It's raining. For all the complaining that we do when rain disrupts our plans or when we have to fish in it, when we go with out any substantial rain fall we worry. For farmers a growing season without rain is a potential disaster, their livelihood depends on rain. For those of us who look forward to a good salmon run we want to see it rain too. The lack of it could spoil our fun. Obviously the needs of the farmer whose income depends on a good harvest and the needs of the recreational salmon fisherman are two completely different situations, still the lack of rain here in central New York has many anglers worried. Don't, whether we get monsoons that fill the reservoir or not, the salmon will run. They have every year since I've been guiding here and as I write this decent numbers of salmon (several hundred) have been moving up the river for the last two days.
 |
Me with a nice female salmon taken in perfect
conditions, last September.
|
The need for salmon to run the river and spawn is, as I like to compare it, to your need to take a dump. Just like you would prefer to have a clean toilet with plenty of tp at the right time, if you don't, you can only hold it for so long. Then you find yourself answering the call of nature, leaning against a tree or sitting over a downed tree limb wiping your butt with your sock, you have to. Same with salmon, they would probably prefer to have a good healthy flow of cool water and their favorite spawning areas under about 2-3 feet of water, but if these are not available they can only hang out in the estuary so long, then they have to run, they have to.
I will be hitting the Salmon River this Thursday morning. I figured I would give the recent fish a chance to get upstream and with the rain that is coming down now and over night, I am sure there will continue to be salmon moving into the river. If you have plans for fishing the river in the next week or so and are worried about the water level, thanks for worrying, we do need more water, but the salmon don't, and they are going to keep coming, they have to.
Tight lines
