Young Coho Salmon hatch from their eggs in the spring. They spend the first six to eight weeks in the redd until the yolk sac is consumed at which point they seek out shelter and must seek out their own food.

Young Coho Spring Beginning

Food preferences when they are young mostly consists of zoo plankton and before moving onto small aquatic insects and terrestrial insects that fall into the river.

Coho Salmon Spring Location Tips

Those Coho Salmon that have already made it to the ocean in previous years can be found where the bait fish are located. To narrow down their location, check with local bait shops.

Bait Shops always hear from boastful anglers where the best fish are located. In the spring, the water is the same temperature at all levels. As such, fish are usually deep and away from the shallow bays and estuaries.

Some Coho Salmon are even far out at sea. As you can see in the image above, they can be found roaming the entire northern segment of the Pacific ocean. Locating them is not nearly as easy and the use of tools like fish finders is critical to locating schools of Coho Salmon, bait fish and their depth.

Food Preferences

Coho Salmon eat the same foods in the spring as they do the rest of year year. However, their food preferences change to those foods that are in abundance in the spring. For those Coho Salmon found at sea, insect imitating lures and baits are not very successful as they are primed for bait fish.

In the southern part of their distribution, the best baits to use are sardines, anchovies and herring. In the northern part of their distribution, herring, sardines, pilchards and needle fish are a better choice.

In Japan herring is best. In Russian, they can be caught most of the time with the same baits as they can in Alaska and the Yukon. In the Great lakes, smelt and alewife are the best baits.

Coho Salmon Conservation

The Coho Salmon has a large distribution and they can be found in large numbers in many parts of their distribution. However, due to construction and other environmental factors, some rivers are under pressure. In these river, please practice catch and release and abide by location restrictions.

Locations where Coho Salmon are considered Endangered are along the Central California Coast. The Coho Salmon is considered threatened in the Southern Oregon and Northern California coast, the lower Columbia River and the Oregon coast. Areas of concern include Puget sound.