Coho Salmon Fishing in Friday Harbor, WA

Coho are a late-summer proposition in the San Juans. The water off Friday Harbor sits empty of them through winter and spring, then fills as fish returning to Puget Sound and Fraser River systems push through San Juan Channel and the surrounding passes. Resident bluebacks build through early summer, and the ocean-run adults stage from late July into mid-September. That stretch from late August through September is the sharp peak, when fish hold and feed hard before continuing to their natal streams. By mid-October the run collapses inshore, and from November through May you will not find them here.

We cover 22 spots that hold coho. Alden Bank and Hein Bank give you open structure to work, while Cattle Point on San Juan Island, Eagle Point, Belle Rock, Colville Island and Boundary Pass, Iceberg Point on Lopez, and Johns Pass near Johns Island put you in the tide lanes these fish travel.

Fish the light and fish the current. Start before sunrise and work the first two hours of daylight, then come back as the evening light goes. Plan around a running ebb or flood of about 1.5 knots or more, because the bite fades toward slack. Troll flasher and hoochie or trolling spoons in the top 30 to 60 feet, mooch cut plug herring through the upper water column, and drop metal jigs on surfacing bait balls.