Salmon River hatchery open house

September 26,2015 will mark the 20th open house for the Salmon River Hatchery located at 2133 County Route 22, Altmar, NY.  Rain or shine the doors will be open from 9 am to  4 pm.  The days events will include both hunting and fishing demonstrations, environmental programs and display, as well as fly tying and fishing demos.  For kids there is a stream ecology program planned as well as a fish petting zoo.  Tours of the hatchery will begin at 10:30 am and will continue through the day.   Admission is free.

Your can call the hatchery at (315) 298-7605

Salmon River preview for Fall 2015

Low water in the ramp area at Redfield

Today is Labor Day, the unofficial start of the salmon run here on the Salmon River.  As I type this the water release is being drawn down after a white water release for the holiday weekend.  Current release is 335 cfs with the Pineville gauge reading 428 cfs, typical for this time of year and we should see flows stay here into October.  There is not a lot of rain in the forecast so increased flows is not expected.  I fished the reservoir in Redfield last evening for bass, the bite didn't materialize till just before dark.  The bass moved into shore chasing bait and throwing a spinnerbait onto shore and working it back to the boat usually produced strikes within 2-3 feet of shore.  In about 1/2 hour I brought 8 bass to the boat, 7 smallies and 1 largemouth.  I fished the reservoir about a month ago and the water level had dropped substantially, I'd guess 6 feet in the last month.  Right now the reservoir is probably 10-12 feet below full pool.  As you can see from the pictures the level is down.  The pontoons had a rough go of it pulling out at the ramp.

A month ago we were fishing the tree line.

The water in the river is warm and any salmon entering the river will have a hard time surviving till the water cools a bit.  As the air temps begin to cool, especially at night this will help bring the water temps lower, rain would help too.  As salmon come into the river over the next week or two they will be holding in the deeper pools till the river cools.

Local trout streams are low too, but the fly fishing is excellent in the last hour or so of the day, 7 - 8 pm is the 'golden hour'.  I have been having good success with three hatches in this time frame starting with a gray caddis in #16-18.  If you don't carry any this small I have used a parachute Adams in these sizes with good success.  This hatch moves into a Hex spinner fall that has a window of about 15 mins before the trout move onto the White Fly hatch/spinner fall that takes you into dark.  The trout feed aggressively on all three flies and if you are in the right stretch of river you can go fish-for-cast.

A week or two ago the temperatures were topping out in the mid-60's and down into the mid-40's at night.  It felt like salmon season.  The last week have seen mid-summer temperatures in the mid 80's to low 90's. The weather has been clear and beautiful and we take as much of that as we can here in the Salmon River area, fall becomes winter too soon here.  As the leaves are beginning to change here and temps will begin falling off, most of us who fish salmon and steelhead, or hunt look eagerly for the change.  The salmon run will be different from last year for sure but right now things are progressing normally towards the fall runs.

Have a good season and I hope to see you on the river.

Tight lines.