Tues Wed Thurs

 Drove up Monday and arrived bout 1030-PM
 Tuesday was all house and yard work cept for an evening trip down to the bridge over the Estuary. LOADED with fish and those bridge fishermen. Fish jumping and swirling both down and up as far as ya cold see. Lots too.
 Ended the light of day watching the Needle- Nada running through the VERY low water.
 Tues AM went below 2A and took a hike and had players, but only on light leader and very dark flies and very far down where nobody was around. VERY low conditions and VERY spooky fish. Bright stuff-weights  and heavy leader produced immediate negative reactions. Went dark without weights .Did I mention VERY low water= the fish landed had their bellys worn down to red skin-if that was still skin.
 Fish were found in deeper runs in the shade along undercut steep banks. Did I mention spooky ??? They were not spread but bunched here and there and easily missed in those conditions when hiking and looking. Hadda fish from way above the fish and stay still and well out of sight.
 Deads and those I saw close up all had 'the fin". They REALLY gotta do something about the early water levels in the future to maintain early WILD fish IMHO.
 Fella was up above last week reported seeing spawn activity by the push that came through back then. Deads all over- hope they spawned early like we were seeing last year too before these conditions killed them.
 Not my cupa tea and I didnt fish today. Water way too low. Bugged out late AM.
     Did go back to the estuary Wed evening and it still LOADED. This weekend should put quite a run in the river with any decent increase in flow. Just hope they keep the water a bit higher after the weekend or-------
 It was GREAT to get out this early and have players and bring some in. GREAT.
 NOT for the novice though- not bragging -but newcomers will have real difficulty in these conditions and reading the water in these way too low releases.
 They got a real good thing going on lately after some great work with the 'natural' return - IMHO its time for the State and Water Co to address it. Kinda think the early return rate  may have caught some by surprise.
 Should be another very nice season.
 Hey-STEEL were jumping in the Estuary both evenings  too. Naturals ???
 
 
 
 
 

Unfortunately those lifters you saw down low are the more common norm in the river and these conditions serve their style very well.
 

Got a fella to plow me out. Cheap and responsive -even to last minute trips for Steel.
 Last year  got real sick up there early in the season and never got back most of the winter so  didnt realize the guy tapping my Maple trees was plowing so he can get in.
 This year he asked to plow all the way to my back lot to get at more trees- GOOD.
 Fella across the street gave me his number so he can tell me if its plowed enough from now on- MORE GOOD = or should I say luck.
 In the past when not there much hadda have a bucket loader remove the hard pack 3/5 foot stuff the plows piled in front of the driveway sometimes  before plowing  the drive. That got a little problematic.
  More regular Steel trips up prevented that but somebody gotta check for ya and its generally a plow guy you hire.

Your right Tuna- Its only August and predictably the fish are a day to day thing depending on where you happen to be.
  Had said earlier that the second week of August was about my earliest for Kings depending on conditions.
 Kinda think with the help of the State over the past few cycles conditions and fish are changing a bit -GOOD.
 Who knows- second week or so of August is beginning to look pretty good last year and this as opposed to an old fashioned  perhaps or maybe on these  Wild Northeast Pacific Salmon--lol.
 Kudos to NY fisheries and guys like Fran..

Clint - only released two- was GREAT- had a couple of more real players and broke off a couple of fouls( didnt wanna play them out in these conditions).
    Dont generally talk numbers but dont wanna make it sound like  a slaughter house and sorry if I gave that impression.
    Thought that was a lot for several hours this time of year though and felt real blessed for that amount of action in the conditions.
 They took hundreds of easy presentations for even that amount of action. Didnt waste time on fishles water and scouted the fish and scouted more and went back- quiet like Deer hunting to the first ones after  nice calming periods and fished a lot of line from far off.
 Like to fish Steel  like that sometimes too- find a lie and go back later when its calmed down.