still comin in

Got in town later Sunday - took a look at the estuary-little steel jumping way up  and two pods of over a hundred fish each circling just above  the bridge- couldnt tell what they were without dark glasses but guessed about 8 to 12 pound fish- Hos or steel- getting ready to run-they stayed kinda deep.
  Monday -the end of the leaves and last yard mowing and then upper mid to be blessed with a  nice mix of very fresh looking Kings, lotsa red striped Hos and Steel from small to about 8 lbs running most of the afternoon till bout dark. Most all running up fast and not all that bitey- but a couple made the afternoon,
  Tuesday - upper mid again to a few less fish but a nice steady trickle - Kings, Hos and Steel- very few holding and kinda spooky. Some players-another real special day.
  Wed Am  went to the same place and only saw a couple of Hos and a couple of Steel in a few hours- all buzzing up fast. No luck for bout 3 hours so hit the road for Ct.
  Sun-Mon- and Tues nice days with wet nights- Today dark and wet after a hard rain last night.
  Stories of  some nice size Steel for those lucky enough to be where pods are running through. Lots of very small ones seen all three days too.
Most of the Kings I saw are very fresh running in ones and twos. Had a hen surprise me in a pocket by engulfing  an egg sac real deep- she was still very tight and fresh.
 Great trip - cant wait to get back. Turning into its  own kinda special season.
Think ya gotta be more willing than I  to move up and down throughout the day - kinda tend to stick it out too long- don't really care though - kinda like sitting back and just taking in the country once in a while, fish or not.
Hey- my favored blue sacs were not all that hot like usual this time of year - might suggest some earlier season bugs- perhaps because of  fewer King eggs as a natural bait(might be a different story way up). There were a few more beds seen uppper mid  this trip however.

Glad you found some fish.
Nice report.
Thank you.

Nice surveillance report

Thanks Andy- hey--last year tried to fish the Switch from shore along the estuary a bit up from the bridge when Kings were in heavy -too difficult with the crowds that day.
In hindsight after what I saw Sunday kinda wish I had tried shore fishing  the light spin outfit and sacs once  before they ran up (were likely Steel by DSR reports)- was nobody around -not even a boat.
Ya ever do it ??

Likely illegal and gave mentioning it some thought but it shows how great this river is and how much its appreciated so here goes.
 Old fella used to fish with his buddies upriver- Meet them off and on fishing the same places over the years and always stop and bs riverside- nice folks.
  Saw them this past trip and while shooting the breeze, one of them asked if I noticed the tree nearby with some decorations on it.  I had and he told me the old fella passed a year or so back and the tree decoration is more or less where he chose to have his ashes placed in the river.
 Thought that pretty much sums up how many feel about the SR.
 Wont ever give up who they are or where they come from just in case it was a no no, but am glad to know such folks.

I think there maybe more of that with some of us. As long as the ashes don't sink in jail water waters or the dsr we should be okay. I have 3 generations in my family that have great love for the river and I'm sure that will keep us never forgetting our loved ones.

White bunny or zonker, flesh fly, white marabou, some of those new craft fur kinda "bunka" patterns, but what size, as they come in many?
 
Down here, there are a ton of shad in the Big G river anywhere from 1" to maybe 3", the gulls are working the river big time, and the fish were also to be seen once in a while chasing, and the bite was not hot last tine I was down there.  Maybe there are also a ton of gizzard shad in the SR estuary, and that's what Randy is taking to be alewives, which really wouldn't be in close for any reason at this time of year.  Or the fish are blowing right from deeper water up the river.
 
L13

Lucky... Area tribs have been seeing bright salmon in the past two weeks with even tight skeined hens. So you're probably right about fish coming straight in from deep water

The fresh upriver Hen I had last week was very tight- others in the area commented on  similar fish-also nice to notice so few wearing ornaments.
The lack of ornaments kinda might indicate a fast upriver run IMHO.
 The majority of Kings observed had little or no white spots and were not too dark yet.
 Deads were around and it sort of seemed like a whole new little run of fresh ones.
 Different kind of late season.

Off to tornrontoe for my anniversary.

Just got back and went 0 for 3 all on fresh looking ho's that beat me badly and took a white flesh fly  with a little flash size 4. I couldn't buy a fish this trip.   The steel I saw caught legally were on spinners and streamers, the rest of the zoo were doing the usual . I use to love to catch big trout on spinners when I was a kid, something I may look into again for the SR.  Pretty crowded, weekends will be a never again for this season. We left early due to my Mom (we're her caregivers) needing some attention, but I wasn't that disappointed.  We've decided to work weekends and  take some Wed.- Thursday trips.  I also may not go back unless there's more water. I just don't like it this low. 

More water would be great. At least you connected with a few fichy.

Crowds weren't everywhere, lots of places that would have a line of a couple dozen , that in 2 hours would be gone. Plenty of space, just not fish everywhere.  I didn't have it in me this trip. Dawn to dark framing followed by a fitful  few hours sleep and a suicide run does not make for focused fishing.  Maybe next trip I'll get it a little more right. 2b , you have the luxury of decades of fishing the river, I'll never have that, so it makes it tough to chose where to go. I would rather have a little more cover and fish movement. I'll pick my times a little more carefully from now on.
I'd rather have the harder wading and casting, but fish having more lies and transition lanes. Makes it a little easier for dumazzes like me.

Have to agree water levels seem to be an issue especially on some of the other waters. Fished for 4 hours yesterday and between my father and I we only managed 1 resident bow and rolled another. There were quite a few fishermen if you want to call them such wading in the middle of some of tribs trying to "catch" them. Surprisingly there were still a few fresh kings just not a lot of steel where we were fishing in my opinion. Luckily we have another 7 days to figure all this out.

PS Tore on toe is cool.
Pretty trendy chicks everywhere don't tell my wife I said that).
Great food.
Places to see.
But jeez I wish I was knee deep in the SR right now!