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Lockjaw silvers...

5K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  100daysayear 
#1 ·
Whats everybodies favorite way to fis lockjaw silvers right at the mouth of rivers? I had my fly in about 50 of em for a good hour yesterday and never got a hit :beathead:
 
#3 ·
Pick up a copy of Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon (the newly revised book will be out next spring) and check out the waiting period flies. Once the Salmon start to acclimate for their trip into fresh water they stop feeding. Waiting period flies are typically small, sparse and can range from bright to drab colors. I have had waiting period fish balk at 15 flies and then hit number 16 hard. After hitting a couple of biters, they ignore that fly and it is back to experimenting for the fly that triggers the striking reaction. Our friends in British Columbia have waiting period boxes with dozens of different patterns. I continue to build my waiting period selection. The fly that Leland suggests has been used successfully for years by Mike Croft for waiting period fish. It has a place of honor in any waiting period box.
 
#7 ·
Seriously though, the fly Leland is talking about is killer. I picked one up at the Morning Hatch a while ago and it sat in my box for a while. Last fall we were out casting into this huge pod of silvers and throwing absolutely everything we had at them. Nothing worked until I remembered this little orange fly. Tied it on, strip, strip and boom... into a really nice fish right away. Of course the bite was off after that, but it worked for one of them.

I've wondered if some steelhead flies like a skykomish sunrise would work....
 
#11 ·
You have not seen "lock-jaw" coho until you chase the heavily pressured Puget Sound fish. That said I concur with the others that small flies are probably the best way to go.

Most of my most successful flies are 3/4 to 1 inch long. I rely heavily on spiders with a variety of colors for bodies - yellow, black, purple, orange, pink, red, dark olive, chartreuse, and others. The hackle includes mallard, gadwall, and widgeon. I would say most years the best colors have been chartreuse, orange, and black. I also have good luck with a fly I call the fall muddler (see Les' cutthroat boat in orange or yellow. Smallish bait fish streamers and once in a while a larger flashy streamer can trick a fish or two.

As important as the fly can be the retrieve - a fairly brisk retrieve with short individual strips is a good place to start and vary from there. Occassional have put the rod under my arm and stripped as fast as possible with good results.

Constantly changing patterns/colors and retrieves is a neccesity with dozen of fly changes in a morning not uncommon at all. It seems once you find something that the fish will hit the pod quickly tries of the "hot fly" and a change is needed to trick another fish or two. I have also had some very good luck in manipulating by retrieve to achieve abrupt direction changes in the retrieve will triger some of those following fish- throw a large mend to the side or lower the rod and quickly raise it as the fly nears the boat/shore.

Good luck - these lock-jaw coho have to be one of the most frustrating fish I chase - while days where the catch is measured in the dozens are possible most times a fish or two would have to be considered to be a good day.

Tight lines
Curt
 
#13 ·
I ran into a local up in Sequim while beach fishing Thursday morning, and he described his Dungeness River Coho flossing technique to me...small corkie on a 4 foot leader and enough pencil lead to get it down...swing thru the pod...hooks 'em in the corner of the mouth. He saw my flyrod and was probably trying to get a raise out of me. I didn't even blink, and we talked fishing for a bit. He gave up some good info on a couple of local spots.:cool:
 
#14 ·
Drift fishing in the salt water? I guess I've seen it basically done in hoodsport, but that's the exception for sure...

The gear guys around here also complain about the lock jaw silvers. Especially in the snohomish system. When they do bite, they seem to have the best luck with:
* Bright colored plugs (orange is popular) trolled
* Tiny dick nite spoons fished slowly near the bottom
* various jigs (buzz bomb types, and steelhead marabou types)
* float fishing with herring or salmon roe

For fly fishing, I use two extremes: big, bright, flashy, and fast retreive and then small, sparse, fished with slow strips and 3 to 6 seconds pauses.
 
#18 ·
man, i've casted for hours some days without a single hook up , with the fish so thick there almost jumping in the boat. then you hear about the river guy's just knocking the same fish dead up in the fresh water. why do they go on the bite again after they leave the salt ? I just dont get it.... so frustrating!!!!
 
#19 ·
I'll 2nd the "big 'n flashy" or "small and sparse" approach. When I go small I like really sparse size 6-10 comet type flies. Red, purple, and orange are my favorites but other colors have produced for me. Yeah, lock-jawed silvers can be a tough nut to crack. Some guys are up to the challenge, - others just make flossing jokes ;).

Good luck.
 
#22 ·
I do most of my fishing just up from the mouths of rivers or just in the salt (Grays Harbor mostly). I've had the most luck with flashy flies with a similar retrieve to Smalma. In fact, Les was going to use a few of my staging flies in his book. I tie up some heavily revised muddlers (in pink and green) with flashabou for a wing and a trapezoid type head (think that's the shape). I want smaller size (well, I'm running size 2's usually, but a size 2 is MUCH smaller then the wiggle warts I'd be retrieving if I was using gear). I want the action and the flash, but don't need the monster flies (well, for me monster is running up into my OP steelhead sizes of 2/0). I use the same retrieve I do when I cast plugs for silvers. 3 fast retrieves and a pause. I do that until I have the lure (fly or plug) up to the boat. Funniest thing for those who think the fish are being lined this way, I get a FEROCIOUS hit on the pause just before I begin the next retrieve. Have watched numerous silvers (and actually quite a few kings) follow both flies and plugs almost to the boat and have seen them crush them almost in netting range. Usually though, if the fishing is dead it's dead. You'll just be praying for a fresh heavy hitter from the salt to be spooled up with the ones who have been staging for awhile.

For me I want the movement. I want the uber aggressive silvers to come after me. I'd post some pics of the ones I've caught out on the Chehalis near Cosie, but most guys don't want to see dead fish, even if they were caught on flygear. LOL.
 
#23 ·
The small gold bead head fly was sold for years down at the Morning Hatch in Tacoma as "Bead Head No-Name". Tied both with and without a bead, it has caught not only the lock jaw silvers but also SRC. The other pattern they recommended was a "waiting period shrimp" pattern tied like the old Thor steelhead fly except the wing was at least twice as long, hackle was brown, body was a true orange sparkle yarn.
 
#24 ·
On a recent BC coho trip we had considerable success with the Art Limber Wizzard (yes he wants it with two z's). It is tied on a Tiemco 9394 in sized 6-10. Yu can see it in Art Lingren's book, "Contemporary Flies of British Columbia" which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to expand his/her inventory of excellent books of flies. We caught mature northern coho on the size 10 Wizzard.
Cheers,
Les Johnson
 
#25 ·
Jerry's flies....

A couple of flies that Jerry sent me are included in the new salmon book (think January as of latest information from Amato). I believe that one is a sinking Muddler. The other I'd have to look up; maybe a prawn pattern. Those are the only two that I recall receiving.
Les
 
#26 ·
Those are the ones Les actually. The sinking muddler (aka Coho Muddler) was designed by me especially for coho's just coming in from the salt (fishing tidal flux areas). Wanted one that would sink, didn't want it to be fished dry. One of my favorites when I'm fishing flies for coho. The other is a sandshrimp. But that's one I tie up for fishing kings on the fly in similar areas.
 
#28 ·
I've heard from ADFG (alaska dept. of Fish and game) that coho mortality rates when caught and released during their acclimitization period are very high, no matter how carefully you handle them. That said, if you're keeping them it doesn't matter :).

Also, this may sound counter-intuitive, but try pink pollywogs. A friend had this same problem recently in SE AK and eventually found that the only thing the cohos would take was a pink popper off the surface. What the hell, it can't hurt anything, and what's better than the possibility of catching a coho on the surface?
 
#30 ·
I've heard from ADFG (alaska dept. of Fish and game) that coho mortality rates when caught and released during their acclimitization period are very high, no matter how carefully you handle them. That said, if you're keeping them it doesn't matter :).

Also, this may sound counter-intuitive, but try pink pollywogs. A friend had this same problem recently in SE AK and eventually found that the only thing the cohos would take was a pink popper off the surface. What the hell, it can't hurt anything, and what's better than the possibility of catching a coho on the surface?
Just returned from 9 days in SE chasing silvers. Was an awesome trip. I'll post pics in the trips section when I get all my gear dried out. Anyway, pink pollywogs, pink heavily weighted leeches, and small comets were the answer. Not as many fish as I hoped for, but if I'd caught tons I wouldn't be nearly as determined to go back next year!

Ryan
 
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