Waukegan 4-18

Sunrise greeted us nicely on April 18 as a chilly north wind swept over 46 degree water.

Early on, we ran an experimental Spring strategy for big Chinook which cut into our Coho fishing time a little but we still ended up putting 11 fish in the box by 10.30am while losing an incredible 15 other fish at least. One of the fish we lost at the back of the boat was a big, 16lb Chinook that hit a Coho fly!

On further reflection of Sunday morning, it was a somewhat strange day as far as what worked, what didn't, as well as how many fish escaped. Much of this I now believe can be attributed to the stirred up shallow water which probably made it difficult for the fish to see some of the baits. Further, the baits the fish could see, were probably not 'lining up' quite right in their crosshairs and therefore poor hookups may have been the result.

Never the less, this much Coho action in mid-April is a very welcome sign and the fish are here earlier than expected! Some big Chinook also lurk alongside the Coho and we always have a chance of hooking into some of those as well as Brown and Rainbow Trout.

Lastly, I tied a pretty cool variation of a proven Coho fly and so far it is outfishing just about every other fly I have run so far this Spring. One of these flies - I have now tied about 15 of them - was beneficiary to the strike we got from the big Chinook that escaped. What's further is the the original 'legacy' pattern of this fly did NOT work on Sunday!

We'll see how this new fly continues to perform and it's always satisfying to see a bait that you made nearly from scratch, work so well.

Capt Rick
Windycitysalmon