The First Coho on the Road System Contest has a winner and it wrapped up almost before it began. We started the contest last Thursday and by Friday afternoon Dave Bell had a Sheep Creek coho on the beach and took home a sweet Simms Ambidextrous Sling Pack. Congratulations Dave! He reported catching pink after pink before hooking into the target species. And no surprise that the fly of choice was the ever reliable Dolly Llama Black & White #2.

Coho selfies are tricky.....

Reports of several more coho at Sheep Creek came in Saturday morning as well as a fish or two out the road at Lena Cove and Point Louisa. Coho are in the area and it looked like things were taking off until......we got two days of what the National Weather Service called a "10 Year Event." Saturday afternoon through Monday felt more like an October storm rolling in off the Gulf of Alaska than an early August weekend. Winds over 50 mph and 2-4 inches of rain drowned the area, blew out creeks and muddied up beaches. Needless to say, not much fishing happened as we waited for creeks to drop and the tide to flush out some of the brown water inundating our local saltwater spots.

The coho season is off and running!

Although the tide has been flushing the Sheep Creek area, the outside beach area is still pretty off color. Sheep Creek itself is running clear and there are pink salmon in the mouth that are readily taking flies. Dollies are still eating beads in the creek as well. We are hoping a few more tide cycles will clear the water in the channel and we can get back to a situation where the coho can actually see your fly.

Sheep Creek is running clear and the Dollies are eating beads.

On a fly note, as we return to coho fishing, we have updated out Grab & Go area of the site with coho specific selections. You can get 6 flies or 12 flies. Selections are heavy on Dolly Llamas and Clouser Minnows with the 12 fly selection featuring a larger variety of flies and even a topwater Popper Wog. And if you need to change up your leader we recommend the Rio Salmon Leader in 9 foot 16lb test.

The weather looks at least somewhat better for this weekend so head on out and give it a go. See you out there.