Late summer Salmon River report 2014

It's Labor Day weekend, you know what that means?  It's the unofficial start of salmon season here on the Salmon River.  A few fish have been trickling into the river, what with the very decent water levels we've had for the last week or so and the below aveage, fall like, temperatures for the overnight, conditions are good for fish movement.  Fishing has been good on the lake and it seems as if we will be seeing another year class of big fish.

Hex, what we're looking for,
few to be found  this year.

Things here are moving towards fall very quickly now, temps are cooler, trees are showing more color daily and it's dark now by 8:15.  I am excited for this change in season.  Most of the activities I enjoy most happen during the fall.  I do enjoy the fishing/guiding the most but I also look forward to hunting waterfowl and deer, although, I get very few opportunities to hunt as it conflicts with the guide work.


I have been fly fishing area streams alot recently, hoping to hit a good Hex hatch.  Been into a few hatches but they are weak compared to previous years.  Still, the fishing has been very good.  There is a good White Fly hatch every evening just before dark and the fish are tuned into this.  Usually about 20 minutes before the White Flies start the trout are taking caddis eagerly.  Most of my success on the caddis hatch has been with a dark brown x-caddis in size 12.



Nice late summer brown trout, fat and colorful.

 

We'll be into the salmon fishing soon, and I look forward to it.  If you are planning a trip here to fish this fall you wont be disappointed.  Have a great fall and hope to see you on the river.

Tight lines

Salmon River early August 2014 report

We have had rain almost daily here in the Salmon River area.  For the fishery and the upcoming salmon run this is a good thing.  This weekend was a release weekend so at the present time the river is running at 801cfs at the Pineville gauge with a release of 750cfs till tomorrow evening.  Then its down to 350cfs till Friday, then the drop to 185cfs.  At this time the Redfield reservoir is at or very close to full pool and this should mean a good release through the fall if nothing changes significantly as far as our weather here goes.

Boat launch at Redfield, excellent water level.

There has been no reports of fish entering the river with these releases,  reports from the lake boats put the salmon at 130'-140' of water and catching is good.  We should see larger than average salmon running the river again this year, everyone is anticipating another awesome salmon season here with big fish and big numbers, can we do it three years in a row?

Another view of the reservoir.

Local trout streams seem to be in flux.  this past winter produced some severe scouring of  local streams and many seem to be void of normal insect activity.  There are fish to be caught but the bait fishers seem to be harvesting most fish as there is not the insect populations for the trout to feed on. 

In 4 weeks time from today we should begin to see salmon trickle in to the river.  In 8 weeks from today the run will be in full swing with spawning activity beginning to show.  Time goes fast and soon we'll be wondering where summer went.  Fall is a great time to be here on the Salmon River.  Hope to see you here.

Tight lines.