The salmon
fishing continues to be on fire. What can I say; we've never seen such
consistent salmon fishing before. There is definitely something special
happening this fall. Even on the slow days (if you want to call it that) salmon
have been moving into the river on a consistent basis. Along with good numbers
of fish, the behavior has been outstanding. On most days the salmon have been
very grabby, more than happy to eat a properly presented fly. We have been
experiencing a very good morning bite and, depending on light conditions, can
continue well into the afternoon. On bright sunny days we have been finding the
most cooperative fish sitting in the deeper pools and pockets. All we have
needed to do to keep the action going is make a few adjustments in the type the
water we are fishing and the presentations we are using.
We are still using woolly buggers for the most
part. The reason why I stayed with these flies is that we cannot fish the flies
wrong. If the salmon want a fly on the swing, woolly buggers work perfect. Whether
on the swing or dead-drifted. We have been working between three colors, black/silver,
brown/copper and olive. When fishing in low light conditions, the darker colors
are working the best. In bright sunny conditions olive wooly buggers have been
devastating. Depending on the day and the mood of the fish, the size will vary
between a size 4 and a size 6. We have been constantly experimenting throughout
the day to see which combination of fly size and color will be the best
producers.
We're
starting to see a little bit of spawning activity. Along with this I'm starting
to notice a few more steelhead starting to show up. It’s still a little early
for the steelhead, however the way this fall is going I am not going to make
any predictions. With these two factors in mind we are starting to fish a few
egg patterns around the spawning activities. For now I'm sticking with an
orange size 8 nuclear roe bug.
Over the past week the Salmon River watershed received around 2 inches of rain. However the ground is still extremely dry so I do not anticipate a change in water flow yet. We still need a lot more rainfall to get us out of this intense drought. The river water flow is still holding at 185 CFS but obviously the fish don’t mind!
Fishing tip:
When looking
for steelhead feeding on eggs around spawning salmon concentrate your efforts
on the slots in cuts just below all spawning activity. This is where river
currents are going to concentrate all the stray eggs that are dislodged and
sent adrift from the gravel beds.
Note:
I still have
dates available for the month of October both early, prime salmon fishing time
and late October steelhead fishing. The dates are as follows:
14,21,27,28,31. Please feel free to call
the fly shop and talk to Carl, the number is 585-352-4775 or my cell at
585-233-0436