Salmon River, Oswego Co, NY 10/10/2010

[mcwillja]

I finally took the plunge into steelhead fishing and a friend joined me on the Salmon River for a two day adventure this past sunday and monday. Living in Cato NY which is an hour south of Pulaski I should have been fishing this river before now. Anyway when we got there sunday afternoon the river was packed with fisherman. The most fishermen I have ever seen on one river at any given time.

It took us about 3 hours just to find some room to fish with the high water (1600 CFS). We finally found a spot in the upper fly zone and had some hookups. My friend landed a 16 pound brown to get the action going early. I hooked up with three steelhead and lost all three, partly because I didn't have a proper net. We ended the day 1 brown, 1 steelhead, 1 atlantic (small one).

Day two we went back to the upper fly zone and the water dropped to around 1000 CFS. Today was my day. I hooked into 5 or six steelhead and ended up landing 3 of them the largest around 12-13 pounds. All in all an awesome trip and everyone around us was very curtious and friendly. Everyone was cheering each other on both days and no one was crowding anyone on the river. A great experience to say the least.

 

[govtmule]

wow!...sounds like you had a great trip.

 

[pafisherman]

Those are some great looking fish. I will be up there late next week. I would be interested in any info on the flies you used. Thanks
Bill A

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Awesome Brown! 🙂

 

[mcwillja]

pafisherman wrote:
Those are some great looking fish. I will be up there late next week. I would be interested in any info on the flies you used. Thanks
Bill A

I recommend you tie a lot of flies. I didn't have any steelhead flies until I started tying them a few days before the trip. A big mistake because you can lose a dozen flies in an hour up there. I almost did. We had most of our success on Crystal Meths in orange in pink. The water was stained so we used bigger hooks (size 8). With the water clearing up and the CFS dropping you may want to try them smaller, not sure as that was my first time.

I also had success on a scrambled egg I tied and single egg pattern with a yolk and clear sheath around the egg. I really kept it simple and adjusted weight and color until I got it right.

 

[ryguyfi]

mcwillja wrote:
I really kept it simple and adjusted weight and color until I got it right.

That's the trick. There's no special pattern, it's all about the presentation. When those fish are moving and eating, they'll take anything as long as it's presented right. On tough days you may have to change up patterns to find something they may key on, but getting a good presentation is key.

Keep stocked with all kinds of egg patterns, nymphs, and streamers/buggers. Like it was said, it's not unusual to lose 20 flies in one day up there.

 

[Acristickid]

Sweet!

MC- just curious.

The sign in one of the pics- is that in the upper fly zone?
Is the island still there from the flood?

Just trying to picture what 10,000-20,000 cfs might do to the river.

 

[mcwillja]

It's still there.

 

[Bruno]

nice brown ! congrats on a great trip !

 

[Fishidiot]

Good report - some nice fish there.

 

[3wt7X]

MC,
Great report and great fish!!! I was up there for the first time on Tuesday-Wednesday of this week. I fished the lower fly fishing zone and the sportsman's club area and I had a great time. They had dropped the flow down to 730 CFS, but the water was off-colored. I ended up catching my first lake run brownie, which was also my first fish out of the Salmon River. It was tiny compared to your friend's, but I was pumped. I took most my fish on egg patterns bounced on the bottom (go figure).

 

[TUNA]

Nice report and pics, guys. I can't wait to make it up there, probably in December.

 

[mcwillja]

That is a beautiful Brown 3wt. Nice report. I will be heading back up soon.