Salmon River, Oswego County, NY, 8/21/26

[jifigz]

Hear me out here, fellas, and maybe I'm just sensitive, but.... When I look at vids of the Salmon River and I see all those people crowded around the holes harassing the fish, I feel pretty damn bad for the fish. It's just not..... sporting. Hell, it's borderline animal abuse I feel. They're just trying to spawn, and people are chucking **** at em constantly and from all directions.

 

[C3Addict]

You are correct jifigz, the salmon run is a zoo, the steelhead run is much more subdued and plenty of room to find fishing spots.

About 15 years ago you could use weighted treble hooks and snag them. The river was full of drunken idiots slinging many oz’s of weight from bank to bank, many people hit, many fights . The State finally outlawed snagging now it’s called flossing.😂

Not to mention the 80lb test break offs all over the river…..that’s stuff will trip you up faster than anything.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Its a modern day sodom and gomorrah up there during salmon season...the farthest thing from sport fishing

 

[TimMurphy]

Hear me out here, fellas, and maybe I'm just sensitive, but.... When I look at vids of the Salmon River and I see all those people crowded around the holes harassing the fish, I feel pretty damn bad for the fish. It's just not..... sporting. Hell, it's borderline animal abuse I feel. They're just trying to spawn, and people are chucking **** at em constantly and from all directions.

Dear jifigz,

A long time ago in the late 1980's my brother and me along with some buddies from Philly would go steelhead fishing on the Salmon 4- or 5-times a season. We were young and it was fun. Leave Philly at 3:00 AM and get to Pulaski, stop at Tony's and book a room then maybe go fish. I say maybe because more than once we left Philly and it was 30 to 40 degrees at 3:00 AM and we got to Pulaski at 8:30 AM to find it was 10 below 0 and the river looked like a Slurpee. But we got some fishing in one way or another and caught some fish too.

I moved to upstate NY, and the Salmon River was only a 2 1/2 hour drive. I went a time or two, but solo fishing was boring and by 1993 the river was getting crowded and drift boats were way too common. You could be in a run with anglers nearby but not crowding you fishing from both banks. Then a drift boat would anchor at the head of the run, catch all the fish on hotshots, and pull anchor to drift down and do the same thing to next group of wading anglers.

I've never had any interest ever in returning to the Salmon River. I did go fish some of the brookie streams in Oswego County in the late Spring and early Summer. That could be fun but in good water years the mosquitoes and blackflies were UNGODLY BAD! I still have nightmares about pulling a ball cap glued to my skull with dried blood off my head and having to drink a 12-pack of Gennies just to squash the pounding headache they gave me!

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Dear jifigz,

A long time ago in the late 1980's my brother and me along with some buddies from Philly would go steelhead fishing on the Salmon 4- or 5-times a season. We were young and it was fun. Leave Philly at 3:00 AM and get to Pulaski, stop at Tony's and book a room then maybe go fish. I say maybe because more than once we left Philly and it was 30 to 40 degrees at 3:00 AM and we got to Pulaski at 8:30 AM to find it was 10 below 0 and the river looked like a Slurpee. But we got some fishing in one way or another and caught some fish too.

I moved to upstate NY, and the Salmon River was only a 2 1/2 hour drive. I went a time or two, but solo fishing was boring and by 1993 the river was getting crowded and drift boats were way too common. You could be in a run with anglers nearby but not crowding you fishing from both banks. Then a drift boat would anchor at the head of the run, catch all the fish on hotshots, and pull anchor to drift down and do the same thing to next group of wading anglers.

I've never had any interest ever in returning to the Salmon River. I did go fish some of the brookie streams in Oswego County in the late Spring and early Summer. That could be fun but in good water years the mosquitoes and blackflies were UNGODLY BAD! I still have nightmares about pulling a ball cap glued to my skull with dried blood off my head and having to drink a 12-pack of Gennies just to squash the pounding headache they gave me!

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

YEah i was young too then and tonys salmon country store was thee place to go then and we didnt see alot of people or drift boats then either and we fished blue goo egg sacs and sparkle eggs and purple or blue estaz eggs on the noodle rods with slinkys we made from parachute cord n lead shot lol this was of course after the salmon were finished and littered the stream bottoms and with them the crowds were gone....they used to say now the real fish and fisherman are out lol

 

[tomgamber]

Hear me out here, fellas, and maybe I'm just sensitive, but.... When I look at vids of the Salmon River and I see all those people crowded around the holes harassing the fish, I feel pretty damn bad for the fish. It's just not..... sporting. Hell, it's borderline animal abuse I feel. They're just trying to spawn, and people are chucking **** at em constantly and from all directions.

I've stood at the mouth of Trout run like most have at some point or another due to conditions. I don;t like it but heck, I drove all the way up here... It just wasn't the plan when I left the house.

 

[SBecker]

Kings don't bite all that well on their spawning run and then mostly when they are fresher near the river's mouth. Since they die after spawning sex is their prime directive. The Salmon R has a fairly long estuary that the kings sit in for a while so there is a good chance that most fish you see will be pretty stale. The Sandys often have fresher kings because they have very short estuarys and the kings run in quickly. However, the low water of late may keep them out of these smaller streams.

I did kings once to see how powerful the fish are. Now I wait for steelies, but cohos are a blast if they are in. Browns and Atlantics are caught now and again, but are not consistent targets.

I have done kings many times, but no real interest in them anymore other then I want to take my kid up to fight one. Him and I have gone up for steelhead, just not kings. I have caught one Atlantic in the SR in my life and that was at the DSR, craziest fight I ever had to land it.

 

[SBecker]

Hear me out here, fellas, and maybe I'm just sensitive, but.... When I look at vids of the Salmon River and I see all those people crowded around the holes harassing the fish, I feel pretty damn bad for the fish. It's just not..... sporting. Hell, it's borderline animal abuse I feel. They're just trying to spawn, and people are chucking **** at em constantly and from all directions.

Thats why you don't go to those spots. Its awful.

 

[Drifly]

You are correct jifigz, the salmon run is a zoo, the steelhead run is much more subdued and plenty of room to find fishing spots.

About 15 years ago you could use weighted treble hooks and snag them. The river was full of drunken idiots slinging many oz’s of weight from bank to bank, many people hit, many fights . The State finally outlawed snagging now it’s called flossing.😂

Not to mention the 80lb test break offs all over the river…..that’s stuff will trip you up faster than anything.

Um that was banned in the early 90’s I as well as many others WISH that was only about 15 yrs ago…..😉

 

[jifigz]

Thats why you don't go to those spots. Its awful.

I'll just catch 5" brookies in solitude instead throughout the winter.....or shoot birds....or catch bass.

 

[C3Addict]

Um that was banned in the early 90’s I as well as many others WISH that was only about 15 yrs ago…..😉

With age come wisdom? I think not, with age comes loss of memeory.😳
You are correct when I try to think back on it. It seems like just a couple years ago we stayed at the Portley Angler but no it’s been way longer than that…..

 

[JimKennedy]

With age come wisdom? I think not, with age comes loss of memeory.😳
You are correct when I try to think back on it. It seems like just a couple years ago we stayed at the Portley Angler but no it’s been way longer than that…..

Back when my dad was still around and in good shape for fishing, we used to call the Portley Angler "The Fat Snagger."

 

[SBecker]

I'll just catch 5" brookies in solitude instead throughout the winter.....or shoot birds....or catch bass.

isn't it wonderful that we all can enjoy different aspects of fly fishing? You would be hard pressed to ever find me on a brookies stream, let alone caught fishing for little gemmies in the winter.

 

[jifigz]

isn't it wonderful that we all can enjoy different aspects of fly fishing? You would be hard pressed to ever find me on a brookies stream, let alone caught fishing for little gemmies in the winter.

I actually really enjoy fishing small mountain freestoners in the winter. I enjoy the solitude and peacefulness of the forested setting, and if the stream has pretty defined pools/holding water, the fish are usually very easy to get to eat a nymph....usually.

I actually plan to do a lot of walleye fishing this winter using the sin stick, though.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

I actually really enjoy fishing small mountain freestoners in the winter. I enjoy the solitude and peacefulness of the forested setting, and if the stream has pretty defined pools/holding water, the fish are usually very easy to get to eat a nymph....usually.

I actually plan to do a lot of walleye fishing this winter using the sin stick, though.

The sin srick has landed more bigger trout for me rhan thw holy stick

 

[SBecker]

I actually really enjoy fishing small mountain freestoners in the winter. I enjoy the solitude and peacefulness of the forested setting, and if the stream has pretty defined pools/holding water, the fish are usually very easy to get to eat a nymph....usually.

I actually plan to do a lot of walleye fishing this winter using the sin stick, though.

And that is awesome. I don't find much enjoyment in 6 inch fish. Maybe one day when I get older, I might appreciate it more.

 

[jifigz]

The sin srick has landed more bigger trout for me rhan thw holy stick

We know.........

 

[jifigz]

And that is awesome. I don't find much enjoyment in 6 inch fish. Maybe one day when I get older, I might appreciate it more.

Honestly, catching 6" fish doesn't do it for me, either. I was using that as an example to illustrate just how uninviting I find the Salmon River scene.

I do actually fish for brookies occasionally in the winter; that's true, but I don't do it often.

Okay, enough thread derailment from me. Carry on, people.