Fly Fishing for Coho Salmon in Washington: From Puget Sound to the Willapa Rivers

Where I started coho fishing on the fly was South Puget Sound. An easy introduction and, frankly, the easiest. There is a resident coho program, and you follow the size progression of the fish: you start catching them at 10 inches and usually finish around 2–5 pounds. I chased these for years in Puget Sound and still do. This is what made me love chasing the species, but inevitably you will want to hunt larger fish, and I just didn’t find those as often in Puget Sound.

When I moved to Ilwaco my love for coho grew tremendously: chasing them off the jetty, in Baker Bay, out in the ocean around Long Beach, and in all of the local rivers of Southwest Washington. All have unique characteristics, and I’ve learned to target them differently depending on where I’m fishing.

In this guide:

• The Coho Season at a Glance
• South Puget Sound Resident Coho
• The North Jetty
• Baker Bay
• The Ocean off Long Beach
• Southwest Washington Rivers
• My Coho Gear
• The Biggest Mistake
• Coho Stories
• Coho Fly Fishing FAQ

The Coho Season at a Glance

• South Puget Sound residents: winter through October, small and eager early, biggest in the fall.
• The ocean off Long Beach: July and August.
• The North Jetty and Baker Bay: mid-August through September, and the first week of October can be good too.
• Southwest Washington rivers: September into January. My favorite time is the middle of November.

South Puget Sound Resident Coho

In South Puget Sound you start to really run into them in the winter months. They are generally small that time of year but very willing to take a fly. I would drive around and see them jumping, cast at them using the same flies I would use for cutthroat, and almost always hook up.

Some years they never really go that far; they stay in South Sound, just moving from beach to beach. I would generally be fishing out of a boat so I could follow their movement, and every day I would be sure to note where I saw them last.

As the months go on they get bigger and bigger until I stop catching them in October, when they are the biggest. Around June they become really, really fun to catch: big enough to give you a run for your money on your cutthroat setup, but not so big that it’s a problem.

Flies and Retrieve

Beach Bums, Simple Shrimp, and the Steamboat Island Leech are all my favorites, but here and there I might throw a simple baitfish pattern.

When I see coho I definitely increase my retrieve speed. You generally can’t out-strip a coho, and if you do, recast immediately in the direction of the fish and begin to retrieve as soon as the fly hits the water. I don’t usually dance with them the same way I do cutthroat. When a coho wants a fly, keep it moving and they will generally eat it.

Lockjaw

Sometimes as they get older and move into the fall they get what I would call lockjaw. They won’t chase your fly and eat it like they would previously, but in the months leading up to that they undoubtedly will. I use shrimp flies, but even that sometimes doesn’t work. I slow my retrieve and try to keep it right around the fish as much as possible, but honestly, sometimes they just won’t bite.

Rods, Lines, and Leader

I never really change my gear and just use my cutthroat setup primarily, but once September and October hit you’ll find they can be quite a challenge to deal with on a smaller rod. When I say size up, I never really use an 8wt like I do on the coast or in the rivers. I’ll just use a 6wt, since my favorite rod in Puget Sound is a 5wt. I have both a 5wt and a 6wt Douglas Sky G that I’ll bring this time of year to use if needed.

My lines and leader are the same as my Puget Sound cutthroat setup, though if I do find large resident coho I’ll use 8–10 lb Maxima instead of the 6.

The North Jetty at Cape Disappointment

I primarily fish the North Jetty in Cape Disappointment State Park. I’d say good coho fishing starts around mid-August and runs through September. Even the first week of October can be good too!

Conditions and Casting

For the jetty, a lot of things have to line up. Swell and wind are two major factors on the rocks. If the swell is decent and crashing against the rocks, I won’t fish. I want calm water and manageable wind. There isn’t much room for back casting, so being able to steeple cast or get a long roll cast out is important, and proximity to the water is vital.

Where the Fish Are and the Tide

A lot of the time the coho seem to follow the jetty into the Columbia, meaning they aren’t far off the rocks. There have been countless times when I can actually see the fish swim past me on the rocks. For salmon, unlike rockfish, I do want a moving tide. I like to fish from the first hour before high slack into the outgoing for a few hours afterward, but I’ve caught them on nearly every tide. New to tides? Start with our tide terminology and how to read a tide chart guides.

Water clarity makes a big difference, though. If the water is all turned up and visibility is bad, I generally just head home after fishing a bit to see if it will improve.

Line, Flies, and Colors

For the jetty I like to use the OutBound Short I/3/5 or I/5/7. I want the fly to get down a bit, and the heavy head lets me roll cast with ease.

For jetty coho I love a classic Dali Lama and other patterns we’ve tied on YouTube that have a trailing stinger hook. I find the stinger hook vital while fishing for coho off the rocks, whereas I don’t mind a single jig-oriented hook in freshwater. Coho Cool-aid 2.0 is a good one. If you tie your own, we carry stinger hooks from Ahrex, Gamakatsu, and Owner.

For colors I like pink, purple, chartreuse and white, and shrimp colors. More on that in the top fly colors for Pacific Northwest species.

Retrieve

Fast! These fish are fresh out of the ocean, and the jetty is still in saltwater, so they’re chrome bright and eager to chase. I’ll sometimes let my fly sink just a bit, but not too much!

Landing a Coho on the Rocks

Landing adult coho on the rocks is a nightmare if you’re alone, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. A lot of times they’ll run parallel to the rocks, so being on a rock near the water is vital so you can point your tip out away from the rocks. Make sure you’re storing your net in very close proximity to the rock you’re standing on. If you’re fishing with a partner this is far easier, but it can still be a challenge. If the coho swims up into the rocks before it goes into the net, the likelihood of losing that fish is very high.

Baker Bay

Baker Bay is one of the most underrated fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. There’s a handful of ways to fish it: from a kayak, a boat, or from the beach on Sand Island if you have an Oregon license. The state park is back open, and the launch is easy to use. The timing is the same as the jetty, and it’s very close in proximity.

Finding Fish on the Outgoing

I like to fish the rip currents that form along the islands during the outgoing tide. It seems like the fish stack up in there on the outgoing. My unscientific theory, just based on hours on the water, is that fish push into Baker Bay on the high tide and a lot of times hold in there while the tide is going out. I think they don’t want to fight the Columbia outflow and the outgoing tide at the same time, so they just hang out in the bay. Again, there’s no science behind this, but it seems to concentrate the fish, and I catch more of them during this time.

My gear and flies are exactly the same as the jetty. This is essentially still saltwater, and these fish are just out of the ocean, starting their journey.

Boat, Kayak, or Beach

You’ll need a kayak or a boat to get to Sand Island, but there’s something special about fishing off the sandy beach; I find it more enjoyable. That said, if you want to catch bigger numbers of fish, the boat or kayak seems to produce more, because a lot of times in Baker Bay you can see the coho jumping and you can just move to where the fish are rather than being stuck on the beach.

Safety

There’s sometimes a lot of boat traffic, especially when you come out of the launch and into the channel: commercial fishing boats, the Coast Guard, charters, rec boats. Make sure you’re visible; if it’s a small kayak, have a flag off the back. Always wear a life jacket and make sure your gear is secure.

The Ocean off Long Beach

In the ocean, sometimes the fishing is lights-out good. Generally I’m with my father, who loves classic trolling for salmon. In recent years I’ve convinced him to kill the engine so we just free drift, which allows me to cast flies. My father usually isn’t fly fishing. He’s mooching, another style of conventional fishing that’s very successful.

We fish the ocean earlier, all of July and August. Usually by September we aren’t salmon fishing in the ocean anymore, depending on the season and whether the ocean salmon quotas have been met. Generally we’re not that far out; we can always see land. The last time we were out we were fishing in 65 feet of water.

Blind Casting off a Drifting Boat

I’m mostly blind casting; I generally don’t see fish jumping. We usually stop and start fishing on birds and use them as an indicator that bait and salmon are around. I use the same line I use for the jetty and Baker Bay, cast it out, let it sink, and strip it in. Sometimes if there’s a bit of a breeze or we’re moving with the ocean current, we’ll drift and I can feed more line out, then strip it in once it’s 50–75 feet behind the boat. It’s the same idea as fishing the slide for albacore.

This past season (2026) in the ocean we caught more on chartreuse and white Dali Lamas than anything else. I generally fish the same size, a #2, for all fish in saltwater outside of Puget Sound. In Puget Sound a lot of the time I’ll fish smaller flies so I can still catch cutthroat at the same time.

Hooking, Fighting, and Landing

Strip set on all of these. A drifting boat is way different; you don’t really need to worry about where they run. In the open ocean they can run any direction, basically as far as they want. They aren’t going to strip out hundreds of yards of backing unless your drag is too loose. For the ocean, the jetty, and Baker Bay, I’d fish at least 15 lb test.

My father, or whoever is with you on the boat, will net the fish. Landing a fish by yourself on a boat is also very challenging. Coho like to roll, and if you’re pulling up on the rod to net a fish by yourself, the likelihood of it coming off is very high.

In the ocean I’ll generally keep all the hatchery fish we catch. Salmon make up a large portion of my family’s diet.

Southwest Washington Rivers

We primarily fish the Willapa Bay tributaries. There are a ton of them, and all are stunning, unique, and offer a different experience: from access off the highway to long hikes, launching a boat, or kayaking up.

It depends on the river. Some of the bigger rivers have what we call A-run and B-run coho. We start to see them in September and honestly have caught them into January while steelhead fishing. My favorite time to fish for them is the middle of November.

Rain and River Levels

Rain and river levels have massive impacts. A good rain can change a poor fishery into a great one, but generally I don’t like to fish when the rivers are rapidly rising; it just makes for a harder day on the water and tougher fishing. I prefer to fish a river that’s dropping after a rain event. The fish seem to congregate in the pools when this happens, making them easier to target and more eager to take a fly. A lot of times when the river is rising they seem to just be on the move, focused on getting upstream!

I watch the water level charts online. The Naselle River gauge is what I use as an indicator for most of the rivers unless I’m fishing a river that has its own gauge. I like to fish anything under 500 CFS, best if it’s dropping, especially if it’s been dropping for multiple days. Sometimes I’ll fish at 1,000 CFS if it has been dropping for several days, but water clarity will come into play. In the low summer flows of 100–200 CFS you can easily fish anytime, but I also like there to be a bit more water in the system.

River Setup

I use an 8wt; both the Douglas Sky G and the Sage R8 Core are fantastic options. I generally fish a floating line, an OutBound Short, but I always bring a sink tip with me so that if I need to get into a new water column I can. The Titan Sink Tip is a great option. My leader is the same 15 lb+ Maxima Ultragreen at 8–9 feet I use in the salt.

Jig Flies, Size, and Color

I actually use a jig-oriented fly in most of our rivers. The motion seems to truly entice the fish, and it lets the fly drop into a hole where there’s structure. Jig-oriented flies won’t snag up on the bottom logs nearly as easily, so I can fish without losing as many flies when I’m trying to get a fly down into a hole where the fish are. We fish a ton of articulated jig-oriented flies as well as a handful of smaller ones.

If the water is low and clear I’ll usually decrease the size of the pattern. I still like a heavy fly that drops quickly, but I drop the overall length in low, clear water. When the water is a bit higher and that off shade of green we all love, I’ll always use a bigger articulated streamer. For colors, the same as the salt (pink, purple, chartreuse, white) as well as black and blue! If you tie your own, start with our articulated shanks and Spawn jig shanks and hooks.

River Retrieve

The retrieve is different in the river. I fish it more along the lines of how I fish for cutthroat: let the fly drop, strip, drop, strip, strip, staggering the retrieve while keeping it in the hole where they can still see and find the fly.

Fishing under an Indicator

Depending on WDFW regulations, sometimes the state requires that you fish under a float (or in the fly fishing world, an indicator) during the early season. In that case I’ll use 10 lb so the fly under the indicator has a more natural drift. I honestly don’t enjoy indicator fishing nearly as much. What I’ll do is start about 5 feet down and vary it depending on the hole or what I’m seeing on the water. For me, indicator fishing, no matter the species, isn’t a set-in-stone number like 5 feet down or 4 feet down. You have to read the river: what’s the depth of the hole or run you’re fishing? Can you see fish, and how deep are they sitting? I change it all the time. If you don’t catch fish, change the depth.

Fighting River Coho

This is where a strong leader and a bigger rod become important. People always come into the shop and say, “I need 200 yards of backing on my 8wt,” and I ask them what they’re doing while I put on the backing. Sometimes they say they’re using it on our smaller local rivers, and I tell them that if you’re in your backing on these Southwest Washington rivers, you’re in big trouble. You need to manage the fish, and you’ll have to put the brakes on them to keep them out of the logs. That’s why a strong leader and a bigger rod are so helpful.

Landing and Releasing

I generally use a net. Sometimes I’ll tail a fish, but I never drag them up on the shore. If you’re using a net, be sure it’s a knotless net and a net that handles fish well. Coho notoriously roll in the net, and generally speaking I’m not harvesting these fish, so I want to make sure they can continue their journey upstream. It’s always far easier to land these fish with a friend who can net them.

My Coho Gear

South Puget Sound Residents

Rod	5wt Douglas Sky G, 6wt in September and October
Lines	Same as my cutthroat setup
Leader	6 lb Maxima, 8–10 lb for large residents
Flies	Beach Bum, Simple Shrimp, Steamboat Island Leech

The Jetty, Baker Bay, and the Ocean

Rod	8wt Douglas Sky G or Sage R8 Core
Reel	Nautilus on my Sage, Waterworks-Lamson Speedster on my Douglas
Line	OutBound Short I/3/5 or I/5/7
Leader	8–9 ft of at least 15 lb Maxima Ultragreen (or fluorocarbon)
Flies	#2 Dali Lama and stinger patterns in pink, purple, chartreuse and white, and shrimp colors

Southwest Washington Rivers

Rod	8wt Douglas Sky G or Sage R8 Core
Line	Floating OutBound Short, with a Titan Sink Tip along
Leader	8–9 ft of 15 lb+ Maxima Ultragreen, 10 lb under an indicator
Flies	Jig-oriented flies, articulated or small, in pink, purple, chartreuse, white, black, and blue

The Biggest Mistake

Most mistakes are that people keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting the result to change. You need to learn that things change. It’s OK to change flies, change depth, and alter the way you’re fishing. Don’t get locked into one size fits all.

Coho Stories

Coho are incredible; every trip to the water will have a story.

One of my favorites is from when I was a guide my first two years after moving out here. A client was struggling to catch fish. Although they were having a great time, they had yet to catch one. Turned out they were a far better visual learner than listening to me explain the technique. They asked me to show them with the rod and fly they were using, the one I had recommended. I cast across the hole, talked through what I was doing, one strip, two strips, hooked up! Landed an amazing coho. The client wasn’t upset; they were thrilled, and after that short demonstration they went on to have a great day on the water catching fish.

Pete’s coho is another amazing example. Although we always recommend an 8wt, I had a 6wt with me that day and a small fly. I gave the 6wt to Pete to use; it had a sink tip line on it so it could get a fly deeper in the water column. Fishing had been decent, and we got to a place in the river we knew held fish. He cast out and boom, immediately I knew that fish was different. Its sheer size and strength were insane, and once it got to the net it was beyond special. It was one of those fish where you’re basically yelling in excitement on the water, high fives, and relief that you landed it. Those moments of pure adrenaline are incredible.

Regulations

Always read the regulations; sometimes there are in-season changes. Check the WDFW fishing regulations and emergency rules before every trip. Remember that fishing from the beach on Sand Island requires an Oregon license, some rivers require fishing under a float early in the season, and the ocean season can close once quotas are met.

Coho Fly Fishing FAQ

What weight fly rod do you need for coho?

On the coast and in the rivers I almost always use an 8wt, either a Douglas Sky G or a Sage R8 Core. For South Puget Sound residents my favorite is a 5wt, and I’ll bring a 6wt in September and October when the fish get bigger.

What are the best flies for coho?

In the salt, a #2 Dali Lama and stinger patterns; this season chartreuse and white out-fished everything. In the rivers, jig-oriented flies, articulated when the water has some color and smaller when it’s low and clear. For South Sound residents, the Beach Bum, Simple Shrimp, and Steamboat Island Leech.

What colors work best for coho?

Pink, purple, chartreuse and white, and shrimp colors. In the rivers I add black and blue.

When is coho season in Southwest Washington?

The ocean off Long Beach in July and August, the North Jetty and Baker Bay from mid-August into early October, and the rivers from September into January. My favorite time on the rivers is the middle of November.

How fast should you strip for coho?

In the salt, fast. You generally can’t out-strip a coho. In the rivers, slow it down: let the fly drop, strip, drop, strip, strip, and keep it in the hole.

What river level is best for coho?

On the Naselle River gauge, I like anything under 500 CFS, best if it’s been dropping for multiple days after a rain. Sometimes I’ll fish 1,000 CFS after several days of dropping if the water is clear enough.

What leader should you use for coho?

8–9 feet of at least 15 lb Maxima Ultragreen for the ocean, jetty, bay, and rivers. Drop to 10 lb under an indicator, and 6–10 lb for South Sound residents.

Do you need 200 yards of backing for coho?

Not on the Southwest Washington rivers. If you’re in your backing there, you’re in big trouble. You need to put the brakes on the fish and keep them out of the logs.

Spend the Time

Coho aren’t hard to catch. Although there can be times of frustration and disappointment, this is a fishery in the PNW where, if you spend a bit of time, you can truly learn it, and you’re targeting large fish on the fly!

Chasing other fish? Check out our guides to fly fishing Puget Sound for sea-run cutthroat and fly fishing for albacore tuna out of Ilwaco.

Written by Josh Phillips