Salmon River, Oswego County, NY - 11/06/10-11/08/10

[greenlander]

Returned last night from 3 days fishing the Salmon River and Sandy River in the Pulaski area. All three days of fishing were very slow. Reports from fisherman all over the river indicated slow fishing and very, very few hookups. Shops and guides in the area echoed this.

First two days were a total skunk. Afternoon on the third day yielded 3 hookups in the span of 25 minutes, landed one, about 10 lbs, bright chrome - which I haven't seen a lot of first hand up there. My guess is a combination of warming water temps and sun angle put the fish in a biting mood for a bit.

Fished spey the entire time (as I maintain, perhaps incorrectly, that 98% of all salmon and steelhead hooked in the mouth with an egg or nymph on this river are lined) swinging a variety of stuff. 2 of 3 hookups on dark but flashy egg sucking leeches in blue and purple, size 2 or 4. Other hookup was on a big black and pink something.

All in all witnessed, I think, 3 other hookups outside of mine in 3 days, saw 3-4 fish in nets and on stringers. Pretty miserably slow. Hopefully it picks up soon for those of you still headed up that way.

Oh, fished the Sandy on day 2 for the first time. Didn't see any steelhead, but would really like to get back on that river. Looks like it has lots of really nice runs.

 

[jdaddy]

(as I maintain, perhaps incorrectly, that 98% of all salmon and steelhead hooked in the mouth with an egg or nymph on this river are lined)

Really?

Where did you fish this weekend? My understanding is that the water was up to around 1100 this weekend, however last weekend I pounded them pretty good at the Staircase and Pineville. Were you in the fly zones? Just wondering what the difference was (certainly was not my experience or skill!).

 

[jayL]

They were eating the hell out of eggs the last time I was there.

And you can't line them with a float rig. 🙂

 

[greenlander]

jdaddy wrote:

(as I maintain, perhaps incorrectly, that 98% of all salmon and steelhead hooked in the mouth with an egg or nymph on this river are lined)

Really?

Where did you fish this weekend? My understanding is that the water was up to around 1100 this weekend, however last weekend I pounded them pretty good at the Staircase and Pineville. Were you in the fly zones? Just wondering what the difference was (certainly was not my experience or skill!).

Fished Sportsman's and Upper Fly on Saturday, Lower Fly (freak show), Ellis and Pineville on Monday. Hookups and the one that came in were upstream of Pineville.

The other two in my party were fishing nymphs and eggs etc all weekend, so the methods were varied.

But yeah, I talked to most people I passed on the river. All the same tale. Guess things just slowed down. I heard water temps were down fast this weekend, but haven't yet verified this by looking at the guages.

 

[jayL]

She's dropping to 500. Doesn't bode all that well for my upcoming trip, but I have had some pretty good days at that level.

 

[greenlander]

jayL wrote:
They were eating the hell out of eggs the last time I was there.

And you can't line them with a float rig. 🙂

I was careful to say 98% and not 100%. 🙂

But, are you saying you get them to take eggs in the film?

I thought about running some stuff through the film, but for some reason never did.

 

[jayL]

Nope, never did that. I was referring to fishing egg imitations under a float with a centerpin or spinning rod.

You can't line them because the presentation is vertical through the water column.

 

[mcwillja]

Greenlander -

A friend and I fished the same days Nov 6th -8th. We had 3 hookups total in three days. All three hookups were on purple crystal meths. The fishing was extremely slow. We only saw a handful of hookups the entire trip and very few landed. The two I hooked were fresh chrome and decent fish, but the action all came wihin an hours time frame.

We were advised to fish the lower river to try and get into fresh chrome and they were there but just not interested in feeding. The few hookups we did get into and see were in faster runs and riffled water. All in all sort of a frustrating 3 days on the Salmon River.

 

[CLSports]

I am headed up there this weekend to fish until Monday. The water as of today is holding at 500 cfs and may have warmed up a bit with the mild temps this week. I will report back how we did.

Jay, are you going to be up there this weekend?

Rob

 

[greenlander]

mcwillja wrote:
Greenlander -

A friend and I fished the same days Nov 6th -8th. We had 3 hookups total in three days. All three hookups were on purple crystal meths. The fishing was extremely slow. We only saw a handful of hookups the entire trip and very few landed. The two I hooked were fresh chrome and decent fish, but the action all came wihin an hours time frame.

We were advised to fish the lower river to try and get into fresh chrome and they were there but just not interested in feeding. The few hookups we did get into and see were in faster runs and riffled water. All in all sort of a frustrating 3 days on the Salmon River.

Sounds like we had very similar experiences, in tune with the other people I talked to.

We thought about going lower for fresher fish too (even thought about trying Douglaston on the third day), but never did.

I think 2-3 trips are warranted to fish the SR each year, but I never make it up more than once.

 

[jayL]

CLSports wrote:
I am headed up there this weekend to fish until Monday. The water as of today is holding at 500 cfs and may have warmed up a bit with the mild temps this week. I will report back how we did.

Jay, are you going to be up there this weekend?

Rob

Sorry I missed this before I left.

I was up there with a few other board members this weekend. The fishing was pretty slow. Well, it was very slow. The nighttime temps have crashed up there, and the flows were lowered. There hasn't been a big run of fish in a while, and the ones that are there are pressured. A recipe for failure.

My guess is that the next shot of water will move a bunch of fish. I honestly wouldn't bother with it until the flows come up for a few days.

 

[wgmiller]

greenlander wrote:
I think 2-3 trips are warranted to fish the SR each year, but I never make it up more than once.

That statement sure makes sense. Once a year just doesn't seem like enough to 'satiate the appetite'!

I checked the water temp in the Upper Fly Zone and it came in at 44 FWIW...

Hands down, one bad-*** fishery!

 

[CLSports]

Had a decent weekend on the SR from 11/13 - 11/15. The flows held at 500 cfs and the water temp was around 44 degrees. Fished the DSR on day one and got nothing at all beween the 4 of us. Not many fish down there right now with the water levels that dropped from 750 to 500 cfs in the last week or so. Saw a few landed in the time we were there, but most fish were up river.

We fished the upper river the last two days and managed a bunch of hookups and several landed. We had to work hard for them though. The air temps all weekend were mild, so it was a bit crowded in spots.

Jay, you are right on about the flows and pressured fish.

 

[Bluewing]

If you think 98 percent of the fish up there are lined, you need to switch your thinking...It may or may not contribute to less success. Fishing with confidence is pretty important.

 

[trowpa]

wgmiller wrote:

greenlander wrote:
I think 2-3 trips are warranted to fish the SR each year, but I never make it up more than once.

That statement sure makes sense. Once a year just doesn't seem like enough to 'satiate the appetite'!

!

Here here! I personally cannot wait for another chance at a hookup. I got a 16 inch jack this past weekend and NEED to experience an adult on the line.....

When things turn back on up there again.... anyone heading up along 476 give me a yell!

 

[greenlander]

Bluewing wrote:
If you think 98 percent of the fish up there are lined, you need to switch your thinking...It may or may not contribute to less success. Fishing with confidence is pretty important.

I have a reasonable degree of confidence when swinging flies on sink tips. This is what has produced hookups for me.

If I were to toss the typical SR "nymphing" rig (a segmented leader w/ two bowling balls in a slinky attached to a swivel), I'd have little to none. That's why I don't do it. Every fish I've *seen* caught this way was lined or snagged. I'm sure some people (as I've said, my guess is 2%) get legit takes using this method, I've just never seen it and find it incredibly boring.

I'm sure there are other legit nymph rigs that get takes.

My comments in this regard are just part of my yearly venting on what passes for fly fishing on the SR. Pay me no mind.

 

[jdaddy]

My comments in this regard are just part of my yearly venting on what passes for fly fishing on the SR. Pay me no mind.

Very little that I have seen or heard about in Eastern US steelheading is anything resembling fly fishing. Swinging wets seems to result in a fair amount of foul hooking from what I have witnessed but it is a limited sample size.

 

[jayL]

Swinging on sink tips is a more effective way to line in many situations.

The bottom line is that when you get a high concentration of large fish in fast water, it happens.

I don't worry about it too much.

 

[JackM]

Just my opinion, but unless the water is crystal clear, it is inpossible to intentionally line a fish in the mouth. You can increase your chances with particular presentations, but you can't actual will it to happen. You can easily intentionally snag a fish elsewhere than in the mouth. Snagging is harmful to trout more so than lining in the mouth. But, inttentionally trying to line a trout will result in excess snagging. All you need to do is look where the hook is. If it is in the mouth, the chance of it having resulted from intentionally drifting to increase lining is less than the chance that it "took the fly." Now if someone's been snagging left and right all morning, I might change my mind if he then happened to have a fish hooked in the mouth.

Seems to mean with limited experience, that a successful steelhead or salmon angler would try to get the bait to drift as close to the fishes mouth as possible on the drift to maximize the chances the fish will open its mouth and take in the bait.

 

[wgmiller]

greenlander wrote:
If I were to toss the typical SR "nymphing" rig (a segmented leader w/ two bowling balls in a slinky attached to a swivel), I'd have little to none.

Wow, that rig sounds familiar! I tossed that rig all weekend and lost some tackle doing so. I also saw quite a few other people getting hung up and losing tackle. I think there's an understanding when fishing the SR that loss of tackle is 'part of the game'. You're not getting down in the feeding zone if you're not getting hung up on occasion. I blew through 3/0 split shot like it was going out of style!