Spring Coho Primer with Captain Dan Keating
- Captain Dan Keating
- May 1
- 7 min read
There is no better time than NOW to get out on the water and catch a mess of great eating coho. Anglers on the southern third of Lake Michigan are facing what is starting out as another strong coho season. Anglers on Lake Ontario and parts of Lake’s Huron and Superior can also find quality spring coho, if you know where to look and what to run. Since much of the best action is close to shore, this is a great time for small boat anglers, and those with little Great Lake’s salmon experience to try their hand at trolling with a high probability of success. In fact, much of your walleye size tackle is fine for coho fishing.
Where to Start
Coho like water in the 50 to 58-degree range and right now, the water temps are much colder. First understand the overall migration patterns of coho. On Lake Michigan you will have some schools migrating north along the shoreline staying within a mile or two of shore. Another group of coho will not have moved into the warmer shallows but will be offshore, randomly working their way north. In any given year you may find the bulk of the fish nearshore, or offshore. Winds, winter patterns and spring warming affect this, as well as what the coho are foraging on. This year on Lake Michigan there are plenty of nearshore fish, so let’s save some gas and focus on them!
Step 1—find the warmest water you can find.
This is typically going to be from the beach out to about 30 to 40 FOW. As spring progresses, this range may move further out. Toward the end of May, if it’s warm and sunny, you will find coho anywhere from the beach out to 10 miles offshore. Coho can be found along sandy beaches, off piers and rock rip rap and river and stream outflows are a major attractant. Power plant discharges and stream mouths also flush nutrients into the environment feeding the bottom end of the food chain.
Not all coho come into the shoreline. When looking for fish beyond the 30-foot level, the playing field is much larger. When heading into deeper water, look for surface temp breaks and color lines. Once the water warms and stratifies, look for coho in and just below the thermocline, the horizontal break line separating warm surface water and the colder water beneath it.
This year, good coho action can be found from Indiana up to Port Washington on the west shore, and while the Michigan coastline doesn’t have as many coho, you can still find plenty of them up to Muskegeon. What Michigan has right now is solid king fishing. I’ll focus on spring kings in a future update next week.
Step 2—Pick Your Days.
This is the time of year when small boat and kayak anglers with little experience and a limited selection of tackle look like heroes! Watch your wind and wave forecast. Some tools to help isolate good fishing windows are www.sailflow.com and www.windfinder.com
Step 3—Tackle & Lures Needed
This is easy as you don’t need much more than a handful of crankbaits, some dodgers and basic coho flies. Early in the spring crank baits rock, but once May gets rolling and the water climbs above 42-degrees it’s hard to beat dodgers and flies so let’s keep it simple. For crankbaits go with Thin Fins, Brad’s Thin Fish, Flicker Shads, Shad Raps, X-Raps, and similar style baits. Body bait colors for spring include any combination reds, oranges, golds, greens, yellows and blacks.
Think red and yellow dodgers. Top brands include the 00 Luhr Jensen’s and the 00 Gold Star Stubby dodger. What’s the difference? The Jensen’s are thinner and the Stubby’s are wider and have more action. Both work but the mood of the fish will dictate so experiment each day. Spring dodger colors include red and yellow. You can get as fancy as you want with spots and tapes or spots on the dodgers, or keep it simple. The small Spin doctors also catch plenty of coho and are one of the best choices to run on divers.
Top flies will be either the small Peanut Flies or the 1 and 2-inch slider flies. Both work, mood of the fish will dictate so start each day with some of each and adjust to what the lake tells you. Flies come in a million colors but here are some trusted patterns: green/gold, next generation, blue/green/gold, seven up, teal/mirage and Green Liz. On bright sunny days, it’s hard to beat the purple/black/gold flies. Again, don’t overthink spring coho when you find the fish, just about any color will work, but shades of green may be best.
How to run the spring set ups is simple. Your standard leader length will be roughly 14 to 18-inches. I like 40 lb. mono for the leaders. If you go with a shorter fly leader, you will get a snappier action. Longer leads, up to 23-inches on the 00 dodgers will slow the fly down and work well when trolling at faster speeds.
Tactics
Let’s talk about trolling speeds. The general range for spring coho is 1.5 mph up to about 3.5 mph. On any given day . . . it matters! So work your throttle till success happens. Since much of the action is in shallow and we’re focused on the top 10 or 15 feet, currents don’t play into the equation like summer fishing.
Since we’re targeting the surface layers a mix of mono side planers, smaller divers, and flat lines are all you need. Spring coho are often attracted to the turbulence created by a spinning propellor. A diver set just outside the boats path on 20 to 40-feet of line are hard for hungry coho to ignore. In shallow, murky water you don’t need to run them out far. Sometimes running them out just so they disappear from sight is best. Offshore, in clear water you may have to blow them out further.
Dream Weaver Divers in the smaller or medium sizes or the 0 or 1 size Dipsy Diver. For spring coho orange or pearl divers are best, but honestly, most colors will work. Leaders off divers for spring coho can be four to six-feet long, no need for the monster leads of summer king fishing. You can use 20 lb. to-40 lb. mono or fluro leaders. The best baits off divers on the 00 red or yellow dodgers with coho flies. Divers can be run on mono, braid or wire for the spring.
You can run one diver a side, or two a side. Coho love commotion and noise so sometimes two divers right next to each other is dynamite. When running two divers a side set one on a 1 ½ setting and the other on a 2 ½ or 3 setting. Sometimes using two different size divers on the same side will avoid tangles.
Next let’s add some side planers. The smaller boards work best since we’re targeting the surface. The Church TX-12 and TX-6; the 7.5-inch Ninja Board, the medium size Yellow Bird or the smaller Offshore planers. You can run dodger & flies, spoons or cranks on boards. You will want a small keel sinker (¼-ounce up to ¾ ounce) with a four to six-foot leader to your lure. This can be 20 lb. to 40 lb. mono for dodgers but go with 14 lb. test up to 20 lb. test fluorocarbon for cranks and spoons. The sinker keeps dodgers from skipping on the surface and also prevents the planer from hitting the fish when it releases and slides down the line.
With a little practice it’s easy to run two, three or four planers a side. The overall pattern of your lines will resemble an inverted V. The bow of your boat is the tip of the V and your outside planer lines are on longer leads. So, for example if you run three boards a side, run the outside planer back 75 feet, the middle planer 50-foot back and the inside board 20-feet back. This will prevent tangles. When resetting a board after a strike you need to put it back in its original position.
When running multiple planers, use slightly heavier sinkers on the inside planers and run longer leads on the outside boards. This is the opposite of summer fishing. Lead length varies from day to day so experiment and begin each outing with some shorter, and some longer leads. You may also find that when trolling into the waves, you need longer leads off side planers but shorter leads when the waves are pushing from the stern.
Downriggers will catch plenty of fish, but you don’t need them to be successful. If running riggers for coho, leads of 5 to 30-feet off the weight usually work. You can also set your riggers in the bottom half of the water column with clean spoons or larger, king size, flashers and flies and target kings. You can usually catch your limit of coho with boards and divers.
Lines run flat off the stern of the boat will also catch plenty of fish. You can run a crank bait straight off the stern 30 to 100-feet back with no weight. If you run a dodger you will want a small sinker to hold it down.
The Great Lakes are setting up for another fantastic season! If you’re new to the fishery, there is no better time than May to get out on the water as the fish are plentiful and hungry! If you want more info on spring coho, check out my book Great Lakes Salmon & Trout Fishing, Essential Tactics and Seasonal Strategies.
You can also find more info about my personal, one-on-one coaching done over Zoom. Each session is custom designed to focus on helping move you to the next level. During the season I coach anglers who are complete novices all the way up to seasoned charter captains and tournament anglers. You can find more info at www.captaindankeating.com
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