While watching "A Bug's Life" video with Jake, my four year old son, he started doing a pretty fair imitation of the evil grasshopper character by attacking and attempting to devour his two year old brother. It occurred to me that this might be the perfect opportunity to hit the beach in search of the mighty Coho Salmon.

"Uh, honey, do you have any plans for the next hour or so?" I asked my wife innocently. "Why"? She said in her "You're thinking of fishing aren't you" tone.

"Well, I'm thinking of going down to the beach for the last hour of daylight.". Before she could say "If you stop for milk on the way back" I was in the basement grabbing my stuff.

Salmon fishing from a boat has always been a staple of Northwest angling, but recently, landlocked fishing from beaches in Puget Sound has gained in popularity. Beach fishing is cheap, fast and once you learn a few tricks, pretty productive.

Fly rod or casting gear? Depending on the weather and tide conditions, either can be a good choice. Although I am an avid fly fisherman, I also like to catch fish. When the wind is howling in your face and the waves are cresting and breaking, casting a fly line isn't all that much fun. Casting smallish lures weighing around an ounce and a half are the best bet in those conditions. Given my time constraints I grabbed my casting rod and my bag of beach gear and was on my way.

Autumn in Seattle means a great many fishing opportunities. Returning salmon are milling in the saltwater bays and beaches and beginning to fill the rivers. Bright, ocean run salmon run close to local beaches such as Golden Gardens in North Seattle and Lincoln Park in West Seattle.

Fly fisherman can do very well with small herring and candlefish patterns or bright streamers. I usually fish a sink tip line, but floating lines can work as well if there aren't too many weeds on the surface. I prefer a 7weight rod, for the added distance and extra pop in the wind, but 5 weights can be fun if conditions allow.

I jumped off the bulkhead onto the beach and headed for my favorite spot just as the sun was dropping behind the Olympics. Figuring I had about 45 minutes of light left on an outgoing tide, I tied on a bright pink "buzz bomb". I flung it as far as I could out near a tide rip sliding along the beach about 50 yards out. Retrieving and working the heavy lure against the tide, I felt a slight tapping, and at the same time I saw a small baitfish leaping out of the water.

A good sign. Coho salmon like to come in and feed on baitfish near shore at dawn and dusk and at various times during tide changes. Kelpbeds and gently sloping beaches near points are other likely spots.

After about a half-hour of slinging that buzz bomb in a quickly fading light, I felt the sudden jolt and pull of a nice fish. The Coho was hooked solidly and took line quickly in a fast run just under the surface of the water. Bits of eelgrass and kelp from the surface caught on my line and were flung in the air as the fish rushed back towards me and paralleled the shore for a while. We pulled back and forth for a while and several minutes later I beached a bright six-pound Coho just as the light was fading behind the Olympics.

I quickly cleaned the fish, and found a stomach full of small candlefish, the small baitfish I had seen earlier. My hunch to hit the beach had been right this time, but many times the baitfish and salmon can be absent from the beaches. The motto is, go when you can, what the hell, you might get lucky.

Not bad. Less then an hour before I had been sitting on the couch refereeing a serious battle between my two sons, and now I was on my way home with a couple of nice coho filets.

Now if only I remember the milk.