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For all of you young people out there, let me take a trip down memory lane to 1999 - the year of the mega-ho.  In March the "spring" cohos were already pushing four pounds and this was before the mussels and over-abundant kings had depleted the alewives so the fish only grew from there. I'd already been fishing in my own boats for 18 years by then and the largest coho ever on my boat was a summer fish that weighed 7 pounds, though I'd seen one 10 pounder weighed - again, a mid-summer fish.  

I was telling this story to my customers on an early May trip in 1999, telling them I hoped we'd catch a new boat record that day since in April we'd boated several six pounders. That afternoon we caught seven cohos over 10 pounds! It was the year that coined the term "mega-hos" for any coho over 10 pounds and there were lots of them. By the end of the season my personal best was a coho that tipped the scales at 16 pounds and my boat record was set (and is still) an 18 pounder caught in early August out of Portage.

I'm telling this now, since on our first trip of the season yesterday we boated several cohos over 20 inches and one was 23. These fish are "mega" for March - remember March of 2020 when we had to throw back about 40% of the fish because they were short and an 18-incher was a good one?  

I don't think the fish we caught yesterday were quite as big as the spring cohos from 1999, but they are exceptional, for sure. I doubt anyone will catch near limits of mega-hos, but even a few 10s scattered over the next few months will make for a great season.  

Agreed, while we didn’t weigh any, we didn’t have to measure any either. There was no doubt that every fish we boated met the limit. We didn’t have one out of 16 that was under 18 inches.

I'm beyond excited to see these reports rolling in. Indications are that the alewife spawn last year was the biggest since 2012, and maybe even better than 2012 (although there's a lot of uncertainty in just how big it is - we'll know more about it next year)

Coho growth is almost 100% connected to the alewife spawn of the previous year, so this is yet another indication that the spawn was a great one. Just what the doctor ordered!


Btw some really neat new USGS research is showing the alewife overwinter in 300-450 feet, so that's probably where all the coho have been - if there's a ton of bait way offshore, they don't need to come nearshore to find it

Great info! Thanks guys.

Mike, this might be the year were we throw in a little side bet for the season on biggest Coho. Over the years we have seen the Coho get to some big sizes. And a Coho in the 7-8lb range + is a very fun fish.

When you get one that hits the teens you have one hell of a fish.

That's for Sure!

That's great! In 1999 I was working I'm Chicago Heights 6 days a week driving home Saturday night and back to Chicago Heights on Monday morning so I missed all of that so it's great news that I wasn't aware of.

Thanks for sharing!