An Outdoorsman’s Journal

By: Mark Walters

Anything for a Coho

Hello friends, Once a year I try to catch a salmon out of my canoe. Generally, if I spend two days trying, I catch between 1 to 3 and have never caught over 3. This year I have been thinking about my annual challenge for several months and was very excited to head to Port Washington and try my luck. To make life a little more interesting I decided not to use electronics and pretty much fish like someone may have a hundred years ago.

Saturday, May 10 High 56, low 42

I started my day at a KAMO function near Wisconsin Dells where the high was 82, when I arrived at Port Washington at 6:00 p.m. the high had been 56 and there was a stiff northeast wind blowing and not a single boat on the water. I rigged lines and relaxed at a beach before heading to the local Walmart to spend the night in the GMC Hotel.

Sunday, May 11 High 57, low 43

There was too much wind to launch my canoe until 7:00 this morning but I was ready and super excited as all reports from the last week were that the coho were hitting. My plan was to pull two dodger, peanut fly combinations with a one-ounce weight on each one and on my 3rd line I was going to experiment with crankbaits and spoons.

I would use a kayak paddle, and the biggest name of the game is to paddle hard enough to get your lures working to fool a coho. I headed south from the harbor towards Milwaukee and within 15 minutes had my first strike and landed about a 3-pound coho. In other words, the pressure was off. For the next 4 hours I paddled without a strike and only saw 2 fish caught by people in boats.

At 11:30 I decided to try paddling in the harbor and within a minute had a strike and caught my 2nd coho. I was resetting the dodger/fly combo when another fish smacked it. I went 3 for 3 and was all smiles as the best I have ever done is 3 salmon. For the next 3 hours I paddled and had yet to get out of my canoe. I straddle a milk crate and live on my knees and things get a bit numb from the waist down. I missed two fish at about 1:00 but was confident as I had plenty of daylight. At 2:30 I was paddling outside of the harbor and once again the dodger/fly was smacked and I caught number 4 which put another big smile on my face. I paddled maybe 50 yards, got smacked again and iced number 5. I felt like a freaking hero. I have never seen anyone fishing out of a canoe on Lake Michigan and have had many slow experiences plus two times where I sunk my rig. HOORAY!

I was done cleaning my fish by 5 and decided to walk the long north wall and talk to shore fishermen. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds of alewife swimming in the very clear water and I did not talk to a fisherman that had caught a fish. Most recognized me as the crazy guy in the canoe.

Sunday, May 12 High 64, low 44

I was paddling at 6:00 this morning after night 2 in the Walmart parking lot in the GMC Hotel. Like yesterday, my first hit/fish came within 15 minutes. Unlike yesterday, there was no break between number one and number two and 74 minutes after launching my canoe I had 5 fish in the box and was heading to my truck. Today I went 5 for 5 and have to admit, my electronic, my 18.6 War Eagle, I don’t miss you a bit. Sometimes ya bore me!

I have never been able to make it home without taking a nap after this type of adventure. I was within 10 minutes of my house, and I lost almost all sense of sanity. It was like I just drank a bottle of whiskey. I literally almost pulled over two miles from my house.

Long story short, I made it home with plenty of coho fillets for friends and family and was feeling like I was king of my canoe, at least this week!

Sunset

A nice limit of coho salmon caught by Mark Walters at Port Washington.

This rig is a fish catching machine.

Mark Walters caught this limit of coho salmon out of his canoe in 74 minutes at Port Washington.