Salmon are in!  Those three magical words mark the start of  promising Fall tributary fishing.  Recent rain raised water levels and cool nights  dropped water temperature.  While larger systems like the Genesee and Salmon River have known the presence of salmon for weeks, smaller tributaries received their first push of salmon a few days ago.  With rain presently falling and more rain in the extended forecast, it looks like we’ll see plenty of salmon in October.

A friend and I recently journeyed to the Salmon River.  We fished late afternoon in the Lower Fly Zone and between us, my buddy only managed one nice coho.  It sucked in a large, bright orange streamer near dusk.  That coho fought well and we were pleased to land it.  Yet, we were frustrated with our overall results.  We saw dozens of cohos and presented as many flies to them, but only enjoyed that one take.  I dead drifted numerous patterns, swung flies and covered plenty of water.  Multiple depth changes, split shot adjustments, sink tip alterations and types of water, yielded no aggressive, fly eating salmon.  They were there, but not willing to take flies.  It’s always tempting to fish to those stacked up fish.  However, if they won’t take and actively avoid your flies, then it’s time to switch things up.

Next morning, we moved downstream to a less populated stretch a mile below Sportsman’s Pool.  We heard that kings were pushing upriver.  Our reasoning was that we needed to find fresher fish.  Fish that hadn’t been in the river system more than a day or two.  Fish that were more aggressive, willing to move for a fly and less focused on jockeying for spawning position.  Our reasoning paid off.  Between 7 am to 3 pm, my friend and I hooked 25 or more fish.  Other than a rogue coho and an early morning brown, all were king salmon.  These were strong, fresh, active fish that vigorously jumped, tore off line and screamed downstream when hooked.  Most became unbuttoned in the lengthy riffle below us.  Changing tippet from 12 lb to 15 lb allowed us to put more pressure on those strong fish.  Still, we never put a hand on most of them as it wasn’t wise nor safe to pursue these guys in the powerful riffle below us.

Finding the right spot can make all the difference on the Salmon River.  That day, w witnessed 200 or more kings swim upstream.  We easily watched them cruise over the shallow shale shelf.  We camped out on an deceptively deep run, just above a lengthy riffle.  Here, the salmon would rest after surging through the long riffle.  Our strategy was to find a source of fresh fish, that weren’t constantly moving.  After the 200 yard riffle, fish would pause or hang out in the deep trough that we located.  We took turns fishing, or squeezed together and timed our casts.  Almost all of our fish came at the end of the drift, just before the tail out/gradient lip of the run.  These kings took natural colored wooly buggers.  Grizzly olive was the clear favorite, with variations of brown and black also hooking a few kings.  Anything with too much flash or gaudy egg colors were met with constant rejection.  It’s pretty cool to see a fresh salmon move to the side, or tilt upward to engulf your fly.  It happened enough times to make our arms sore.

That one trip is enough to satisfy my annual “Salmon Fix”.  A superb, early season trip on the Salmon River will do that to you.  We didn’t experience any issues with angler crowding at our spot.  Indeed, we had yards and yards of water to ourselves.  Oddly, another friend fished the Salmon the following day and experienced no active fly taking fish.  I suppose those are the natural nuances of salmon fishing.  If you catch fresh fish on the move, it can be stellar.  Or, if you catch older river fish, they can show you their definition of lock jaw.  I’m just grateful that we hit good conditions and that I was able to battle multiple salmon in a day.  If I have another chance to get my “Salmon Fix”,  great.  If not, then I’ll look forward to fresh runs of lake run browns and steelhead.

Daffodils are blooming in front of the house and birdsong welcomes each day.  It must be springtime!  The soaking rain we enjoyed last night gave a nice boost of water to our tributaries.  Before the rainfall, small tributaries were especially  low and clear.  We’re now into mid-April and by now, many of our small creeks  experienced an active spawn of steelhead over the past six weeks.  Steelhead spawn sooner in small creeks.  Water temperature warms quicker and they tend to do their business before their brethren in  large tributaries.  While larger systems such as the Cat, Oak Orchard, Sandy, Genny, Oswego and Salmon River all fish well through the month and into May, small creeks can be more fickle.   Low water, quickly warming temperatures and bright sun, convince steelhead to linger less in small creeks.  While there are always stragglers and exceptions, fellow anglers shouldn’t be surprised if the see fewer fish from now until the end of the month.

At the same time, April steelheading offers some of the finest action of the year.  I’m particularly attracted to sight fishing and swinging large streamers for these chromers.  Catch numbers may be down, but the ferocity of strikes, aggressive nature of drop back fish and improved fight make April steelheading a wonderful option.  Here are a few  strategies that you might consider adding to your bag of angling tricks:

• Look for the shadow, not the fish.  Darker fish blend in well and a shadow can give away a non-moving steelehead.  Bright, overhead sun can be your friend.  Use it to your advantage to look for shadows and strive to keep your shadow off the water.  The picture shows a 28″ female that is easily detected by her shadow.
• Look for that crimson slash around the gill plate, the white of a mouth, a quivering tail, or the gentle sway of a holding fish.  Unless they are actively on gravel, most larger tributary fish will prefer deeper holes during bright sun, or gravitate towards logs/boulders/undercut banks.
• Find spawning suckers and you will likely find a few opportunistic post spawn browns or steelhead.  Look for the darker shapes, larger figures or nervousness of suckers as telltale signs that larger tributary salmonids are present.  It’s tough to beat a sucker spawn fly w/ a dash of chartreuse to entice that greedy steelhead!
• Spooky steelhead require different, lighter tactics.  Drop down your tippet size (4lb to 6lb), lengthen your leader (10′ to 12′), minimize the flash and color on your fly, and deliver your cast with as much stealth as possible.  I prefer to use a white yarn or black yarn indicator that barely makes any splash.  These are less likely to cause alarm with a wary, shallow water steelhead.
• My best streamer success with low, clear water steelhead comes with sparse, realistic minnow imitations.  I sometimes fish lightly dressed, translucent saltwater bait fish patterns.  These are more realistic in profile than a typical rabbit zonker and offer a more subtle approach.
• Target the most aggressive steelhead in the bunch.  Also, there is no need to make dozens and dozens of casts to a fish that sees your fly, yet doesn’t respond.  Switch flies, vary your patterns and make each cast count.  When a fish actively moves away from your fly, then your presence is likely detected.  If I don’t dupe a fish within my first ten casts and I know that my fly has been in the zone, I switch patterns or techniques.  Or, I continue to scout other areas of the creek that might present more cooperative fish.
• Lastly, leave those wonderful reproducing females alone!  It’s a magnificent sight to witness steelhead spawning.  If a female is on gravel and in shallow water, let her be.  It’s a treat of nature to enjoy this spectacle.  She merits protection.  We have several waterways that actually have a degree to natural reproduction, well worth preserving.  Besides, she’ll be a fine target as a drop back fish in another few days.

Our tally after a day of fishing the Salmon River was four chubs.  Three anglers landed a total of four chubs!  Readers of this blog know that candidly I post the good, as well as the lousy.  I’d like to provide a glowing report after our one day trip to the Salmon River.  But, we didn’t manage to land any salmon nor steelhead.  The Salmon River was as scenic as ever and it’s always nice to fish with friends.  Yet, we expected more from this mighty fishery.

It all began with promising reports of fresh kings streaming in over Labor Day.  We excitedly read successive reports of active kings, bright cohos, aggressive steelhead, reels screaming and multiple hook ups.  The drizzly, cool forecast furthered our conviction that we should enjoy the day off and  fish the Salmon River.  We splurged and decided to fish the Douglaston Salmon Run.  Be forewarned, the fee is now a hefty $45.  Ouch!  At least we weren’t the only other chumps, as numerous other cars were already in the lot.  Around 7 am, we walked downstream to the Joss Hole. Setting up on the lower half of the pool, we observed the random salmon porpoise.  I fished a t-14 6′ sink tip with my two handed rod, opting to slowly swing streamers.  My buddies nymphed w/ a variety of glo bug and larger nymphs.  Over the next seven hours, we pounded every stretch of that pool.  My friend Brian, lost count after changing a dozen flies.  I even switched to bottom bouncing after a few hours and never experienced any success.  Of the multiple anglers fishing the Joss Hole during this time, we observed one large  15 lb steelhead lost (fairly hooked), one small 18″ steelhead landed (fairly hooked), and half a dozen salmon lost that were not cleanly hooked.  Nobody landed any salmon.  Nonetheless, we did manage to fair hook and land four chubbs.

Several anglers talked about the stark difference from yesterday.  “Best ever, awesome day, arm worn out, thick w/ salmon, bottom was moving, eating whatever you threw at them”, etc were just a few of the descriptors we heard about the previous day in the DSR.  We decided to abandon the DSR and visited our friends at Whitaker’s Sports Store.  They confirmed it had been awesome and that today was much slower.  For a change of scenery, we next fished the Compactor Pool.  Fish less after two hours, we then drove upstream to fish Pineville.  Again, we joined fellow anglers in flogging the water without any hook ups.  Talking w/ a local guide, he verified that he saw hundreds of kings heading downriver earlier in the day.  Who knows where they are?  Some speculate that they moved back out to the estuary.  All I know, is that we sure missed the mother load of salmon.  Not to worry, another run with more fish is due any day.  The Salmon River will be loaded w/ salmonid species for the next two months.  It is a beautiful river and we know that you have to pay your dues on the water.  Put in the time, follow the conditions and it is deservedly an exceptional fishery.  For these reasons, I’ll continue to fish the Salmon River and eagerly await a return to this fabled fish factory.

The pleasant break in wintry weather motivated me to make the drive and fish the Salmon River for steelhead.  I had the day off and liked the forecast of mid-thirties for Pulaski.   I convinced Will F to join me and we splurged, bringing along  local guide Jay Peck http://www.jaypeckguides.com/main/.   Jay recently fished the Upper Fly Zone on the Salmon River with considerable success and we liked our odds.  It had been too many years since I last fished w/ Jay and it never hurts to draw upon the expertise of a guide with plenty of water knowledge.  Besides, Jay is an affable, patient guide and he maintains an informative website for trout and tributary anglers.

The nearly two hour drive seemed shorter with good conversation and anticipation of the fishing adventure.  We decided to fish the Lower Fly Zone and were geared up by 9 am.  As it was MLK Day, plenty of fellow anglers shared similar expectations.  We located a nice stretch of deep water and started nymphing with dark stone imitations.  We fished a 12′ leader with an indicator and concentrated on the softer, deeper, slower water.  Before too long, I noticed my indicator dart upstream and promptly missed my first fish of the day.  The takes were surprisingly soft and we missed plenty of hook ups.  Comfortably layered up and fishing with patience, we concentrated on a deep pool that  held multiple fish.  We lost plenty of flies on rocks and Jay enthusiastically changed patterns every twenty minutes or so.  These fish sure get pressured and have seen their share of flies.  Over the next six or so hours, we must have hooked 12 to 15 steelhead, losing the majority of fish after a brief run or an escape downstream into the faster current.  A few nice fish were brought to net, including a scrappy 3lb holdover brown that Will landed.  Most fish were lost, as the hook pulled or we lost a fish downstream in the faster current.  It’s not wise, nor warm to stumble around boulders and fall into the chilly river after an errant steelie.  We couldn’t see the fish due to the heavy current and deeper water.  Freakishly, I foul hooked two respectable fish (30″ to 32″) within ten minutes and then lost a third minutes later.  No matter how pretty the fish, it’s not right to take a picture of a foul hooked fish.  I didn’t get many decent fish pics, but we hooked plenty of fish and overall it was a very pleasant winter fishing trip with friends.  As much as I like our local waters, it’s tough to find a better concentration of steelhead than the Salmon River.   Contact Jay if you want help dancing with steelhead on any of our tributaries and stay warm!

With rain forecasted and the day off on Monday, we drove to the Salmon River to chase early season cohos and kings.  We knew that on Wednesday, prior to our arrival, the Salmon River experienced its’ first strong push of cohos.  Fortunately, our late weekend timing was superb.  The cooler nights and light rain brought in even more  fresh salmon.  Most of the moving fish pushed through the lower stretches of the river.  The typical hustle and bustle of salmon mania in Pulaski was in full swing.  Hotel rooms were scarce, plenty of out of town license plates, fish cleaning stations open for business, tackle shops hopping and plenty of crowds in the popular stretches.

We spent the majority of our time fishing the Upper Fly Zone.  The fish were harder to catch and we only hooked one steelhead.  Yet,  the serenity, Fall foliage and wild red rasberry picking made the trip memorable.  Even better, we managed to hook a number of salmon.  Plus, there are plenty of 5″ to 10″ trout/salmonid fingerlings all over each hole, ready to jump on your fly.  Neat to see a small trout feed on a caddisfly, feet away from a larger salmon.   The fish were not aggressive and we didn’t see any evidence of eggs/spawn in the system.  That said, it was very cool to watch so many fish move up the river and to tangle with fresh salmon.  Can’t wait to get some eggs in the river and bring in those steelhead!

Once again my father-in-law and I made our way up to the Adirondacks for our family Summer vacation and once again we called on Rich Garfield from Fly Fish the Adirondacksto guide us.  This year he took us to the Salmon River.  Most of you probably know the Salmon River as the river that is just north of Syracuse by Pulaski NY.  The Salmon River we fished is near Malone NY, is close to the Canadian boarder and is a tributary of the St. Lawrence River.  Although we did not land any wild browns we caught quite a few in the morning.  They seemed to be most interested in stimulators and a large stone fly pattern.  As always we had a ton of fun with Rich and look forward to guiding with him again real soon.