Yeah- Thanks for the tips.
Silverman- That story was cool. Fish bum? Yeah- me too when I grow up (am 40).
My most memorable day up there was an afternoon all alone fishing a big fast pool stacked with a fresh pod of Kings. I landed 9 before I made my rod explode, but I was still all smiles. It was really cool to watch them swing over to smack my fly. I may never have a day like that again. Mostly they are so shell shocked a few swipes a day is good honest fishing.
last year I was into Salmon so thick I couldn't drift through them without a hook finding a mouth. That was fun for a few but not what I was into.
I almost landed my first Coho that day. Swung over at least 8 feet too chomp. The ones you never forget are those fish/days.

we're all counting overhill. it will be more like the 5 week range for me for kings.i'm actually going up this weekend again most likely. hey kype, is the grand in ohio? i have definitely read about it, and yes have heard about the posted land.

hey silver, what year are speaking of? the last two years have been great for steelhead. in my opinion early 90's was the hottest for me. you are lucky for having weekdays off. weekdays in the late fall and winter are a steelheaders paradise. i try my best to go up for 3 or 4 day weekends as much as i can to take advantage of lighter pressure. you definitely have an advantage also with switching your tactics. i used to only fly fish, but now i do both. the last day in april this past year i had a ten hook up morning on pink worms under floats fishing for drop backs in the lower river while my brother was swinging flies and didn't touch a fish. the drop backs were holding in the stagnant water nosed up behind deep pockets. it's not easy to get the right presentation on these type of holding fish when fly fishing. especially in low/warm water. meanwhile, this past winter i averaged anywhere from 5 to 20 hook ups on custom nymphs i tied. versatility goes a long way with fishing. although i used to exclusively fly fish, i never carried the purist attitude. fishing is fishing. we should all just get along. i have thought about trying minnows or fat heads in the lower river this year. with your post, now i'm definitely going to try it and i'm sure it will be a success. fish on...

Good stuff. Welcome aboard new fellas. This thread & the things said has been making my endless days of work & 4 hrs. of ot almost daily more bearable by thinking of those Big Fishes in the river this Fall to come & all of the past. 

hey kype, thanks for the info. definitely one of the hundreds of rivers i' long to target in my lifetime. i think i can say time is still on my side (god willing). i put 98 percent of my effort to the salmon though. over 20 years experience. i own property on the river. plus i have two young children. hopefully oneday though

Yeah, flossing=snagging. If you fish honest you won't have 30 fish on days in my exp. while fishing for Salmon. I'm real happy with 5 or 6 strikes a day, but I know I earned it..
I don't have the experience of guys who have done it way longer & more than me. The Salmon are way different than Trout & are very hard to figure out.
There is nothing to compare their strength to once hooked. King Salmon give an amazing battle.

when i target salmon i target them very low in the river. i swing sometimes sparse and sometimes fat wads of glo bug yarn to get a pulsating effect on the end of my line with varying weight depending on many different factors in water level, type of water, and type of holding fish. i do not fish water i can see in ;and i know when a fish takes. i can honestly say that from mid august til mid sept. and sometimes later september, i see a big difference in the mood of salmon early on in the lower river. although i don't sight fish, i have seen many salmon bolt and roll on my fly. i find salmon that are more prone to hold in black white water in sometimes large numbers from dawn til sun is on the water. it's these fish, early on, in the lower river that i have seen most agressively hit your fly, plug, or bait of any sort. i have had noses come out of the water in the tail outs of my drift too many times to count. once the quote on quote season that everyone refers to as salmon season starts, it's over for me. yes i have seen many agressive fish in the later season. have had agressive salmon attack my own fly in to december. the latest i ever saw a salmon caught was on a hot shot in december, and the latest i ever saw a salmon was in february on a day that was -19 in the morning and high of around 15. on my way up from the wire hole took the back trail back to the altmar parking lot where those springs just form out of the ground and flow in to the river. i saw a pair of spawning cohoes that flipped out and fled under bank ice once i got within 5 ft. from them. i have seen runs or movements of fish through thelower river where they will run one side of an island one day, and then the next day with the same water level they will run the other side. there is more than meets the eye when it comes to these amazing fish. and they are not all the same. in my experience, a salmon will hit when driven to, while resting in what they think is a secure resting grounds ( and i don't mean deep slow moving pools), and also on the other hand, while setting up on beds and males fighting for females and especially cohoes. i believe in getting your presentation down whether it's a plug or a split shot or a long mend with a floating weight forward line. look at alaska though, there are bays that they cast floating mouse patterns to tidal cohoes that explode on the surface for your fly. salmon will hit. you just have to find your groove and just like everyone else said you must fish with confidence. avoid dead water though. just because there are a lot of people some where doesn't mean you should be there either. you can have a pool loaded with kings in the upper river where you can't even touch one with your hook if you tried. choose your water wisely and fish it wisely with confidence. i actually have a 13 ft. noodle rod that can handle 4 to 10 lb. test. i am looking forward to this salmon season and fishing that rod with bobbers in deep faster runs with large home made egg sacks, glo yarn wads, or maribou type buggers targeting all species. i cant wait. i think it will be very successful. fish on to all

What DB said holds true .. I do however teach and fish just a bit different on salmon.. When possible (depends on water flow & clarity) I Totally sight fish salmon. I don't teach flossin which is just another word for snagging..
Tactics I employ are usually at the very top of a pool where there is a shallow run or funnel or on a flat run with shallow pocket water. The flats in drs is prime salmon fishing.. I look for water usually no more then 3 to 5' deep and not heavy white water (I don't plunk my flies) It also should have many small pockets where salmon will hold before moving to the next pocket. I will often follow a fish moving up stream until it holds in such type pocket then swing my LARGE BRIGHT fly through that pocket.. Yes I can see my fly & the fish.. Presentation of the fly can be key, keep your fly above and a side profile to the line of sight.. fish will move across or up, NOT DOWN.. If the fish is interested it will take.. If not it will usually move on after a few casts. I will usually follow it to the next holding pocket for another shot.. If no take by then I let them be and search out the next fish..
Why I like & teach fishing this way is it leaves NOTHING to chance and weight is not needed other then the fly.. I know exactly what is going on and to see a 30 lb king CHASE a fly IMO it does not get any better..

Option #2 is when they are in spawning mode.. They will jockey and attack each other for position on the female.. Pretty easy to get them to strike but also pretty beat down fish by then and I prefer to pass.

Now steelhead.. Diffrent species and different tactics..

you're right PA. the upper fly zone definitely settles the fish down. what's great about up there is that a lot of those fish are natural spawners. i remember when that frist opened up and i went down there sometime in 97 or 98 in october and there were guys there ripping fish out of the water with 30 lb. line and get this they were even keeping them. i didn't go there for a long time after that. i know things have changed everywhere on the river in the past 15 years. i can honestly say though that i do not target the upper fly as much as i should. i should make more of an effort this year. i'm sure i'll see you up there if you are going to be there for 2 weeks. tight lines...

ORIGINAL: silverman31

A lot of guys say floss their teeth, this a form of snagging?  

 
This is the practice used by 99% of the fishermen on 99% of the salmon in the river that are not blatently lifting.
 
Take careful note of how the previous posters in this thread explained how they target the fast water and cast their offering across the location where the targeted fish is..(hint,hint).
 
I hope that this post does not upset the Chamber of Commerce crowd..

hey drake, it was poster not posters... and it was me. so you can use my name if you'd like next time. i watch people fish dead water all day long . for me, with salmon; i fish the back eddies and little pools that are actually stagnant water which is in between the white water to be specific and is also prime holding grounds for salmon. i know my capabilities and possibilities and to be honest with you, i fish all types of water when it comes down to it. i can swing wets, high stick nymphs and streamers, float a size 22 dry fly in a little or big trout stream , sight fish for bonefish, float a bobber through a productive seem, bottom bounce a worm or egg sack, and catch large mouths all day long on spinning or fly gear.and salmon for me last a few weeks and then i target steelhead. think what you'd like. maybe you can post your tactics first before reading everyone elses and then trying to bash them. oh yeah, and by the way, have you switched to a real fly line in the fly zones yet or are you still throwing a running line? wait a minute... do you even know how to fly cast? like i said before, try to be a little more informative rather than being the smart a**. how about this one, not 99% but most quote on quote guys who fly fish on the salmon river don't even know how to fly cast. how's that for the chamber of commerece...

Impressive resume dimebrite. You should don a red shirt and maybe the Becks will take a pic of you so you could grace the cover a feeshin magazine.
 
I'm honest enough to admit that I probably line (a.k.a floss) just about every Salmon I catch - whether it is intentional or not.
 
And if you cannot admit that it is a commonplace occurrence in fast water then that it is your problem, not mine.
 
At least I don't sight fish for salmon that are gulping water in the "back eddies and little pools". IMO the fish deserve an undisturbed break before they make their next run up the rapids. Too bad others don't share the same sentiment. 
 
As far as the running line - Yup I still use it on the Salmon River and in the UFZ, and will continue to do so. (I don't fish the LFZ Kiddie Pool).
There is no need to rip an expensive fly line to shreds when the mudsharks take me into the rocks and other debris. I can cast a $20 Cortland running line accurately up to 40 feet with only a weighted fly on the end of my leader. There is no need for any distance capability beyond that.
 
Matter of fact, I discussed this matter with a DEC officer in the UFZ last year and he had no problem whatsoever with my setup. The new law was meant to get rid of the Chuck&Duckers from the fly zones. The fish cops observe a person's behavior before they write a citation. They can tell when a person is "casting" -vs- tossing out a bunch of added weight designed to give a fish head trauma..
 
Do you have any other critques you would like me to address?
 
 

Dime,see my earlier post and let me know your plans.
99% of the fish are flossed?Here's my take on it.There are days when you drift one color fly thru a area and no hits,then change to another color and get one hit after another.Does color make a difference in your flossing success?If the fish is flossed the line runs into the mouth pulling the fly to its head and hooking the fish on the OUTSIDE of the mouth opposite of the bank from where the person is standing.Most of my fish are hooked IN the mouth on the jaw on the side of where I'm standing.There are times that I see the fish move to hit my offering although usually I fish water that is fast and too deep to see whats happening.Another question to ponder is if Salmon don't bite why are plugs being back trolled so successful?Believe what you want but I know a hit when I feel it and I have been flyfishing for 55 yrs to know what a hit is.
On another subject on lines,yes a running line is a legal line in fact in the very beginning that is what everyone used.I used it for the monetary reason also,and if I destroy too many expensive lines up there I might go back to them.

Since this thread has both wheels in the ditch..
What else is there then a back cast, with maybe a few false casts to fly fishing for salmon.. Because I have no clue.

Great thing, I'll be trolling a sinking line all day for brookies :)

PA, you are right with everything you say in my book. i am on the same page as you in regards to lining fish versus striking fish. when still mid drift and not even dragging bottom; a sudden shake and with out a chance to even lift the rod a head is shaking out of the water; and when landed (150 yds. downstream)the hook is on the tongue, kype, or opposite side of mouth; that fish took. i don't look down on a running line. i started with a weight forward up there, then swithced to a running and now am mainly back to weight forward double taper. sometimes i use a running line. i prefer a thicker one though when used or evn a double tapered 3 or 4 weight, rather than the really thin ones. i had a sci angler line once that was clear and non tapered. it was about as thick as a 4 or 5 weight. man, what a great line that was for steelhead. fly zone is definitely traditional fly line only though. for your trips, i will definitely be around when you will be there. you'll see me when you ride by i'm sure. i'll have to hit the upper fly on a late afternoon or something with you. oh yeah, you can bring your tool belt if you'd like...