I went fishing from 4pm to 7pm today, the opening of the coho fishery. We launched at Magnuson Park and went to the east side of the lake around the Juanita Bay area. The fish are in thick. Lots of jumping coho which frankly I didn't expect in the evening. We fished for two hours trolling plugs and spoons with not one tap. At 6pm one of the jigging boats caught a silver so we switched to jigging. I used a 4oz white/pearl buzz bomb and my son had a 3oz Charlie White jig in white. My son immediately hooked a fish as he jigged about ten feet off the bottom. He lost the fish, we lowered his jig (he's five) and he once again hooked another fish! This one we got into the boat. I was finally able to lower my own gear and promptly hooked and lost one, again just off bottom (about 90 feet). I then hit and caught another one off the bottom. A short while later I caught a fish as I was slowly working the jig back to the surface. The bite turned off at about 6:45. Other boats that were jigging had similar success and a boat trolling plugs also started hitting fish at this time. When we got back to the ramp I spoke with several anglers who said the west side of the lake was dead.

I am surprised by this evening's success. I really did not have high expectations and never dreamed that we might almost limit out. Look for the jumping fish and I would definitely check out the east side of the lake.

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