Jay Peck's Blog

Going into this week this is going to be an interesting one. It is time to get on the water and get steelhead fishing. It is now happening, Time to use all those flies we have been tying all winter long.

Starting with Western New York the Oak Orchard River and local creeks. Water flows in all the rivers and creeks are at a medium to a medium high flow, As of now. There is some rain in the forecast, water flows may be subject to change. Water temperatures are in the mid too low 40° range. There is steelhead still sitting in winter holding water, along with a few fish starting to spawn. At this stage we need to a bit of hunting to find fish however there appears to be a fair amount of fish around. The issue is steelhead are spread it out and can be found just about anywhere along the river. Productive flies, we’ve had the best luck with big willy buggers, leech patterns and egg flies. Along with the flies keep in mind we are fishing with a lot of persistence, Water is heavily stained and the fish are spread out. You need to cover water.

The Salmon River this past week we did receive a lot of rain, almost 2 inches of the stuff. Water flows in all of the surrounding smaller rivers and creeks were over their banks. The Salmon River, with a dam release of 1700 CFS, head over 1000 CFS in runoff, for a total of 2700 CFS at the Pineville gauge. Water flows have since come down and should be into ideal fishing condition early this week. I do suspect the 1700 CFS release to continue for some time. Typical for this time of the year, we’ll need to constantly monitor water flows. Water temperatures continue to hold around 36°. The water temperature is slowly improving, however the fishing is way ahead of schedule. The fishing has been a Little crabby lately, We’ve had to work hard for our bites. This is nothing new, my experience seems to be when the fish get close to spawning they get a little grouchy. This past week I did not notice a particular pattern to the flies. Once again I contribute our success to persistence. For productive flies; the obvious stoneflies nymphs in size 12 to 10, For the swing, small intruders around two and a half to 3 and half inches long is getting the job done. Keep in mind with high water flows try fishing intruders around 4 to 6 inches long. Sometimes you need to put a big target out for them.

Note;

A reminder, myself and our friend, Rick Smith still have prime dates for spring steelhead fishing, for both March and April.  Feel free to give me a call to discuss dates and fishing opportunities. Cell 585-233-0436