Just spent 2 days Salmon fishing in the Salmon River

[Baran013]

Booked a trip up to polaski, NY and had a blast. Took a drift trip on Friday. The river was near flood stage, and our guide came through. You wouldn't get a hit if wadding. While we didn't limit out our guide, Rick Pecci, He is a host on Northeast Great Outdoors on the outdoor channel, got us to the fish. There were people who took guided drift trips and they didn't even get a hit. With the water this high, by the end of next week it will be lower and alot of fish running. We talked to a guy who took a drift trip on thurs, and friday, and he didn't get a hit friday but everyone was easily limiting out the two days prior. This is where having the correct guide comes in. I would recomend a trip with Rick Pecci any time and due to the fact that he was tied up with his show he still has open dates for the next few weeks. He only charged 200.00 which is a steal.

[Kajun]

mmm freshly caught salmon sashimi.....would love to go on a salmon trip..maybe one day when i'm rich lol

[Manayunk Jake]

Greetings Kajun!

I don't think you'd want to make sushi (sp?) out of THESE salmon. They are pacific coast salmon that were stocked into the Great Lakes. Once they begin the spawning run, their flesh begins to deteriorate (can't stop eons of genetic coding.) You can catch large (30 lb plus) King Salmon trolling in the Great Lakes, but the flesh won't have that nice orange color. True pacific salmon get the coloring from eating shrimp at sea. The "farm raised" salmon get it from an additive in their pellets.

The Salmon River also has great runs of steelhead (rainbow trout) and brown trout. Both are edible.

[sand flea]

Sounds like a lot of fun. I fished in Erie this summer and caught a nice king. I'd love to try flyrodding in the Salmon River for one!

Was it very crowded? I heard that place can turn into a madhouse during the run.

[Baran013]

The river was higher than it's been in many years in the early fall, so if you were fishing from the shore, you were out of luck. We driftboated and it was the key. We were actually plugging it for most of the time. I heard on saturday that they were at three gates which is well past flood stage, and that they would be at that point for a few days. It wouldn't even be good to drift boat at that point.

[sand flea]

Yeah, when I was there the rivers were all incredibly swollen. This has been a wet year on the East Coast.

So, do you have any pictures? I'd like to see what a king looks like when it goes into spawn mode.

[Topsailbum]

thats being mild about it...... 22.5" above normal in rain here,for the year so far. still 2 months to go.

[Baran013]

But I could take a picture of my buddies car, we tagged a nice sized buck on the way up about 5 miles before Syracuse. Believe it or not, we actually got pulled over by a ny state policeman about five or ten miles north of Syracuse for having a head light out from the impact with the deer. The deer hair and dented fender and door were enough for him to let us go on our way. The worse part of the trip is that now I am looking at Picking up a diamondback fly rod and a teton reel. If you think surf fishing is expensive try fly fishing, for what you pay for a top of the line hand made surf rod with an allstar blank just gets you into a slightly above average fly rod.