first report 11/15 to 11/18

This was my first trip  to SR  this early in the year  my  normal time of year is Feb timeframe.  Really a different place  in Nov as compared to Feb .   And I found the fishing  to be  quite different also.   I am not experienced in fishing fast ripple water  or pocket water.  I spent the first day  trying to do my best but to be honest I was lost and had very little confidence in what I was doing.   Lots  of people  around  which was also an adjustment for me .    I did manage  one fish  by  the end  of the first day.   Day 2  was  a little more productive as I went back to  my comfort  zone and fished  deeper water  that  had decent flow .  Landed 1 steelie out of 3 ( 2 were on  blue egg sacs  lost  at the net ) (1 on  white  egg pattern size 12  landed) ,  1 brown landed  on the same  white egg pattern .   Day 3   was slower with 2  steel on battled and lost takes were on  Black Woolybuggers. 
Day 3 had some nice lake effect snow and much colder temps and less people.   Did try some different techniques and I learn a lot on this trip  , I actually  tried float fishing for the first time ( no takes , I need to learn more about shotting patterns ) .  All in all was a great trip had a lot of fun and managed to  see a different side of the SR. Not a fan of the crowds this time of the year , but it was really nice  fishing while able to feel  your hands
 
A couple of pics from the trip .
 
 

trying again

nice report cape.

     Always thought that very late Oct into mid Nov was my favorite time to fish. This year may have changed that with the big crowds and  low water and the fact that the variety of fish  this time of year seem diminished.
   Normally woulda been up this weekend too- decided to stay home and do leaves. Weekends have turned into Shark season flashbacks.
   Kinda happy for the fishery in general as the popularity certainly means the State will be activley maintaining the fishery for some time to come .
   On the other hand I kinda See what Dime refers to with the electronic age and folks reading those big catch reports and flocking to the river only to find reality.
  Never fished my favorite feeder even one time this year, there was always a lot of cars parked on it and it just cant take that kinda pressure and still have active fish biting what with guys chasing and walking up and down the middle and other stuff--- RIP RIP RIP.
  This used to be a time when most of that could be avoided an ya could just go fishin.  Even saw em rippin Atlantics up above this Summer.

    Same when I was up last - Down was very available but fish were not running- holding yes but certainly not running. Glad ya had a good trip and got into some.
     Hey -did that King have the FIN ? Still tryin to figure out if a run of hatchery fish happened or not. Mosta what I saw all season had the fin.

Thanks Clint- I saw some during the season but most still had it when I looked- kinda been wondering if i just happened to be around when naturals were there and missed a lotta Hatchery fish or if something was up with the naturals being extra  productive.
Either way it was good- just read a report and saw  late Oct photos over on CRAZY- most of the salmon had the fin. Guy was fiishing what appeared to be LFZ and mid river.

From Connerton.et al on the DEC Lake Ontario Unit reports page on the DEC website, in the report on the preliminary evaluation for 2008 yearclass and 2009 yearclass returns:
(http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/lorpt10.pdf)

"Our results indicate that 50.5% of age-1 and 57.5% of age-2 adult Chinook salmon in the Salmon River harvest were wild.
Proportions of wild fish in other eastern tributaries were low, where only 4% of age-1 and 24% of age-2 Chinook salmon were wild. Given the low
sample size in these tributaries (age-1 n=49, age-2 n=33), these results should be considered preliminary. In 2011, a tributary creel survey is
planned by NYSDEC which should provide higher sample sizes and a better evaluation of wild returns to eastern tributaries."

We'll get the full report in the spring with the 3 year classes. This year's adult returns were also probably impacted by the lower stocked numbers in 2008,due to shortfalls at the SR Hatchery that year.

L13

Thanks for the report. Glad you guys had a good one. Thanks for the  wild info, too. Very interesting. And cool.
 
Charlie

RG,

They don't put as many cohos in the lake or the SR. Back when WB and I still fished for Salmon and were near full time fish bums and went every week, we got used to the notion that there would be a run of cohos, usually around the third week in September, but before and after we'd only see a couple of them. Sounds to me like that was the pattern this year too.

And you are correct about the flows, if you look at the Pineville USGS site flows have been way below long term averages for most of the fall.

Finally, I was at a meeting last week where Jim Johnson, who heads the USGS Biological Resources Divsion Tunneson Laboratory in Cortland, reported that this was the third year on the SR where they have collected Atlantic Salmon that were wild to the river, so we may see more of them as time goes by.

L13

Thanks Lucky- Know the Hos are never as big a run as the Kings or Steel- just that I had 'the spot' for a number of years and was able to zero in on them- specially enjoyed the monsters that showed up kinda regular for the past few years- This year- no water there so - no fish.