Got a trip planned to Alaska in late August, September or October to catch Silver Salmon?
Alaska is a favorite fly fishing destination of ours, and we hope to provide you with some insight on Coho flies that we have found to be particularly effective.
Silvers, also known as Coho Salmon, return to the mouth of the river where they were born, stage there until they determine that the river has enough water for them to successfully spawn, then they enter the river. Sometimes, they circle back and forth from fresh to ocean to fresh water, acclimating to the fresh water. When silvers are still in the ocean, they are eating baitfish, which is why we like to fish Deceivers in the ocean.
Once they commit, they swim upstream, stopping occasionally to rest in deep holes. At this point, salmon are not interested in eating, but they can be annoyed quite easily with a fly that is drifted in front of them. The most annoying color seems to be pink, but this color is not always successful, so plan to take a good assortment of different colored flies.
Most fish are found holding in deep holes. In order to get the fly deep, a weighted fly is helpful and/or a sinking tip line will do the trick. Many coho flies are weighted with a dumbell eye or bead or conehead. Often, this weight will get the fly sufficiently deep on it’s own, but the addition of a split shot or using a sinking tip line will definitely do the trick.
While we always start out by using pink colored flies, and, if possible, sight fish for silvers. If they don’t bite after a few drifts, they probably won’t bite after 100 drifts! It’s time to change the fly to a different color!
Our favorite patterns for catching silvers are
- Hareball Leech’s
- Dolly Llamas
- Egg Sucking Bunny Leech’s
- Deceivers
Are these the only patterns we take? Absolutely not, but these are our confidence flies, and we know that coho will bite them!
Size: Size 2 is traditionally the perfect size, but it is a good idea to have #4 if the fish are timid, or #1/0 if they are BIG
Colors: Pink is the most important color, but silvers may ignore pink, so have a section of flies that are black, white or purple. Additionally, a combination of 2 colors can be the ticket. These are our favorite combinations:
- pink/orange
- chartreuse/orange
- black/white
- chartreuse/black
- purple/black
Hook Style: Coho flies can be tied on a single hook style, or articulated style (the fly is tied onto the shank of a hook, then the rest of the hook is cut off. A second (trailing) hook is securely attached to the fly, so that the trailing hook is located at the very end of the fly.
The big difference in these styles are the hook positions.
Coho sometimes bite at the tail of the fly, rather than the entire fly. Because the hook is the tail end of an articulated fly, they get hooked. When they bit the tail of a traditional hook fly, they grab a mouth full of rabbit fur. This is called a “short strike” when a fish grabs the tail of the fly but doesn’t get hooked. You will feel the tug, but will not catch the fish. Articulated flies are pricier because they require 2 hooks to tie, but they definitely catch more fish.
Silver Salmon are big, powerful fish that can be quite acrobatic once caught. We hope you get to fish for silver’s in Alaska, and hope to cross paths with you some day!
