Jay Peck's Blog

Looks like we traded ice in the rivers, for high muddy water flows. Yes we got high water flows. All of the rivers and streams in Western New York went over their banks this past week. Water flows have come down enough so that we can get back to fishing by the weekend. Starting with Western New York which is where I am fishing for steelhead at this time. Water conditions are marginal at best. Flows are high and water color is extremely muddy. However water temperatures are improving daily, at this point water temperature is more important to us than water clarity. We are a now at ideal water temperature of the steelhead starting their spawning cycle. Keep in mind because of the cold winter and late spring things are running approximately 2 to 3 weeks behind schedule. We need to get out and access the given water conditions were fishing on a daily basis. As for what to use for flies. That to take on a daily basis, Be prepared to fish egg flies and nymphs, to a large Leach and intruder patterns. The warmer and dirtier the water, the bigger the fly.

The Salmon River: The water flows are up here too. From this point we will need to pay close attention to water levels. As of now water flows are at 5200 cfs release, the Pineville gauge is showing over 5380 cfs. Looks like the spring snow runoff has started. We have a lot of snow to melt off in the Salmon River water shed. Judging by the water gauge, the snow is melting off very fast. Water temperatures are at this time still very cold holding between, 33 – 34 degrees. I do not suspect water temperatures to change much for a couple more weeks. With water temperatures this cold the fish do not know it is spring yet. As for flies, stay with collection of winter pattern, black stone fly nymphs and small egg flies have been the top producing patterns over the past.

With the present water flows, we are obviously not fishing the main River. However the creeks are in good fishing conditions. This is where we need to concentrate our fishing efforts for now. When the Salmon River gets big, look for the smaller surrounding water.

The trout fishing; due to the fact that winter is having a hard time letting go, the land trout fishing is having a slow start. We probably will not see any hatches for a few weeks. However the water flows improve enough we may be able to do a little streamer and nymphs fishing.