Jay Peck's Blog

The fishing in western New York started out on the slow side, however the pace of the fishing quickly rallied as the week progressed. I contribute the increase in the fishing pace, is due to improving water temperatures. As of now water temperatures are in the low to mid 50    degrees range. These warm water temperatures definitely get the fish moving and very aggressive. However the downside to this warm water temperature is that the steelhead run will soon be over for Western New York. As of now the steelhead in the smaller rivers and creeks are starting to finish up with their spawning activities and dropping out. I would suspect the bulk of the steelhead, will be on their way back to the lake within a week, for the western New York rivers and creeks. This is not to say that there will be some stray fish lingering about. Never hurts to take a look at your favorite river when you have a chance. We have been concentrating our efforts swinging flies in the fast water. However we’ve also found some spawned out steelhead holding in the pools that will definitely jump on a fly. At this stage it pays to cover as much water as you can, we have steelhead in all stages of the spawn cycle at this time. Productive flies; we have head excellent success with small intruders, large leech patterns, willy buggers, egg sucking leech.

At this time I am now making my move from fishing Western New York tributaries to the Salmon River. Over the past week water flows on the Salmon River have been extremely high. Water flows closest to 4000 CFS, you can say that the Spring run off has finally showed up. Fortunately the high water flows are starting to settle down to typical springtime fishing levels as of now the dam release is at 1800 CFS Plus runoff water flows are over 2000 CSF, not bad for spring. What is important is that water temperatures are starting to improve. The lower river has had afternoon water temperatures in the low 40° mark. Looks like we are timing our Salmon River fishing about right.

NOTE:

I still have dates available. With the late spring we are experiencing, the month of May is looking like a great month for fishing for steelhead with a swinging fly.  As of now I have these dates open May 3,7,9,11,12,13. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call. Cell 585-233-0436