Fishing Report for the Salmon River Pulaski NY

Great report Randy- Thank you kindly.

That's all you'll find in Pulaski. Lots of shops. A guide for Salmon? Depends who you ask.
If you're after Browns you may be a little disappointed in the Salmon River. Just ask me. The real numbers other than Salmon will be Steelhead- which is also nice. Still they aren't Trutta's. Brown Trout rule my every thought it seems.

There is great Brown Trout fishing around April or May just off shore in the lake I hear. I'm gonna check it out this year. Big Browns all day long they say.

If you want to catch brown trout book a guide. Bald guide (jim) is good for getting into them

IF you want to fish a river blind thats ok.Ive never takeing a drift boat,i prefer to walk the river.But i am good friends with a great guide on the sr and the things he showed me are things a newbe will never no.Waste of money,hard to say.Youll learn a good part of the river by using a guide,and they depend on our money to put food on their plate.I always suggest using a guide the first few trips because you will learn more than you can figure out on your own.Then you can walk the river with a much better understanding of the river,therefore youll catch more fish.If it wasnt for my guide friend i would not be as successful as i am on the river.Im just lucky it only cost me a few beers and dinner to catch alot more fish.

Much better said.

I guess that's why its called fishing instead of catching.  For me putting all my knowledge and ability to use and actually finding the fish is just as much a reward as cathing them.  My response was not a slam on guides as I have used them and will continue to do so on other bodies of water, just not the salmon river.  I can see the need for a guide to target steelhead but for salmon?  You've got to be kidding.  If you pick a spot in the lower section, say the meadows and stood there from september to november, guess what?  Every salmon that enters the river that season (that doesn't get sniped in the estuary) is going to swim past you at one time or another.  They all swim up river.  You have just as good a chance in one spot as in any other.  Unless your a snagger, then you need to congregate with the other hacks to the snagging holes. 
I'd rather spend 250.00 on some new tackle than pay someone for something so elementary (again speaking of salmon).

i totally disagree . a good guide will teach you more than how to find and "hook" a salmon.
people can find them but most do not know where, how or when to fish for them.
just look at the sucker holes filled with people and they are fishing ?/ yea right.

here is a testimonial i have:
If you are looking to learn the correct and sporting way to score salmon and steelhead. THIS IS YOUR MAN! I spent miles & miles & hours & hours by myself trying unsuccessfully to figure out the ways of Chinook salmon. I learned so much more in one day than I did spending all those trips wondering why I couldn't hook fish. ------- is an excellent outdoorsman and sportsman. Highly recommended.

 

I may need help catching Salmon. I read tons of reports- 6 for 20, 10 for 30, blah blah blah.
I'm doing well if I catch 2 or 3 a day. 2 years ago I got 1 strike in 3 days fishing over Salmon. I guess I just suck. Then again I don't count tail swats & bottom bumps as fish hooked. I don't attempt to line the things either.
Steelheads are pretty stupid if you ask me. The challenge is to find them. If you find unmollested fish you should catch them without a whole lot of skill. Just my opinion. They rate nowhere near the enigma of the Pacific North West Steelheads. They are stocked & there are thousands of them.
Hire a guide to show you the river- then go bang the hell out of them from here to infinity.
Like I said I hired gottum to show me some honey holes. I have a wife & little ones. When I get to fish I don't want to waste the trip exploring & getting ****ed.
Get on the fish- it's a whole lotta fun. Just sayin..

Tuna- Speaking of your services- MRD & I were chatting about maybe doing a Striper trip.

I spent a lot of days my first few years on the SR going up in August with WB when the water was very low and walking from Pulaski to the lower clay looking for early Kings, but mostly seeing bottom and catching fallfish.  In any given 100 yard stretch of the river there are a lot of parts where Salmon are going to be moving through, and a few spots where they are likely to pause and rest, and I think be more inclined to take a well presented fly or bait.  It took a few years to get the sense of where those taking spots were, and of course as the bottom changes, so do the taking spots.  A good guide who is on the river all the time knows these spots, or what the "right" water looks like, and he or she can save the neophyte a lot of time.  AS HT says, I can fix my car, but if the shop manual says its a 3 hour job, I generally figure it will take me 9, a busted knuckle of two, and trips to the parts store on foot while the car just sits.  My mechanic has it done in 3.
 
HT was on the river, and on this site, for a lot longer than he has had his NYS #, and he's provided a LOT of free advise and information to a lot of folks over the years, so I don't see anything wrong with his link now.  Having been on the river with him before he went pro, I can attest to both his professional abilities and his pleasant demeanor, and a person could do a lot worse pocketing 250 or 300 bucks and spending a weekend walking the banks trying ot figure out the right spots for putting one on, Salmon, Brown Trout, or Steelhead than helping him feed his kids and getting shown some of his knowledge.  And having fished ADK ponds for over 40 years, you could spend a lifetime dragging boats and hiking back in and not learn as much as you would in one day with someone who knows the spots.
 
JMHO.
 
L13 

What 13 said!!

Check in more often Old Salt- let us know you're doing ok.
Same for Lucky, Wader & the rest of you old board dudes.

Egg sacs always work so I hear. End of March there will be fish spawning I would think. Probably fish everywhere. There are plenty of Steelheads around. I'll be heading up as soon as I can get away- probably around that time if the snow isn't too deep.

Hey guys thats for the info.Defiantly going to give the salmon river a try for some stealhead. Good luck to you guys.