Jay Peck's Blog

When it comes to spring steelhead season, I have always said conditions can and do change quickly. This past week was most definitely the case. We had heavy rains, Cold weather, rising water, all sorts of changeable conditions. Starting with western New York; water flows finally come down, At least for now in all of our creeks and rivers. However watercolor remains muddy to heavily stain.  Water temperatures are the bright spot here, water temperatures hovering in the low to mid 40s. This is ideal temperature for the steelhead to spawn. Due to the poor water clarity, spotting fish this past week has been challenging. However site fishing is definitely doable if you know what clues to look for. Productive flies; Time to have fun, all the fun stuff that’s been sitting in our box, It is time to fish it. We have and head an excellent success with small intruders, large leech patterns, willy buggers, egg sucking leech. Because of the off colored water, colors of browns and olives are not that productive. These two colors get lost in the dirty water.

The Salmon River, run off has hit the river in a big way. Water flows is over 3000 CFS at this time of writing this up date. I do not think this big water flow will last long. This is normal for the Salmon River at this time of the spring, to have waterfalls like this. Ones the water comes down the water temps will go up and the fishing will pick up fast.  For now the creeks and smaller surrounding rivers are starting to fish. Hear too you need to move around to find good fishing conditions. Fishing conditions along these surrounding rivers and creeks can vary widely from one location to another. Productive flies; we have and head excellent success with small intruders, large leech patterns, willy buggers, egg sucking leech.

NOTE:

I still have dates available. On the Oak Orchard April,16,17 we will be fishing for steelhead and we will have ideal conditions for sight fishing. 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 7,9,11,12,13. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call. Cell 585-233-0436