Got up a bit late today as I had planned a very early trip to the LFZ to get a spot and park there for a few hours.   With that I decided to try up north again and was vastly disappointed with the results.  There were only  few others there and no one saw a fish or even hooked up.  Water was down from WED but still looked good.   With that I hopped in the car and headed south and decided  to see if I could find any sky rockets in flight saw a moldy king there and a few swimming around , but no takers, they were all small guys. Most exciting part of that was almost hit a 8 point driving in.
 
Off to the LFZ to finish the day.  The place was PACKED,  found some open water that was not in the most optimal spot and proceeded to lose 3 flies in 3 casts.   Got po'd and was going to leave, but 2 guys left and I stepped in   fished for a bit and got a few quick pulls , but nothing exciting.   Right about 5 I tied on a blue  yarn egg for the last few casts.   Finally got a good slam and I could tell it was a good one, everyone around said it was a big fish when it jumped.  It would dart upstream and them back at me like a bat out of hell as I tried reel the slack.   Tried to keep it in the pool, but it was too much.  Slammed my thumb twice on the handle and  it got into the middle of backing.  It was then bye , bye time for that one.   My thumb still hurts.
Don't think I will fight the crowds this weekend so next trip out will be next Wednesday for me

the crowd never dwindling thru the week does not bode well for the weekend.
hope tere are some fish to stumble onto to make it worthwhile.
don't do this often and will probably remember why about 8am.
 

TB   as far as this week the crowds were not bad at all if you left Altmar .  Maybe 4 to 5 cars in Ellis, 10 in Pineville  2 to 3 at sportsman.   I am new to steel fishing and am still learning spots on the river.  I think open water may be found this weekend just possibly a walk and maybe not the #'s of fish  as in town.  Also remember tomorrow is opening day of southern zone too.
 
PS I heard the group next to me talking and the were meeting in the Zone at 5am to secure their spot.   That is not for me.
 
Also there were 10's of thousands of little 1 to 1.5 inch bait fish everywhere.  Scooped a few up and they had purple/pinkish tint to them.   Any ideas????

Clint,those little guys are probably Salmon fry.
If you want to get the prime spots on the LFZ you have to get there 4-5 AM.I was the last one to leave the lodge each morning and I could hear others pulling out at 4 AM,that's crazy!

thanks clint.
you just renewed my hope.
i've never been much of a weekender guy but sometimes things present themselves ar=nd how can you pass on an extra trip steelfishing.
 

i quess maybe salmon fry but with a 90 or more day cycle to hatch,probably the shorter  with the warmer temps, even eggs fertalized in early sept would still be in the alvin (sac fry) stage.
if they are last years fry they are pretty small and i can't figure where they were hiding till now or why they suddenly showed up.
 
on the other hand rumor is they dumped a bunch of larger parr steelhead in recently because they didn't have room so maybe they dumped a bunch of fry as well.

The were out of Alvin stage, but still a bit translucent and there were swarms and swarms of them.  If I stood still long enough they would form around  me and I could feel them pelting my legs.   I could only scoop up one though.  I looked up steelhead fry and these were all silver no other markings I could see  ie no vertical black markings.   It was on the NS

   I was there last Saturday and I heard people saying they got there at 5 and it's was not legal fishing till 6:20 last Saturday. Can't see standing there in the cold waiting for your spot when then river has many good spots in it.

    Those days are OVER-been there done that- DONE--aint goin all the way up there to get up and stand by the river and freeze or be bored till legal daylight- -aint happenin anymore for a SPOT.
  Slept in the first day of Deer here in Ct- went out at 11 AM DONE at 11:10. DUMB LUCK. ( or knowin where to go that time of day)
   Having your own place allows ya more trips up most years soooo- sleep in and go out like a gentleman and hope for a fish or two in daylight. Yea  Yea ya miss the morning bite--so what ??? Just fish and enjoy the moment--
  Will be less guys on the River from now on- Some of us still chase 'Meat without Feet'.

Trying to get some boiler issues resolved.Woke up a couple of days with no heat or hot water.Wife not happy. Hope to be up soon. Keep stories and pix coming.Livin through you guys at this point. Buddy does buisness in Toronto and always tries to stop and fish. Landed an 11# Brown on a western creek last week.