Jay Peck's Blog

It may not look at but spring is coming. The steelhead fishing is gaining momentum quickly, despite the cold and the snow. Starting with Western New York, Oak Orchard River and the surrounding creeks. Water flows have dropped off over the past week in the Oak. Despite the low clear water flows there is a few fish still hanging around. Water temperatures are at winter conditions temps, Fluctuating somewhere between 32 and 34 Degrees.

These fish have been hanging around for a little bit and as result they are a little touchy. We need to fish to these fish very carefully using good presentation and smaller egg patterns. Once we get some warmer weather and a little snowmelt, Water flows will increase and the pace of the fishing on oak Orchard will quickly improve. As always, from this point on water flow fluctuations is going to be the main contributing factor to the quality of fishing. As for the surrounding creeks, water flows have been fluctuating a little bit more. As a result there is a decent number of fish in the system but they are widely scattered throughout. You’ll need to cover a lot of water to find a few fish. For now concentrate your efforts the pools and any deep pocket that you cannot see to the bottom.

The Salmon River has been fishing consistently good, over the past couple of weeks. As of now water flows are at 750 CFS release from the dam. There is some runoff mixed in with the flow, however water flows are at a very comfortable fishing level. Water temperatures remain cold, fluctuating between 32 to 36 degrees. I anticipate these conditions holding into this coming week. As always a lower section of the river fishes completely different than the upper section of the river. Starting with the lower portion of the Salmon River, steelheads are spread out through this section of the river. You’ll need to fish fast and cover as much water as possible. Concentrate your efforts in the main pools, Focusing on the inside soft water, classic winter water. Even though fish numbers are not as high in this portion of the river, they generally are more willing to take a fly. The upper river, this is where the majority of the fish are. Also the majority of the fishing pressure is located.  Normally the steelheads in this section of river are considerably more difficult to catch. However at this time, the winter stoneflies are hatching. This stonefly hatch will get the steelhead eating.  The stonefly hatch will be going for the next 3 to 4 weeks in the upper river. As you can imagine size 10 and 8 Stone fly nymphs in colors dark olive and black are going to be the flies to fish. I suspect this pattern is going to continue until either water flows increased due to Snow runoff, Or water temperatures rise into the low 40 degrees and trigger spawning activities.

Note;

We still have plenty of time available for March and in to May. Please feel free to give me a call so we can discuss your options for the Springs steelhead fishing cell 585-233-0436