I can see whats happening now. You guys are pumping me up to the point where I'm thinking you know I should fish the  salmon run a couple of days a year,  sounds like fun.  Maybe it's not the mad house it was 12-13 yeears ago. But then I remember how it is in November now, and hear there where four times this many guys in this run in Sept!  Maybe I'll stick to Steelies in the snow.............HMM. How crowdwed is the LFZ in Sept? 

neaphyte- Its not to bad in september, weekend its nuts, but during the week you get guys who are respectable and dont make the fishing a bad experience. I fished last year next to some old-timers who hang out at malindas. Theyre just there to enjoy chucking bugs, i ended up grabbing fish for them cause i didnt trust their balance in the water. 

Nea,
 
Last September, the LFZ did not open so it was very uncrowded.  DEC was not getting the necessary hens to the hatchery due to the slaughter downstream, and wanted the zone as resting area for what fish did get upriver, so they were not played to death, so they kept it closed until the salmon were pretty well done and they were finished with egg taking.  They still had to take eggs in Trout and Orwell, and up in the Black River.  I only got to the river once in September, and then only for a couple of PM hours down in the Ball Park, and it was a zoo.  The menagerie continued into Steel season, because the saltwater crowd got blown off the NJ, LI and Connecticut beaches by Sandy, and "discovered" Pulaski.  We can only hope they are in the salt this fall, as it was always an O'dark 30 proposition if you wanted reasonably good water, no matter how far you were willing to walk.
My alternate spot, the Genesee, went up in early October just after the chrome started to show up, and was plagued with high water all though the winter and spring, and the high flows have cursed my fishing in WNY ever since (except for spring steel, which is triggered by high flow in the smaller tribs).  Now that Bass is open and I could chase them after work with a canoe, it is PM T storms, and I don't  like waving a graphite rod around in an electrical storm.
 
You can all stop doing the rain dances now, when the water table is higher than the ground level, it creates a lot of problems for everyone!
 
L13 

Lucky is right. The river is going up and down daily, one day its about 600 next it looks like its 900. I gotta make a trip up to the reservoir sometime and see whats going on. Hopefully it can stay consistent and be a little higher than it was last year, it wasnt even fair how easy it was to hook up. 

Glad to see somebody mention the downriver 'slaughter- it was just that too. Not so much C@R like so may of us do but hookem anyplace and keep. Not that I begrudge somebodys keeping fishes.
 That and the season long low conditions kept the upriver experience kinda average at best. Yea yea somebodys gonna say 'hey I was up and it was GREAT'-- good for you.
 Personally fish up most all of the time and have lots of time too- This was the first year in a decade or more I moved to mid river - and stayed there. Was like being in a different fishery.
  Way down towards Town was tried a time or two butttt- not my cupa tea- even with record fish numbers  down there.
 Higher water would still have produced a great year and it woulda been spread and likely with much more activity on beds than all species were able to manage this past season. What beds got used on the downside likely got trampled pretty good.
  Cant wait to see this year.
 Aint I bein a crabby  old Phart.

try a streamer tied of all flashabou...siver or gold doesn't seem to matter
they will wack em when they are in the mood

My first real successful fly big B.
Silver flasabou tail.
 Red chenile body.
Silver flashabou "hackle".
Size 2 or 4.
Flashabou about 3 inches long and I'd pull it over the back egde of my scissors to give it a curl and more flash.
Modeled after an Alaskabou fly I had read about.
 
 
 

Now let me state right now I am no Salmon R expert.  I spend anytime I get up there in Nov and April.  BUT. Is it possible the incredible run of Kings last year SEEMed so incredible becouse you could see very fish in the river swim by due to the drastically low water for the entire run?? I know some guys who do go up regularly and they said it was like "The Killing Feilds"Whaddaya think? 

Last year was a big run and it seemed even bigger because of the low water, the low water made it very easy for the lifters/snaggers to hook up.Hopefully we keep getting rain and then they can release a good flow making it more of a pleasure to fish.

Regardless of how much or little the amount of water flowing the Salmon River last September the prolific run of fish that I witnessed was an incredible sight to see.  I fished the lower end (DSR) after getting great information from Dime and there were times when I looked down river seeing nothing but rooster tails of water being sprayed in every direction.  Enjoy the video I posted after that trip.