Salmon River fishing report - fat lady singing

I have one more float scheduled for the 2017 spring steelhead season and it's timed just about perfect.  The last few weeks have seen good action on drop backs and with the water drop a little over a week ago things heated up.  There have been good numbers of steelhead in the upper river over this past week, most drop backs, however, there were still good numbers of spawners.  That was till yesterday, someone hit the switch and a large part of the upper river is void of fish.  There where areas holding a few pockets of fish but most fish appear to be below Pineville.  For my last float I am going to try to make the Pineville to 2A float work for my client.

Nice meat eating Delaware River brown.

After that I am guiding a few turkey hunts and then starting my Delaware River floats mid-May.  Reports from the Big-D are very good with streamers working well and this past weekend saw the surface activity begin in earnest.  Water temps and flows are good, temps pushing 60 degrees and flows are nice but slowly dropping.  I will be down 'pre' fishing a few days and am looking forward to getting on the East Branch.

Spring turkey season starts Monday, May 1 here in New York.  I can't wait.  I have a few trips booked through the month and have plans for my own hunts.  There are good numbers of turkeys around and even had a half dozen in my yard a couple days ago.  If you'd like a guided hunt or a float on the Delaware for big trout give me a call, I'm sure we can set something up.

I'll post again soon.

Tight lines

Salmon River area report - early April 2017

The river pushed the 7000 cfs mark this past Friday as 'inches' of rain had been falling over several days last week.  Currently the controlled release is 1750 cfs with a gauge reading at Pineville of 2210 cfs.  Dry and warm weather is forecast for the next few days so we can expect the river to stabilize, if not drop even further.  Water clarity is good and getting better, and with virtually no more snow to melt we can expect temperatures to begin to climb.

The high water has done nothing to stop the steelhead in their spawning activities.  From here on out the fishing for post-spawn steelhead should start to heat up.  Right now it's hard to predict how long we will have good water into the future for good drop back fishing. 

Steelhead egg collection for this year was completed this past Wednesday, April 5, at the Salmon River Hatchery.  640 female steelhead were handled over 4 days resulting in 2.4 million eggs collected, exceeding the target collection of 2.15 million eggs.  These eggs will be raised in the hatchery for about a year, then released as yearlings.  Approximately 150,000 Skamania strain steelhead eggs were also collected.  Currently Lake Ontario received annual stockings of 497,000  Washington strain steelhead, 43,000 Skamania strain steelhead and 43,000 'domestic' rainbow trout.  All are released as yearlings.  We can look for their return in about 2 - 3 years from stocking.

Local Trout Fishing

The first week of trout season locally found streams blown out by several days of heavy rain.  As of Saturday these creeks have begun to recede and water clarity is very good and will continue to improve.  As the water warms we will see bugs start to show up and you can expect to see Hendricksons and Blue Quills initially.  Prior to the high water black stoneflies were showing up on the surface, #10,12 patterns would match the size and the nymphs for these should work as well.  For gear anglers live minnows, spinners and the standard garden worm will work well as water drops.

Central New York spring turkey hunting forecast

Nice spring gobbler shot on Public Land

Spring turkey season is fast approaching, beginning May 1 here in New York.  Locally turkey have been in strutting mode for about 6 weeks now and looks like things are heating up.  We seem to have had good recruitment and winter survival as I have been eyeing several large flock around home here.  I am still booking spring hunts and have some good dates through out the month.  If you would like to try it, give me a call.

Tight lines