Lake Washington Coho Opens Saturday September 16th, 2017

Coho fishing on Lake Washington will open up this Saturday Septermber 16th, 2017 and will run through October 31st. The lake will be open north of the Hwy 530 Bridge and east of the Mountlake Bridge. Anglers will have a 4 Coho limit with a 12 inch min. size and can be either wild or of hatchery origin.

As of the 13th there have been 6,416 Coho counted through the locks and WDFW is expecting a run of 20,378. So, we are about 1/3 of the way into the migration. With that number of fish already into the lake we should have some reasonable fishing. The earlier ruturning fish are also more willing biters than those that return later.

There are many techiniques that take these fish and not a single one seems to be more productive than another. These are very fickle biters and one technique that was productive one minute is not the next. So make sure to have a number of offerings and a range of colors to intice a bite.

Plugs such as Brads wigglers and Yakima Bait Mag Lips have been fairly consistant producers. Colors such as Flour. Red, Flour Red Herringbone or Fire Tigers are a go to.

Fish are generally close to the surface at first light and it can be quite productive just to flat line your offerings. As the day goes on you will have to get down deeper as the light increases.