Salmon River report mid-summer

A lone angler with Ellis Cove all to himself.  A rarity here
9 months out of the year.  Water flow here is at 300cfs.

The summer to this point has been a mixed bag of weather with most of the bag full of rain.  Thirty days in June and nineteen of them rain days.  A little over a week ago the Salmon River was pushing 3000cfs in anticipation of some heavy rains forecast, in the Tug Hill water shed this rain never developed the way it did to the south of us.  As I type this the river release is 1000cfs with the Pineville gauge at 1130cfs.  Yesterday the gauge struggled to hit 300cfs.  If you are a kayaker come on out and have some fun, this flow should hang around for the weekend to accomodate 4th of July vacationers.  The forecast for the next week is more of the same, hazy, hot and humid...and rain.



Fish these and hold on, smallies crush 'em.

If you are interested in fishing the Salmon River right now you can have a lot of fun with smallmouth bass.  They are eager to play and are never disappointing.  If you are fly fishing swing a deep fly like a cone-head wooly bugger, MOAL leech or a nice wool-head sculpin pattern.  Fish these in a size 6 or 8 and work the fast water at the head of runs like the Long Bridge, Compactor, Bird House or Sportsman Pool.  I fish these type patterns with a 7wt fly rod and Rio indicator line.  Run a straight 10lb test P-Line Floro-clear leader at 7' and tie on a 6lb test P-Line florocarbon tippet.

These smallies are also a lot of fun on an ultra-lite spinning outfit.  Run 6lb test and Mepps, Panther Martins and small Rapalas will work great.  Same deal, fish them through the fast water at the head of a run, instant fun!  The water temp is mild and great for wet wading.  A word of caution, wear your wading boots, the river is full of sharp pointy things that have been left there by countless anglers over the past 40 plus years.  Oh, and bug spray, don't forget bug spray.

Navagational hazzard at the head of Frazier's Run.  Get the
chain saws.  I can see a drift boat trying to get through the
right side with 50 salmon fishers standing there come September.

The local streams like the Fish Creek, Mad River and the Salmon River above Redfield are fishing nice with plenty of good water to keep the bugs coming and the trout and happy.  Area rivers like the West Canada Creek and Mohawk River have been impacted more by the rains so far and are hard to fish with the high water or, as with the West Canada Creek right now, un-fishable being at flood stage as recently as yesterday.  Be careful out there.

The graphs for Delaware River system looks like a roller coaster track and at present are at good fishable levels.  The problem is that the West Branch is susceptible to mudding up fast and if the tribs that feed the East Branch are muddy then so is the EB. 

Enjoy your summer.

Tight lines