2024 Siltcoos/Tahk Coho thread

Riding high on our ocean and tidewater salmon success (and looking for a 2024 Florence area hat trick), Pepper and I hit Siltcoos for our traditional opening day trip around the lake, clockwise this year.  (It wasn't easy but I saved 3 tag spaces for lake coho this year.)

beautiful day and unlike crowded tidewater launches, totally empty parking lot at 8am!  loons, geese, herons, submarine ducks, two groups of river otters and as expected, no coho. yet.  water temp- 65F.

summer rain has been great, water level about a foot above last year, forest is not dry (and already full of mushrooms) so the coming rains will bump the level, and the river is connecting to the ocean so even without rain, we should see coho coming in soon (this weekends strong high tides look good).

planning a 'nature' trip to Tahk later this week, I'll post updates as things develop, especially when the dams get opened.  Looking forward to meeting and hearing from other people that make it to the lakes this year.  As always, feel free to message me with lake coho questions.  cheers, roger

Oct.3, mouth of Siltcoos river near high tide, huge bay and wide connection to the ocean, coho can swim right in, easily avoiding the seals, and head for the fish ladder...best connection this early in many years...

out 5 hours Sunday, fished all my "fish ladder/early coho" locations but no sign of coho for me at Siltcoos, smooth lake with no PB wakes or tidal current...I'm fine with that for now.  lol

Planning to fish it again next Sunday, fishing likely to be very slow until that first big storm hits and it doesn't appear to be coming soon.

no sign of coho in the lake today, expecting several days of rain this week, might not be enough to call in the coho (aka- get the dam opened), but it's coming eventually.

10/15 update:  I checked Siltcoos launch and Tahk dam water levels, both lakes are about 1' lower than when the dams first opened last year, so I'm not expecting this weeks rain to be enough. Mushroom explosion yes, dam opening no.  Maybe dams get opened for a quick "flush things out and test the systems" deal but that would be it until there is more water in the lakes. 

Planning to fish Siltcoos Friday just in case the rain brings in some coho over the fish ladder, I'll post an update in the afternoon, especially if anything fun happens (besides my bow hold being full of chanterelles and king boletes.  lol).

17.5" chrome jack along the east shoreline RR trestle, nice to see quality fish like this using the ladder.  later, up the Maple arm I definitely saw jack coho 'splash' and 'flash', just no adults located....I'm encouraged but we need rain.

Pepper, seen here launching herself onto the Outback this morning, declares as 'fake news' any reports that she fell off the kayak last Sunday at 4.5mph (she did) and had a relaxing Siltcoos swim (she did) supported really well by her Mustang Survival Underdog PFD (she was) while roger, laughing his ass off, moved back onto the rear deck (he did) and he calmly assisted Pepper's front and then her big ass rear end back onto the kayak (he did).  Reverting to silly math, Pepper decided to point out that 13 dog years is 91 people years and "let's see how many of you are jumping onto a kayak in late October when you are 91yo!"    lol

Correction: Monday morning they opened the Siltcoos dam some and the river still flowing Tuesday, lake level dropping.  Normally, this brings in large numbers of coho, it will not surprise me to hear good reports very soon from all over the lake.  If anyone is coming down by this weekend, I have more intel, DM me.

Wednesday I scored the very best- a 19.5" chrome jack, dropped a 3/8oz spinner about 3' in from the reeds and he was laying there in 3' of water, slammed it just after I got the blade turning..

Tahk update- remote launch at top of Maple arm is no good, huge bog without enough water on top to get over or through.  Lake is very low. Launch just off 101 is closed due to half the ramp sinking, the launch at Tahkenitch Landing is open (Federal pass).

Was a much warmer n calmer on Siltcoos than forecast, quite pleasant most of the day. Had a big coho jump right next to my boat first thing in the morning. Was the only salmon I saw break the surface today, tho I marked a decent number on the finder. Shortly after, lost either a tiny jack or trout. Nothing for a few hours after that, till I got up in Fiddle arm. Ended up catching  two jacks and two trout. The first jack had a little color, ended up cutting ok, tho could have been brighter. The second was quite a bit darker, and of course released. Not many boats on the water. There was one in Fiddle that caught several fish, according to Roger. The only boat I talked to was skunk city. Hopefully this weekend's rain will bring more in.

since I switched to large single hooks on my spinners and wigglers, I just never lose a lake coho once it's hooked.  But I do miss a few hard hits and yesterday, I bumped lots of weeds with my spinners but I also had some hard strikes in areas that hold adult coho, I just didn't hook one.  Other than that, an absolutely beautiful day out fishing with my old dog.

You now have me wondering why one would need such a large container of socks while fishing for coho???

My guess would be drift socks for slowing the troll speed or helping to keep straight. Maybe coho with cold toes? We may never know.

Maybe socks for Pepper? Cold toes are no joke!

perhaps it's the lid off an old bin of socks (from when we moved home to the NW in 2011) but why is it on the boat?   

well, we always gut our salmon and return everything, minus eggs, to the river/lake plus rinse out all the blood along the backbone, that plastic lid makes a great surface to do that on (as does the bow of my Outback).   

Today was a total skunk, 7 hours solo on the kayak, fished all the coho areas counterclockwise, very little sign of any coho in Siltcoos today...sad and my legs are tired.

Roger, I really enjoy (and rely on) your reporting.
Now that the rain is beginning to drop off, how is Siltcoos looking?

Roger, I really enjoy (and rely on) your reporting.
Now that the rain is beginning to drop off, how is Siltcoos looking?

it's been a strange year.  when they opened to dam early, not many coho were ready so just a small batch came in and a few were caught.  Then no rain and lake kept getting lower.  Last week, we get the big rain that should have called in the main run and triggered the dam opening.  But according to a report yesterday, they closed the dam which puts us back to coho trickling in over the ladder.  And that would be my observation yesterday, some boats found a coho in the morning but that was it for the day, just not many fish in there and no sign of new fish coming in at 3pm when I left.  That was the report I got Saturday, lots of boats fishing, a few caught and mostly early. 

the main run has definitely not happened yet, I'm hoping the rain next weekend gets us a few days of hot fishing just after it.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Update Tuesday 8am:  dams at both lakes are closed.  Tahk lake level has come up from what it was, Siltcoos still about a foot lower than on Oct1.

I fished for a couple hours late morning into the mid afternoon,.  Very dead, not even a trout.  One boat leaving as I launched said they tagged one so maybe some fish around.  Most of the boats seemed to be just moving around, no yells of salmon joy.  Nice weather day.

More boats than I expected, if you plan to fish the weekend, get there early for a parking spot