Jay Peck's Blog

This past week has been a hot one when it comes to the weather. We had air temperatures that were well in excess of 80° every day. The hottest driest weather that we’ve had all year, enough to remind me why I’m not a big fan of summer weather. The hot temperatures were definitely negatively affecting the fishing with all this heat. The last few day’s this past week, we had water temperatures in the lower river excess of 70°. Salmon being what they are, will do what they do. The salmon continued to trickle into the river system despite the warm water temperatures. However it did affect both how they moved to the fly and there performance when hooked. We head to significantly slowdown our swing speed and the type of water we were fishing. Our best action came from to heads of the pools and pocket water located in faster river currents. The reason for this is, this type of water will have more oxygen due to the physical education from the River currents.

Our friend and guide Rick Smith, spend some time floating the upper river Rick and is groups reported seen impressive amounts of salmon throughout their float, and the salmon willingness to eat a fly.  This included the lower fly zone where they started there fishing day. It is definitely enjoyable to report there’s plenty of salmon throughout the Salmon River, especially after experiencing a couple lean years. This coming week I am anticipating a sharp increase in the pace of the fishing. The last week of September first week of October, we traditionally see some of our largest runs of salmon, prime time. Also we finally get a break in the weather. Air temperatures are supposed to be  over 20° cooler from this point on. This will bring water temperatures back down to ideal temperatures for the salmon. Also there is some rain in the upcoming forecast, which never hurts.

Production flies; The old stand buys such as Wooly burgers in black and olive, sizes 4 and 6 are doing very well. I have also had a few occasions where the add stuff performs very well. So for flies, do not hesitate to do the try it and see what happens game.  I have been fishing the lower River and have not noticed any spawning activity yet. However there could be some happening in the upper river, fly fishing zones. Once spawning activity starts, egg patterns will become a very productive fly, the best color when spawning first start is orange. 

Note:

I still have a few prime days available for mid to late October. These dates are steelhead fishing. The fish are fresh from the lake in full of flight. October steelheads are some of the hottest Fish of the entire tributary season. I also have also have dates available for Rick, October and November. For those of you do not know Rick Smith, He has been working with me for over 10 years and is an excellent fly fisherman and  Guide. I have no doubt you will enjoy your day on the water with him.

If you’re interested or have any questions please feel free to give me a call. Cell 585-233-0436