DSR Salmon River, Pulaski NY, 9/18 -20

Tigereye

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
1,697
City
Lehigh Gorge
Fished DSR with my son Gabriel and Silent Ocelot ie Shane. Shane took me up on the 3 DSR passes i had available and tug along for trip. Never met him before. What a chatacter. This was his first time salmon fishing and he found out what powerful fish they are. We had a blast. Alot of ball busting over the 3 days and he may be dubbed a new handle on the forum but i will wait till the appropriate time. LOL.

Below are some lightly edited PM's between a fellow member and me. I wasnt going to retype all this, so you get the originals.

Day 1 Report: Not much to report. We fished the flats by the island at connies corner. Best action, and i use that term relatively, was 1st 2 hours of the day. I was 1 for 3 on kings, my son was top rod landing 2 of 6, and shane ( silent ocelot) was 1 for 2 or three also. All kings.

We did see some fish splash through but they never did give us much of a shot at them. There is a guide that fishes that section, Greg Liu, who had and elderly couple and they had a fair amount of hook ups. He is amazing how he can spot them in there. But i guess that is what 37 year of guiding DSR does for you.

All in all a fairly unremarkable day. Other than Greg we really didnt see all that many hook ups. Angling pressure was light to moderate.

Day 2 Reprt: No signs of cohos today. The place is desolate. Fish dribbling up 1 or 2 every half hour or so. Fished connies, flats. Joss and above wall hole. My son again was high rod 2 for 3. I didnt hook up. Not sure shane did much better. Reports on the river are all pretty much the same, a few hook ups if that. I met a friend from home this morning. Didnt know he was coming this week. I met him when he pulled in the parking spot next to me. A pleasant surprise. He fished the glide and repored they landed 2 between 3 guys and said they had very few hook ups so far. The bucket, inkwell nobody fishing. Most guides are gone. Currently only 4 people in wall hole, includes shane and gabriel.

So not much exciting to report. This may be my worst day in the 14 yrs ive been coming.

Day 3 Report: temps were pretty cool night last night and as you predicted the fishing today was very good. We decided to fish upstream today and as we were walking up we noticed the Bucket was completly open. We stopped there.

Fishing was slow til about 8:00 then it was lights out til about 2:00. From 2 on it was steady action with one of us hooking up ever 10 minutes or so. All 3 of us had double digit hook ups probaby approaching if not in the 20's.

Cohos were fresh out of the lake and were like little fire crackers. For as many hook ups as we had, no cohos were landed. Bummer but a blast. The afternoon was predominantly kings that were really fresh. They were white/silver vs the green or zombie black. Shane ie silent ocelot's jaw was dropping. This was his first time salmon fishing and he got to experience a good push of fish. It was like night and day compared to yesterday. A happy camper.
 
TigerEye is a great reporter! Thanks for sharing all this detail. As I shared, those days where you can't buy a fish have often been followed by days when you get tired from fighting and chasing. Can't wait for next week!
 
Thanks for the report. It's got me snake-bit. I'm headed up for Columbus Day week and hoping for a mix of kings, coho, steel and maybe even a brown or Atlantic. Looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty good run.
 
Talking to river walkers, 5 atlantics reported so far at DSR. Considering the run is just starting to get underway this is a very good sign. Typically 5 -10/ yr is a total catch. Hope you catch one.
 
nice thanks for the info.. going up this upcoming week for the first time out since acl surgery did you guys fish altmar at all
 
Did not fish Altmar. We stay in Orwell and the parking lots on the drive to and fro were fairly empty. Not much angling pressure. Even town pool was lightly fished. One guy at fillet station had nice chromer caught behind double eagle.
 
Did not fish Altmar. We stay in Orwell and the parking lots on the drive to and fro were fairly empty. Not much angling pressure. Even town pool was lightly fished. One guy at fillet station had nice chromer caught behind double eagle.
that’s nice i hope it’s the same for us hahah probably not though!
 
altmar is my go to spot. i always do well there. at least for steelhead.
yeah same it’s pretty easy to fish i think i was going to school up around there last year so i got to put some miles in and find a few different stretches.. what kind of set up do you use for steelhead up there? i don’t get how guys catch the chromers up there with the normal set up with the heavy led up above the leader
 
Nice report and Day 3 sounded excellent 🙂

Are you flossing the kings? And then setting up a different rig for cohos? or using the same rig for both?
 
Same rig for both. Flossing in the shallower water to sighted fish. In the deeper holes, its more akin to tightlining.
 
Rigging is fairly simple. I have a 10' rod so i like my leader and tippet about 9 to 9.5 ft.
5 .5 ft 17# test leader to a size 10 or 12 black barrel swivel.
Condition appropriate weights above swivel ( dsr requirement).
3.5 ft 10# or 12# tippet.
Size 4 or 6 estaz egg. Color doesnt matter except in low water conditions or super spooky fish that have been pressured. Then earth tone flies are better. They avoid the brightly colored flies.
 
Spot on with the setup. I usually use 10lb tippet and seldom break off a good hooked fish. For Steelhead I drop down the tippet size: 8lb or 6lb if it's super clear and no action. You can use any fly you want as long as it's an egg. I like Estaz and Y2K's in color pallets closer to natural eggs. Later season, the Kings get chompy on egg sacks, as do the trout. I've seen cohos and kings swim to and take a fly and hooked a fair amount on swung buggers and comets, too. Same set up, just change flys.

Enough weight to tick bottom is usually 1 #5 split shot in pocket water, 2 in runs, and 3 in faster riffles or higher CFS.
 
Back
Top