Lets get back to fishing---this other stuff is usually reserved for Summer when we are chomping for a new season.
This unusual season has generally ended cept for the typical Steel fishing so lets reflect on what happened.
IMHO the season was VERY late and Kings came in slow with no big pushes or decent pods from where I was ( and I was up and moving a LOT)
 Cookie cutter Hos were OK for a while and seemed to drop off and Steel from 14 inches up to the teens were in pretty good for a while and have dropped off into a normal routine.  Browns were here and there but not in big numbers.
Generally however, the season was somewhat late and NOT all that impressive even though enough seemed to have  made it up to the hatchery.
Seemed to be only a couple of weeks where a few Kings along with nice numbers of Steel and Hos were around.
Even then moving  Kings only seemed to be ones and twos.
Kings were real late and ended pretty quick- my favored November was generally a skunk.
Hos came in nice but  generally disappeared quick too.
Looked to me like fish liked the water levels and shot up pretty fast as very fresh fish were readily found upriver for the short run.
Seems to me if it was like this all the time the river may loose its appeal to many- folks  were here for their one or two annual trips to find no fish at all running in normal times.
Those of us lucky enough to be around a lot did Ok but John Q generally got a little stiffed this season.
What the heck happened ?????
Open to any theory or fact based ideas.
 

You pays your money and you takes your chances!
 
How did the cleaning stations do?  It was definitely a late year, but it seemed to me that a lot of fish were around from about right after Chartist left until my last trip up 2 weeks ago.  For the crowds 2 bob and I saw in town on the first trip, a lot of fish were going through a heavy gauntlet, with quite a few still around to get upriver.  I think it was just late, and it's too early to classify the steelhead run as it cones in over a long period.  
 
L13 

I'd say its the worst salmon season I've ever seen in my 25 years. My old man who is 35 years at it said the same. Rg I agree that it may impact future fishing pressure to an extent.

I believe the whole thing with dsr went to court almost 20 years ago. Maybe the overzealous guides who tried to fight it ruined it? Two Bob, I've spoken to the senator himself a few years back and he did mention the garbage and trespassing was the start of it all. Then it was a struggle to try to make it work. Now it has grown to what it is. How much was a gallon of gas in 1990 when it was only 10 bucks to fish in there... Maybe folks should try to take the case back to court if they're so concerned. Even if the day comes where I deem it too much money for my season pass or not worth it, I assure you I won't complain. That land Is his bottom line. His rights date back to before the fishery. As well as the folks who lease to him.

I think mike millers reports were the best... Clear cut and dry..

I thought there were more steelhead and browns this year and maybe arrived a bit earlier than usual.  I fished that whole first week of October.  I brought 8 newbies with me...Some definitely won't return, a few might have got bitten by the bug.  I saw one run that first weekend of October down near the Joss hole.  It was a decent size run with dorsal sprays visible all the way to the estuary.  The church hole had plenty of action, and fishermen, during that week.  And there were a lot of fish in that spot.  Looking down from the bridge in Altmar, I didn't see the huge numbers from past years.  I think we all agree the king numbers were way down.

Super vision there Chartist.  I'm amazed that you could see "dorsal sprays" from the Joss hole "all the way to the estuary."  You might be able to see from Joss to the Spring hole but beyond that is BS.

I fished it that day. I spoke to some friends that fished down in the joss and said fish were spraying through the flat waters above and below in good numbers. I fished about 1/2 mile upstream from there. That was "the" best run to come in that o knew of. Definitely late... And definitely week sauce for being "the" run of the season. Some later pushes did come after that as well... Extremely fragmented run this year though

Yep I was down there when they hit the Long bridge. They were so thick I could walk across their backs.

I just stayed home because the fishing was so great and the crowds so low..
So much for the salmon run of 2014..
At least the mudsharks on the lake let me sleep at the wheel too

If you were above the Joss Hole you couldn't possibly see down to the estuary.  Look at the DSR map and try again.

Twobob that just made my Monday morning with that comment.

I was in communication with an extension specialist from Sea Grant who is also in communication with the DEC folks in Region 7 and at the hatchery, about that issue early in the season when there was apparently some concern, but by early October, I was hearing nothing more, so I have to assume they were no longer worried, and CLint reported that the holding runs were full around Columbus Day. As 2B pointed out, despite what the poor run critics have been saying, the fish were using the sanctuary of night to move, and a lot of fish were not detected in places like the Ball Park because they had already gone through.  It makes sense to me that if 65% of the fish are naturally reproduced, and large numbers of day running fish, the "roostertailers" are being removed by the gauntlet, the ones that reach the spawning grounds and successfully produce progeny determine the characteristics of what comes back later, and these may be the night running fish.  Over time this process could have selected for a majority of night running fish, that hold during the day, and do not flash through the little necks and slots where the Snaggers lurk. It was my impression also that many people are quite capable of seeing these fish when there are hundreds of them around, but pods of 5 or 6 that hold in the center of the flow must just look like so many boulders to them. I know I saw people walk right by fish on the days when I was up there.  If everyone else thinks this was a bad year, I'll take few more bad ones, as I had greater success this year than I have in quite a few years (qualified by the fact that I didn't even start until  the salmon should have been over), and with less time on the SR although I have spent a fair amount of time on a couple of other tribs as well.
 
L13 

I heard they had no issues with king eggs at all, but did not hear about ho eggs.

There were alot of fish in hatchery even by late September. Water not dropping below 350 definitely helped. I still believe numbers were way down though. My only quam with it was the absence of early runners... But by far the lowest numbers I've ever seen for sure. My son managed to hook up with a few on his own this season. Highlight of my year was crossing paths with a sparse run on sept. 11th on a late afternoon with no one but my son sharing the water with me. The next movement of good numbers was first weekend of october. Lucky, your timing and place was perfect for some salmon action for sure.

r3g3
Silly fishes-  year or so back in very low waters and  a real record breaker King run they didn't get enough in the hatchery for eggs and had to go elsewhere and net some.
Water levels clearly have a lot to do with fish getting to the hatchery. Even 350 seems quite enough.

You may recall that there was very low water, the fish ran when the snaggers were in town and they very efficiently removed the large hens from the river when they came through the ballpark and up into 2 that year, so that the fish that reached the hatchery were mostly males, hence the trips to the Black.  And the fish were running strong during the daylight hours.  As to how big a run it was in any given year, I'll wait for the DEC analysis, I think people's perceptions are colored by what they see when they are on the water (and how could it be otherwise), and this year if you timed it based on past years, you were too early.  I think a lot of fish may well have made it from the lake up into the stretch above 2a in a night and then run the remaining distance to the top over the next night, and since there are not as many guys hitting he river between 2a and Sportsman's, they were less eliminated.  I know it seemed to me that a lot more boats were launching at Pineville this year, and there must have been a reason for that.
 
I'm with WB on 350, there is plenty of water for them to shoot right up on, if they get into a deeper slot they can become nearly invisible when they want to hold.  I know based on what Combs has published about West Coast migration distances, the steelhead could blow from the estuary to the dam in one night if they wanted, these fish evolved to run hundreds of miles, so the distance they are faced with in the SR, especially at optimum flows, are nothing.
 
L13

Getting back to some 'old days' reporting IMHO.
Guides and shops or anyone making a living on the river says VERY little of sparce runs and disease and have decent to fine reports.
Joe fisherman however reports VERY crowded conditions with VERY few, if any, hookups.
Sad commentary-----
Gotta go and find out for yourself like days of old and NOT try and depend on reports.
Gotta understand that in tough times those making a living at it are understandably optimistic.
In great or decent times it seems that things level out  lol.