Tuesday, March 31, 2015

2015 spring fishing report, Salmon River, NY

Spring 2015 steelhead fishing here on the Salmon River has been quietly moving along.  The fishing has been 'typical' for the spawning season.  Steelhead are actively spawning, with those that are ignoring our offerings.  Most of our fish have been either pre-spawn fish or, as of late, drop backs.  Most our our fishing is being done with flies and I'll give more details in a minute.  The river is unlocking, we had to deal with some serious shelf ice this year and some days fishing below Pineville was impossible.  The release is 350cfs and the gauge at Pineville is reading 542cfs as I type this.  This has been he status-quo for the last several weeks which has helped keep the fishing stable but at the same time has slowed the de-iceing process this year.  Temperatures through the days now are pushing upper 30's most days, however, night time temps are consistently in the upper teens/ low 20's.  This has prevented any run-off from melting snow from having any real impact on the river to this point.  Looking forward, we will probably see this begin to change towards the end of next week as the forecast is  showing above freezing air temperature both day and night by mid week.  Also, days with sun shine will help the snow melting process along.  If recorded history hold true we will see heavy run-off with the river reaching the 7000/9000cfs range between  the weeks of the 13th and 24th of April.

For the next couple week, however, the fishing should be consistent with more dropbacks showing up in the net.  As for fly fishing we are indi-fishing for the most part.  As is typical in the spring the flies that work the best are alvin patterns and egg patterns, such as nuclear roe, crystal meth and sucker spawn.  Post run-off you will find these same egg patterns working well as will large stone fly patterns such as Montana stone fly, yuck bug and the traditional stone fly nymph patterns working well.  These stone fly patterns should be in the size #8 or #10 and heavily weighted.  A traditional wooly bugger works too.
Drifting an alvin pattern under an indi is producing well now.
Swinging this alvin is working also.
Nuclear roe is an excellent choice for pocket water right now,


as is sucker spawn

Bitch Creek nymph
Montana Stone Fly




Yuck Bug, steelhead love the rubber legs.
 
 If you are gear fishing, either spinning or pinning, a small jig fished under a float will produce well right now.  Local tribs are opening up but some are still locked up with ice or are low water. 

As a general word of caution, be careful around any shelf ice that is left, it is rotten and unstable.  In the next few weeks water levels with be on the rise so use good sense in wading or crossing the river.  Fish with a buddy and wear a PFD, there is nothing wrong with using good sense.

You can check the release on my web site and if you would like to book a trip I have a few days left this spring and the schedule for the fall of 2015 for salmon and steelhead have good dates available.

Tight lines.