Reel Repair by Alan Tani

A friend said there were a few jumpers in the inlet and we should take a look. Wow hundreds of fish jumping along a km of shore or more. We were casting spinners to jumping fish along the beach in about 10 feet of water. Coho can be picky when they are like that but we managed to boat 10 and loose a few more in a couple of hours or so. Fish were 5 to 12 pounds or so; the limit is two for this part of the coast.

Couple of more nice shots. My bud likes taking pics.

Great fishin'!

Not to be a downer, but of all the pacific salmon species, cohos are the least likely to survive catch and release, and their probability of survival decreases significantly the closer they get to freshwater. Cohos always look like they will survive because they swim away so quickly, but they fight so hard that they build up toxins in their blood that kills them. I catch and keep my two then stop fishing -- especially when I am fishing creeks that have wild runs.

All valid comments akfish. We are fishing in the salt water a few km from the nearest river on fresh returning fish. These fish are also enhanced but are not mass marked. We are also fishing with spinners with a small single barbless hooks and handle the fish very gently with a release net. Always do your best to handle fish properly

as an aside, I have been involved in 4 coho mortality studies conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. These studies involved catching coho on different lures and or bait with different hook configurations and noting hook location and holding the fish for 24 hours. Mortalities ranged from 3 % (lures with single barbless) to 80 % (two hooks with bait) and they also varied by day depending on how the fish were hitting. If you see bleeding (puffs of blood) or the fish is hooked in the eye they will most likely not survive. I keep my fish according to how they are hooked (unless not allowed) and only release the fish most likely to survive.

I hope I didn't bother anyone with my coho morality comments. I got them from a series of studies done in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest a few years ago when I was on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. (I was appointed by Sarah Palin, but please don't tell anyone.) I don't remember the precise numbers and won't make anything up, but it was apparent from all of the studies were were using: Cohos don't survive catch and release very well; kings do much better. The Board was concerned but couldn't figure out anything to do about it. We were left taking sport fishing to be aware of this and nothing else...

   Thanks for the great pictures.  Yes those are bright as well!   Great food there!   Glad you got out again.
      Ive been criticized for even fishing in streams by people who think that the fish should be left alone once they reach the mouth of their river.     I love trolling in the saltas well.   Butt.     We all look at life and food differently.   I caught a large male this week and will smoke it and eat it soon.  
   Generally speaking we cant depend on our Rules and Regulations to protect our interests as there are so many issues in Management.
      Historically speaking,   pollution, pesticides, logging practices, irrigation problems, Damms, and overpopulated urban sprawl needs have done the damage to our natural resources,   Soon Aquafarming is becoming a problem to the wild stocks,   Now we have disscussed that,  i,m going to a river in the morning.
   Yes i,m open for comments.
   

Of course, I live in Alaska too. And it's right: Pollution, rising water temperatures, dams, and commercial fishing have more of an effect on fish stocks than anything else. But I can do little to affect those things. What I can do is stop fishing coho when I have as many as I need or the limit, whichever is first. Will it have an effect? Probably not -- but neither will my vote in an election because there are so many voters. I vote because it is the right thing to do. Likewise, I never keep halibut over about 60 pounds because those larger fish are spawning females. I realize that these are easy calls for me: As an Alaskan resident, I can go out pretty much anytime to get what I need. Non-residents can't and, I suppose, are thus more inclined to fish to excess.

I never thought that posting a few pics of a fun morning fishing would get so interesting. We all need to do what we can to protect the  resource that we love so much. We need to fish following the regulations and even go a little further when we can. Yes my friend and I did release a few fish but they were all handled gently (best practices, release net, fish kept in water etc) and revived until they were well enough to swim off strongly. We were using single barbless hooks and kept the fish that were badly hooked and only released fish that had the highest chance of survival. I base this on over 35 years of fishing experience (including guiding) and almost 30 years of working in the fisheries field including fisheries science. Maybe Canadian fish are different (speak French and are metric  ) but I'm comfortable with my actions. If anyone is a science nerd here is a link to a Canadian science paper on salmon release mortality and talks about chinook and coho and different gear types. Grab a cold Canadian Beer and have a read:

http://publications.gc.ca/site/archivee-archived.html?url=http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/mpo-dfo/Fs70-1-1999-127-eng.pdf

Quote from: akfish on October 02, 2017, 04:48:18 PM
I hope I didn't bother anyone with my coho morality comments. I got them from a series of studies done in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest a few years ago when I was on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. (I was appointed by Sarah Palin, but please don't tell anyone.) I don't remember the precise numbers and won't make anything up, but it was apparent from all of the studies were were using: Cohos don't survive catch and release very well; kings do much better. The Board was concerned but couldn't figure out anything to do about it. We were left taking sport fishing to be aware of this and nothing else...

Aw man, Gov. Palin's regime didn't mandate somethin that'ed better preserve a delicate natural resource even though there might negative economic consequences? I'm surprised....Good info. Though, Coho are indeed great freshwater battlers but I never new about the low survival rate.
Gfish

    I fish ultra light spinning tackle a lot, here in the Rock River, for Smallmouth, and have often wondered if that is really a wise thing . Anything very large (2 lbs., or so) has to be "worn down" quite a bit, to land.....and they take quite a while to "revive" , on release. There are, I'm sure, many factors that enter into the "survival rate" equation...on all species. Water temp, depth, how "tired" the fish gets, how it's "handled" when it's caught, etc. I guess, all a person can do, is his best, to minimize damage to the fish !

Just do your best on catch and release by good handling practices and don't worry about it.  Fish either survive or not.  If you practice good fish handling practices you can sleep with a clear conscience.  Dominick

 Nice fish Todd, coho are red meat much like a sockeye. Nothing like fresh coho on the bbq !!.....and tell your buddy thanks for the great on the water pictures !!

September is my favorite month as the coho come into Puget Sound by the thousands. Most have lockjaw, but persistence can pay off handsomely.

 Ted

I recall participating in field data collection for CA DFG and DWR 40 years ago. 

My team electro-fished Eel River tributaries, concentrating on salmon and steelhead young.  We never collected coho fry in our nets, but documented visual sightings of coho fry and smolts.  The young coho appeared more delicate and were easily distinguishable from young kings and steelhead in natural habitat.  The young coho tended to prefer the less turbulent, but clear side waters of main flows, difficult areas for comparable sampling, compared to the kings and steelhead young. 

So even early in their life cycles, the coho seem to be more delicate and less hardy than the kings.