I have my first trip to the SR planned for mid November and am planning on tying up some WB, egg sucking leeches, copper johns, pince nymphs, egg patterns but was wondering if there should be some flesh flies with all the salmon that have run the river. Any other flies that you would consider "must haves" would be helpful also. This will be true fly fishing no chunk and dunk.

Love2Fish,
The Salmon River has been running 1000 cfs in prep for storm for a few days now. Most of the salmon that have died will be flushed out to the lake. IMHO you would be better off with egg patterns, stonefly nymphs,caddis larva also Marabou/Popsicle style patterns.
Another choice would be and is my favorite ...Swinging Hairwing Wets and Speyflies . BTW Buggers and egg sucking buggers an leeches also work really well. Substituting rabbit strips also makes thoses even more effective.

Good Luck,look foward to your report when you get back.

Ok thanx hopefully this storm doesn't mess it up. Had to bail on the crew of guys that went up in oct (on my bday weekend) for family stuff. I prefer actually fly fishing anyway not chunk 'n' dunk. Hopefully I will have some grip 'n' grin photos to put in that report.

Love2,
I hope you have good water an safe fishing .Be careful.

zonkers in all kinds of colors. We did well on the steel with chartreuse, pink and white.

cone head or bead head, zonker, chenille, DONE. keep it simple.

brassy size 20.

yeah on 6x!..

dont forget size 22 trico spinners.

in all seriousness, also cant go wrong with bead head estaz eggs in all colors (although I prefer Rootbeer for the fall)

When you guys are nymphing are you using an indicator and if so type size? I was looking at THingamabobbers in either 3/4 or 1 inch.

Love2,
try googling the Salmon River Rig, that is the most commonly used leader on the NY tribs. Be careful if you are fishing the flyzones..the weight regulations were changed.Btw you have approximately 10 miles of open rive to fish if you takeaway the Douglaston Salmon Run which has aquired alil more river in the last couple years,and the hatchery section which is off limits to anglers.The hatchery itself is really cool to tour though if you have time and it is open.

Your other bet is Poly leaders, Rio makes them also they are called Versa Leaders, there are different configurations too, from Trout in various lengths an they go from floating to 7 inch persecond drop rates. Same applies for Airflo Polyleaders. I have become really fond of both products , they are great under certain conditions , there is also a learning curve ,not that hard to figure out though how to use them.

Love2fish, I'm tying some steelhead hammers to take with me next week. Here is a link to the pattern.


http://dailyflytyer.com/2011/03/steelhead-hammer-darren-maceachern

1" thingamabobbers!?!?! holy heck, thats like throwing a balloon. I have the 1/2" ones and they are borderline comical in size.

How does the SR fish in december? I have a friend that moved up that way 2 months ago and he was asking me about coming up for a short trip in december. 6 hour drive is a big time commitment for me, when erie is 2.25 hrs away

Quote:

I've used the same 1/4" bobber for on trout for 2 yrs now so I know what ya mean.

But yes even up to 1" can be necessary...usually you can get away 1/2" but somtimes that won't keep you're weight up. I had to borrow a 1/2" from by buddy and ended up adding a lil 1/4" becuase it wouldn't stay up in the pockets...the 2 indy rig had some unplanned advantages like making it easier to see where you're line is...will try that again
My go-to up there is usually a 3/4" indy

It can fish very well in December depending on the timing of the run...I was just up there for 4 days and it was tough for mid-Nov...who knows how it will be in a couple weeks, but maybe at least there's less people