Nice thread bear :)

My most memorable day can vary depending on my mood :) but my most rewarding day was in the joss hole the week before christmas in 91... it was a cold snowy weekend in which my brother and i struggled with being as young as we were at the time. We were kindly rewarded with a warm up in to the lower fifties and not a cloud in the sky on our sunday before we left. We were blessed with the joss hole loaded with steelhead after steelhead. We didnt stop dor lunch and fished hard un til 4 pm... never see anything like it since... we had a similar day one week later the day after christmas... maybe half the amount of hook ups which was still action packed... my father insisted that steelhead fishing wasnt always like this and we must understand that we cant always expect it to be this way... man, i was hooked on steelies ever since.

Most recently in early september i had my son up who is five and a half now. It was a day within that first huge push that entered early... i had him set up between my legs and we casted together... kings were ripping the rod out of our hands almost... luckily i have an old anti reverse fenwick fly reel to save the boys knuckles... :) man we hoomed so many fish together and when we hooked em i would hold him up and let him reel... the antireverse worked great dor him and we landed many kings after some long chases... probably one of the most memorable days i may ever have... we ended up putting one rather large male on the bank and he got a kick out of that as we tied him up in a nice oxygenated spot so he stayed alive... what a blast...

Nice stories from the rest of you guys... lets hear some more!!!

bumping this cause i can't believe more people don't have a story to add.
i'm jacking bear's thread and turning it into just memorable days on the river so
 that i can add another day.
 
it was an oct day many years ago.
i had been asked to take a newb out by a friend that had other clients to take care of.
we went to the upper clay, before it crowded up like it does the last 10 or 12 years.
fishing was slow but the newb landed 1 nice mirrorbrite and suddenly became steelhead bob expert angler.
i had him fishing the lower end of the hole where the freshies held after coming thru the riff.
there is a large sycamore with branches that reach over the river.
steelhead bob in full concentration on his fishing was wearing a stetson that prevented him from seeing the osprey that landed in that tree about 20 feet over his head.
after about 15 minutes iot folded its wings and plunged down hitting the water maybe 10 feet in front of him.
the reaction was  a big $$$ winner if i had gotten it on video.
 
the osprey came to the surface after a couple seconds with its talons firmly in the back of a steelhead of about 5 pounds.
it would try to take off but the fish would dig his tail in and pull it back down.
after several tries it changed plans and used its wings like oars and swam down the riff angling to the north bank.
just as hes dragging his hard won prize to the bank fran verdoliva comes walking up the trail with two clients and he has to release the fish and take off.
it was a classic lose lose situation.
the bird was thwarted and i can't believe the fish could surive having those claws buried in him that long.
 
 
 
WHO'S NEXT....

Bobee, nice bump :)

Since you memtioned the upper clay ive got one to share... i started coming up to SR in 1990... it was 91 that was the real kick off for me...in the season of 91/92 i probably fished the river close to 50 days and landed many salmon...hooked many steelhead, but couldnt quite land one...(we often ran 3 and four pound test in those days)... in mid february of that season there was a good early february thaw in which made for good ice out conditions down low... my father brother and i stayed in the salmon egg lodge which was run by tom burke back then (now currently altmar outfitters)... one day we were heading out and tom had a guest who was a newbie and asked if he could come along with us... we all headed down to dsr and went straight down to the clay hole... in those days that hole was much deeper and was easily fished with many anglers from either side... since the hole was packed we strted our first plunks off the high bank just above the clay drop off which had that big sycamore in the tailout (before the sycamore fell...and when the meadow still had the island in the middle of it with the big old sycamore tree...)I that high bank at that time had some nice holding water especially in elevated flows of a full gate +... first cast for me, steelhead on!!!! Managed to land it at about seven pounds....dimebright chromer fresh out of the ice that was still stacked up below the meadow... back then we used 6 and 7 weights with weight forward lines and mostly egg sacks... i was ecstatic being the eleven year old i was... i continued to hook about eight more fish that day above everyone who was fishing the pool... needless to say the fellow we brought along was quite intrigued... he managed to hook a few and for the next two years we'd often see him parked on the old clay banks when we went down there... we often saw tom down there as well... hes more or less become a staple down there since then... steelhead of 91/92 was phenomenal for us down low...fall winter and spring... these days i dont frequent the clay hole as in my eyes it is nothing like it used to be... needless to say though, i caught my first chromer out of it....

NEXT!!!

Surprised your not on the river Dime with this flow!
Way off topic....do you think there will be anything left on Long Beach Island after the Frankenstorm  hits on the full moon?
I cancelled my trip and am doing fun things like cleaning gutters,warming up chain saw,storing water as I'm on a well,etc.
It looks like I'm in the path but inland,lots of rain and wind but the coast is going to get hammered!

thanks for playing db.
i can't believe there are no more fish tales out there.
 

I have so many memeroable days  that I just could not pick one .  so here goes ,   one day  back in the  early 90's  I fell   and slid  down  to the river bank , and on the way down I managed to slice my hand  wide  open  leaving a fair  amount  of my hand  in the snow. My friend  took me to a local clinic  where the nurse  actually stepped back in disgust and said  we can not help you here...  you need to  go to Syracuse  right now ,, well  it really had not been hurting all that bad , until she said that  , now it was killing me and it was killing me  the whole drive to  Syracuse .  Once in Syracuse ,  I had a young doctor  using those microscope  eye glasses working on my hand ,  I asked him how bad is  it ?   He said  "well  tough to really tell  as it does look as if  some of the tendons were knicked  not cut but just knicked,  It could have been a lot worse " in what way ,   I asked ?  he said and I quote "  It could have been my hand"  well we both laughed  and  my hand has never been the same  but has  never slowed me down either.  That young  Dr  did a great job ,  he told me that he just got back from  the Gulf War  and worked on so many worse injuries  and that I would be fine , I was Lucky and Honored  to have him work/fix my hand. 
 
That is probably  the most memorable day ,  but the thing that sticks with me the most is  that feeling  I get as the day on the Salmon  River comes to and end , that last hour ,  so many emotions,  there is such a sense of urgency,  to just get one more on ,  there is a sense of sadness , just do not want it to end ,  then the  period of reflection  on the day  and sense of satifisfaction  for what I have just had the opportunity to experience , then the look around  is there a more beautiful place  than the Salmon River at Sunset , Yes  Salmon River at Sunrise earlier that day,  and  then finally  the anticipation for  Tomorrow  when I get to do it all over again . 
 

Great tale, Cape.
Well told.
Thanks!
 
Charlie
 
 
 

  Long time ago hooked a fish well below the Unemployment on a spin rod. A kid was nearby and I gave the fish plenty of slack and asked the kid to hold the rod while I lit up. He wasnt wearing fishing gear nor were the 2 adults I had seen him with earlier but they were fishing.
   When the line tightened he tried handing me the rod and i told him he had hooked it so it was his fish. Had already lightened the drag quite a bit. After a few runs the line went around a rock and then slack- OH well a decent try--as the kid reeled in the line it went tight again and the large Hen had come close and stopped at our feet. lol
 By this time a few guys had stopped to watch and the kids Father and Uncle came over too with a camera.
  Took some time but we landed the Hen. Seems that it was the only fish the 3 had  in 3 days of fishing. They had come up from way down South someplace just to visit the SR. They took the fish right over to Malindas to get it mounted for the kid. ( think it was malindas back then ??)
   Three of the happiest guys ya ever saw. Someplace there is a photo of that Kid and me  and a decent size hen on a young adults wall.
  Have had both my sons -or should I say men- up there and some grandkids too but that Southern kid was a great memory.

Fun read rt,
It was probably the smokehouse back then. Malinda would never let a fish enter her establishment .

A few years ago on the last day of the Upper Fly being open, I arrived at noon or so to a parking lot with 2 cars. The river was at 2000. I decided to go in and asked a fellow  and his young son walking out how he had done. He replied that he was a little depressed , as he and his son had driven 7 plus hours from the tip of Long Island to a river that looked unfishable.  His son, age 8, wasn't fishing, but was there to watch Dad catch a steelhead! He had bought a new  switch rod that was yet to have any Mojo attached to compound his frustration. I told him if he wanted to take a walk back, I had an idea. We went to the tail of the Paradise Pool and I told him to wade out into the flooded  bushes and set-up in front of them.  I gave him an egg sucking leech that had worked downriver that morning and told him to carefully and thoroughly  fish the seam 15 feet in front of him. I went upstream a hundred feet or so and in a short time hooked and landed one. He really started to pay attention then  and shortly after was screaming like a little kid with his son echoing his joy. He made a few mistakes playing the fish but eventually I netted it. He tried to get a pic in the net, but plop goes his non-waterproof camera! So I took some pics of the proud Dad and e-mailed them when I got home.
By this time, father and son were cold and hungry and now they were successful, so they decided to call it a day. We chatted a bit and he gave me a business card and told me he was the president of the LI chapter of Trout Unlimited.  I have a standing invitation to fish the coastal streams of LI, which I doubt I'll ever use.  On that note, it's 3 am and time to hit the road!  Hopefully I'll have power and a report when I return. Stay safe and weather well, everyone.