In our last report, we announced the arrival of big cohos. Since then, the fishing only picked up and the cohos grew to trophy size. The average size coho is above ten pounds and we’ve seen some as high as 18!

Over the past two weeks, we’ve only been pushed to inside waters a couple days because the open ocean was unfishable. If we were on the open ocean, our greatest success was north of town. Many captains chose the route of anchoring to spend their time on a combo fishing program of salmon and halibut. This was usually an all day approach, which yielded limits for both species from the same spot. Others began by drifting for miles to pick up salmon and the occasional rockfish before moving to targeting halibut.

As we moved into September, the weather chilled and the ocean calmed to a comfortable state. Clear skies allowed the sun to penetrate the water each day, creating amazing visuals of cohos dancing in the water and curious schools of unhooked fish following others to the surface. Many of our hook-ups came after a following fish chased a bait to the surface then bit once the bait was quickly dropped again. Hooking silvers near the surface usually produces the best fish from the fish.

Silvers are the most common with the occasional king still mixed in. Rockfish and halibut are lights out. Most lodges have already closed their doors for the season. But, with a week left, we will still have some trophy silvers to catch. Stay tuned for our final report on the 2015 and an album of all the trophy silvers our anglers caught during this year’s run.