Fishing the Salmon River

Today we tried our luck fishing the Salmon River.  While it is possible to fish by drift boat, or to troll the estuary, we decided to wade the upper section of the river, above the Salmon Hatchery and just below the Lower Reservoir.  Our choice was the Upper Fly Fishing Section:

Here is how the river looked the other day when we scouted it:

We were up at 5:30 am and on the river by 7:00.  The sun hadn't hit the water yet, and we were hoping for maximum trout feeding action.

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The Salmon River has been important for its salmon fishery for many centuries.  Until 1900, it was an important waterway to Native Americans and European colonists. Huge runs of Atlantic salmon entered the river from Lake Ontario. People would catch their fill of salmon and dry or smoke it for food for the upcoming winter. However, due to overfishing, by 1900, Atlantic salmon were nearly extinct in Lake Ontario.

The State of New York began stocking salmon in the river in the 1870's, but aggressive stock of salmon did not occur until the 1960's.  The original purpose of modern stocking was to control populations of fish that had historically been the natural prey of Atlantic salmon, but eventually the purpose of salmon stocking extended to providing sport for fishermen.

The Salmon River is also stocked with steelhead, as well as rainbow and brown trout. Because these fish live in Lake Ontario, they have the ability to grow to trophy sizes and they are pursued by anglers for their fighting ability.

With the runs of salmon, steelhead and trout, fishermen have opportunities to fish the Salmon River all year round.  Brown and rainbow trout are stocked in the Spring.  Atlantic salmon typically run in September and October.  Chinook come next, and Coho salmon run in October and November.  During the peak of the salmon runs in October brown trout and steelheads both enter the River to feed on salmon eggs.  Then, beginning in December, the steelhead run.

Skamania, a summer run strain of steelhead, and smallmouth bass are present in the lower ends of the River.  Panfish, largemouth bass and northern pike can be found in the estuary.

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While we say we waded, "wading" is an exaggeration, because the power company has been releasing large volumes of water from the reservoir due to recent heavy rains, and the river runs deep and fast, as wild as many we've seen in the West.  Many fish will not feed because it is too hard to hold position in the fast water, and most of them will find quieter areas to hold and wait for slower flows.  Fishermen, too, have trouble functioning in fast water, since the slightest misstep can cause a wading fishermen to slip and find him or herself floating downstream, riding the rapids.  So, for the most part, we walked the banks and found strategic points to throw the line in.

In water such as this, large pools might still offer opportunities.  At this time of year, before the salmon and steelhead runs, our only real opportunities were rainbow and brown trout that have survived the summer.  We spotted a large pool at the top of the Upper Fly Fishing Section.  Some very large fish were rising, which encouraged us.

We each found likely deeper, slower spots, but neither of us had much luck.  So Kathy decided to hike further downstream until she found a huge pool just below large boulders so large she could stand on them.  She got several hits and caught two small rainbows.

Meanwhile, David hopscotched down to a wide, slower stretch of freestone water, really quite wadeable, allowing us to get further out into the water, and slow enough that the fish could manage to feed there.  This was our lucky spot:  David caught one, and then Kathy another, and finally, after leapfrogging David down to the end of the slow run, Kathy caught yet another.  Even between landing fish, we had fish hitting our flies on nearly every other cast.  David saw a foot-long trout leap two feet into the air chasing an emerging fly.

But by this time it was almost 11:00 am, and, with the sun warming the water, the trout seemed to be slowing down.  So we decided to call it a day and do some feeding of our own.  We stopped at a little place called, "Timbers," on the way home and wolfed down some carnivorous fare.  After so much fishing fun, and with our bellies full, we didn't even complain about doing chores all afternoon.