Jay Peck's Blog

Ones again not much is changed over the past week. Winter tight grip remains. Nothing new here, all of our river and streams in Western New York are still locked up in ice or experiencing low water flows. The only open water is the Genesee River. Here too, not much has changed. Keep in mind, if you intend to try and fish the Genesee River use caution do to shelf ice. What is happening in Western New York? is that we are getting a lot if sown. As of now we have about 3’’ of sown on the ground. Ones that sown start to melt off, it will not take long for the fishing to get going. I suspect the fishing to take off about mid-March and go until mid April this coming spring.

We are continuing to concentrate our fishing efforts on the Salmon River. Here to not much has changed, we are still experiencing excellent winner steelhead fishing in the upper river. Looks like we got the Salmon River winter steelhead fishing program dialed in, for now. I do not like to make statements like this. It seems like once I do, the rivers and Fish conspire against me and change all the rules without notification. However over the past month when weather conditions allow we have experience excellent steelhead fishing, Using stone fly nymphs. I am hoping this pattern will hold up until spring run off hits the Salmon River. For now water flows remained constant at 285 CFS. I do not foresee a change in these flows for the upcoming future. The snow pack for the Salmon River watershed continues to grow. As of now the snow pack is over 8 feet deep and growing.  I suspect that spring runoff will start on the Salmon River around late March this year. Taking this to account, I am planning on moving from Western New York to the Salmon River around 20 April. This will allow us to take full advantage of the steelhead fishing in Western New York, while missing all the high cold-water flows from the snowmelt on the Salmon River. Mid April water temperatures should be improving on the Salmon River and the steelhead fishing will be turning on.

Notes:

My Guide calendar is now open and I am taking dates for the upcoming fishing season, from spring through fall. If you’re planning on fishing with me please do not wait, get your dates. Cell 585-233-0436