Good trip. I'm getting pretty good at this salmon thing, so it's definitely more fun each year. I spent about half of the trip targeting steel and browns, and found that I caught just as many salmon with the altered rig. The key is fishing down low at the DSR for biters. I did manage one biter upriver on day three.

I didn't photograph many salmon, but our group definitely caught them in better numbers this year than ever before.

The brown was the most insane experience I've ever had fishing. It's been my goal to get one up there for years.

Pics:

Sweet!

PIGS!

Love it.

Great pics and great report Jay! Glad to see you had such an awesome trip and finally got your Insane Brown after many years. That brown really is incredible and for many FFers could be considered the fish of a lifetime. I'm curious about the fish held by your buddy, second photo from the bottom: Is that a steelhead? It looks like a steel to me but could it be a Coho or something else?

awesome brown JAY....sounds like a kick ace trip....see you on Valley sometime...again

jeff

Beautiful Jay!!! Congrats on all the fish, but esp. the brownies!

I'm so jealous! That looks like amazing fishing.

Wow, that looks like no fun at all...

Quote:

I'd guess it was a steelie. Coho don't have spots on the lower half of their tail. Also, of the Pacific salmonids in the Great lakes, the steelie is the only on with all white gums. At least that's what they tell me.

Boyer

Awesome brownie Jay! It's great you got a good pic of him. Congrats.

Great pics Jay, looks like fun. Maybe I'll join you one of these days. I was wondering there for a while why you weren't posting, then it hit me you were fishing. Go figure. lol

Nice brownie, beautiful color and nice big old hook jaw. Hope they look like that in a few years in Erie!

What did the big brown take? How did you land him?

See any Giants fans?

Awesome

Browns are beautiful

Thanks guys.

Dave,

It is a smallish steelie. We only saw one coho, and it was foul hooked.

Paul,
The brown took chartreuse estaz. Giants fans were everywhere, unfortunately.

I hooked the brown in some fast shallow water. My friend spotted him, then lost sight of him for a while. I went upstream and found him in the next pocket and he sucked the fly down after a few casts. I fought him for 10 minutes or so.

Looks like another trip Nov 13. The browns should be all over the place, and the river will be polluted with steel.

Who's with me?

Great trip Jay!Congratulations that brown is something! Literally jusy got back from Pulaski-Friday to Sunday. Unfortunately can't report same success. Water was in the 1400-1500 level 1150 + runoff. Fished hard all day Saturday but water levels made for tough wading and tougher landing. Hit the lower blower Sat evening some hookups near the wire. One beautiful red coho landed, some of our crew murdered them here earlier in the week. Not complaining we had a good time, but unfortunately didn't get my son into any fish. Vet's day may be a possibility.