Salmon River 10/1 &10/2

[Trout Stalker]

Me, my son, and my friend headed up Friday night. Saturday early was good fishing for a short while then slowed down big time. Landed one fair hooked fish 18#11oz king (chinook) had about 12-15 more that came off. Lots of rain saturday night and tons of fish all day till 2 pm when we left. Landed one more fair hooked keeper. Lost at least 20. Mostly to hook pulling out. Broke a few foul hooked ones off. My son landed one foul hooked fish. It was the first he has been there and he's asking to go back! My buddy limited out with two nice cohos and a king the first day and got a few C&R today. The river is full if anyone is headed up. Fresh kings cohos and steelies all over today. Here are some pics.

[johnjav]

Wow, awesome pics.  Looks like a great time and trip.  What were they hitting?

[biggamee]

Nice fish Frank..what are the limits on the coho and what kind of gear are you using to haul in a biggun like that?? Wow nice steelie as well..you guys hit it out of the park..

[Trout Stalker]

Wow, awesome pics.  Looks like a great time and trip.  What were they hitting?

Salmon that are spawning rarely hit. We use fake eggs on the hook, but in reality, half the fish are getting hooked as they go by. Trick is to find the right run, depth and amount of weight. I use a 12 weight Kunnan fly rod and a Fin Nor tarpon reel with 17 lb copolymer. Oh yeah, that P-line Evolution is phenomonal! Steelies were hitting orange or red eggs.

John, being a big fly guy, id go in November for steelies and browns. Not too cold and the action is phenomonal!!

[Trout Stalker]

Nice fish Frank..what are the limits on the coho and what kind of gear are you using to haul in a biggun like that?? Wow nice steelie as well..you guys hit it out of the park..

That's a coho Erik. Allowed 3 salmon or one trout and 2 salmon, unless you have an Atlantic which your only allowed one sp basically 3 fish each. Must be hooked in the mouth.

[johnjav]

Thanks for the information.  I would love to take a trip on there for a few days.  Those fish must have been amazing on a fly rod.  Your son must have been so pumped up catching huge fish like this. 

[lionpshark]

Way to go TS! Those fish are well worth the trip.

[Trout Stalker]

  Your son must have been so pumped up catching huge fish like this.

He had a ball. Hooked his first fish and was asking if we could come back next weekend! It is a type of fishing in its own, but lots of fun! My friggin legs and back r shot! LOL!!

[Biz-R-OWorld]

Nice mudsharks!....nothing like the Salmon River in Pulaski.  You are right about them not biting. If anyone says the salmon are biting this time of the year in the river they are lying.  I remember catching some of those dark green, half-dead ones a few times lol.  People dont realize that those salmon are silver in color in lake ontario and by the time they are way up the salmon river, they become green/brown right before they die in the river, and look nothing like they do in Lake Ontario.

Was it crowding up there to the point where you gotta yell "fish on, coming up/down" so everyone else reels in their lines, etc?  Beauty Coho by the way, some years they are almost impossible to find, and other years there are many of them. I heard this year there is a good amount of Coho's coming up the river.

[Trout Stalker]

Those fish were far from on their last breath. When you hook a fish and it takes your drag out 100 yards upstream, it aint clost to dying. I have seen them where they were spewing eggs or sperm and they were damn near dead. I can assure you that the fish in the river this weekend were far from dead! Saw a lot of Kings that were more silver than brown. THey get brown quick on the stringer. Tons of Cohos this year also.

Crowds were not that bad. I have seen it much worse.

Anyone looking for a great experience should go, but best to go with someone who knows what they are doing. There is a huge learning curve to doing it right and legal. Others just go up to snag and that's cool also, but not actually legal.

[Biz-R-OWorld]

my friend got a ticket for snagging once, he was 14 at the time lol.  They officers are usually in plain clothes and at the time told us we were allowed to lift the rod 1 time per drift, not ripping it multiple times lol.

[Trout Stalker]

The technique is called lifting which is most easily done with a fly rod very similar to nymph fishing for trout, but with almost 1lb of lead shot! Its basically a drift of the line and following the line down the river with the tip of the rod. At the end of the drift, you lift up and flip cast it back. It is a 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock motion that works best and if you find the run that the salmon are using to stage in the hole or shoot up the fast water, with the right amount of weight on the line, you will hook a lot of fish and the majority of them legal. Guys use spinning rods also, but they are not as easy to do this. I enjoy using my large fly rod and reel and the kid never did either and had the hang of it in 2 hours! Tons of fun for sure.

[KenH]

Great shots Frank. A basic question I have is that if there's a 3 fish catch limit
that must mean people are taking these fish home. How are the fish as tablefare if they are being caught on their way to die?
A bigger question in my mind is of course why is snagging illegal if the fish
are going to die anyway? Are these Kings and Cohos actually succesfully spawning or just going through the routine?

[Montrose]

Ken, I mostly smoke the fish I keep.  I have grilled/baked them too.  Not terrible, but I prefer local trout for sure.

If you catch them early before they're all banged up and zombified it's better.  Makes me gag when I see guys walking with fish on a rope that are already rotting though. 

All the flesh is white not the traditional "pink", though many people don't realize the farmed Atlantics they buy woud be the same without the color added.

People come from all over to catch and keep them...Lots of guys from CT, OH, PA, NJ.  We had 2 guys at the camp last year theat drove from Alabama.

The snagging thing is all BS.  The fish really don't feed when they make the run.  If they weren't harrassed from the minute then enter the river, they might bite out of instinct or to kill the eggs of other fish, but not likely here in NY.  Everyone is snagging the fish, it's all in the "technique" used.  Exaggerated or repeated jerking of the rod will get you a ticket.

Some of the fish do spawn successfully.  More and more studies show some natural recruitment, but they also swim to the hatchery in Altmar where they collect eggs and raise the next batch of stockies.

[Nick]

nice salmon! im going up oct 26  for the weekend, you were fishing the town pool?