermen.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Most of these coho's are early strain Columbia River coho. They will return to the tribs as early as late August/early September and right on through about mid October. They will have grown to an average size of 10-12 pounds by then and some larger ones. The last to years have been exceptional due to great ocean conditions and there were a lot of coho in the 15-20 pound range with quite a few breaking the 20 pound mark. I caught one that was 23 pounds last year on the Cowlitz but that was a late strain coho.

The late strain coho in the Washshougal, NF Lewis, Elocoman, Cowlitz and Kalama return later (mid October through November) and we do not see them down here off the oregon coast. They migrate north off the Washington coast when they reach the salt.

Skein,

I believe the name "shaker's" came from the commercial fishermen for that reason. I talked to a commercial fisherman at the ODFW salmon industry group meeting earlier this year regarding this and he uses a different technique of grabbing the leader and "shaking" them off. Some use gaff hooks.

There are fish friendly nets, but I'm not sure how friendly they are. I have heard they are less harsh on them but I prefer to release the wild ones in the water without netting.

Actually I went fishing with a friend a couple years ago in his dory and he shook one off (wild fish) that I caught. I'll look into this a bit more.

I will inquire of the local commercial salmon fishermen when I run into them in the future also.

[skein]

Thanks, Dan, and I'll watch for tips. I've netted a few of them but quit because as Threemuch says, nets just make 'em dead. I like the idea of a gaff, or gaff-like tool that will slip down the line and get the hook out without touching the fish. I've been thinking of a way to make one of those - so all I need is a bunch of eager coho so I can try it out. Think of it as R&D. :grin:

Skein

[Born to be Wild]

Bill Monroe mentioned a homade tool for releasing wild coho in an article he did last year and I will look for it later and post it or at least that part of the article.

Dan

[love2fish]

WDFW gives away a little tool that slides down the line to the hook. With a little twist of the wrist, the hook comes free. It is just a dowel about 2' long with a small cup hook screwed into the end.

love2fish

[Mark Mc]

The tool is called a "shaker hook." It's been around for a long time. I've seen them in stores, but there are a bunch of home-made versions out there. The key is that the wire diameter for the hook should be pretty slender, like no more than 1/8 inch at the curve of the hook, so that it slides easily between the fish and the hook (that is, the hook on the end of your line). Hold leader in one hand with fish hanging down. Slide shaker hook down lure/bait hook. Lift up fish with shaker hook while at the same time rotating the leader down below fish's mouth. Give a little "twitch" and he's off. This assumes you're using a standard trolling hook & he's hooked in the mouth, not swallowed a small mooching-style hook. Later on, I'll post a picture of some custom-made ones.

[Born to be Wild]

Cool Mark and love2fish. Didn't know that these were available. Great info on the tool and instructions on how to use.

Hope you post the pic(s) Mark and you might consider starting a thread on the community forum, "releasing wild coho in the salt" with pics and instructions.

I might have to buy some early Christmas presents for some of the guys down here.

[Born to be Wild]

love2fish,

Does WDFW give that tool away to Oregonians? :grin:

Maybe ODFW should take note. [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]

A pic would be nice if you have the tool and a digital.

Dan

[ 06-06-2003, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: DepoeBayDan ]

[Bill Monroe]

You actually could make one with a coat hangar...just a bend at the end, slide it down the leader and over the hook and pull...put a wooden handle on the other end...

[Mark Mc]

Dan & All, here's what my shaker hooks look like:



Can you tell which one I welded, vs the one made by a professional welder? Note that these have a tapered, somewhat open hook. These were designed primarily for shaking rockfish off the hook quickly, and also serve as a fish pick. If it was only for salmon, the hook end would ideally be a more complete 'U' and it would be narrower stock, without the fat taper.

p.s. Yes it's true that commercial guys often use their bat gaff to shake fish, and a bat gaff has pretty fat bar stock. But ya gotta realize that usually the hooks used by commercial trollers are larger than sport gear, so they work together OK. But you can't use a fat bat gaff hook to shake a fish off a little bitty 3/0 or 4/0 siwash or mooching hook without damaging something.

[ 06-06-2003, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: Mark Mc ]

[CrazyFish]

DepoeBayDan

Thanks for the report, sounds like it's goingto be a great Coho season.

[Booja 1]

Thx for the heads up on the Coho Dan..What's the word on the big pond from the commercials concerning the Chinooks..Are they forming in mass too and hopefully a little shallower than 40-50 fathoms??