Salmon Fishing

[3wt7X]

Salmon River Update: September 29, 2020:

Just a quick update on the conditions in the event anyone is planning on making a Salmon River Run. I took a group up September 27-29th. Conditions were as low as I have ever seen it. Flows stuck at 185 cfs for over a month now. Good news, it was raining when we left and more rain is in the forecast for the coming week.

I took a different approach to this trip, mostly in response to Tigereye's advice. We did not spend all day scouting around for a spot. We did afternoon passes at the DSR and took our time and relaxed during the morning. It was only a two day trip, so we arrived at Fat Nancy's at 2pm, Sunday, then were on the water after 3. Crowds were spread out and many folks were walking out with full stringers. It was a great experience with plenty of targets and folks were spaced out, relaxed and having fun. I went 3 for 8 on the first night, and broke the 40 inch mark for the first time on a fly rod. The fish weighed in at 23 pounds. The fish were taking buggers and the key was to use as little split shot as possible. The folks who were clunking weight in the hole were having a hard time. I was using one No. 1 shot. I was unable to see the fish I was presenting to, aside from when one would porpoise, but I had two takes as my fly was dangling directly below me as I was waiting to cast.

The second day was more of the same only there were a lot more fish. As it got closer to dark, it became very difficult to get a decent presentation without fouling a fish. There were just too many stacked in the slot and more pushing up through (Not a bad problem to have). I found a vertical approach helped a lot and I landed a few more including another 20 lber. Fun trip, I hope this helps if someone is planning a trip. Thank you again to Tigereye for the info, prior to the trip.

 

[Dave_W]

Awesome Josh!
And some very nice pics.

 

[drakeking412]

Thanks for the report, sounds like a good time

 

[Fabfab0811]

ok to just add this..i to fished dsr sept 27 and 28

water was low. pools were all crowded

the drs river walkers are all new and young , not very friendly like the old timers.

i have been fishing SR since 1995. this is the second lowest i have seen the river.

The top 2/3ds of the river has less anglers but even less fish,

i did do extremely well sunday. i was able to find an area of white water 4 by 6 feet about 4 feet deep . it was shallow and wide above and below me for hundreds of yards so the fish were driven in and when they went to leave got pushed back down.

as mentioned above not really fishing. i was running 12 lbs fluor with egg patterns through that holding water. i would say their was 5 to 40 fish packed in the area till 1 on sunday and 1130 on monday. little movement after that in the upper dsr. i used 2 # 4 shots as weight. the fish hooked themselves when the line ran into them or when 1 ran into the hook moving to get away for another fish trying to get away from the line. was difficult to swing or get a decent drift because the fish were not sitting in areas that were conducive to such methods. saw a few small coho and a couple small browns. heard of 1 steelhead.



the low water and sun and crowds did have them very line shy.

salmon did lose its flare with me . i may go back with family one Saturday late sept next year to dsr if they dont increase prices again.

waiting on rain so i can head out to the elk for some chrome that activity feed. have fished the oak area several times. was nice in very high water. very difficult in low water.

 

[Millsertime]

3wt7x.....Did you only fish DSR?

I see Pineville USGS went up a few cfs last night but not much. I'm guessing they didn't get as much rain as eastern PA got.

 

[3wt7X]

We did a little hiking/fishing around Sportsman Pool on Monday. There were definitely fish there, but they were behaving strange. They were not holding in any sort of lane, rather they were swimming around in circles. Nearly impossible to present anything to them. With the low water, I would imagine the gauntlet they ran to get to that point probably had an effect on there behavior. We only put in about an hour or two before eating and taking a 2 hour nap.

Other than that, we stuck to the DSR.

 

[tjsingle]

3wt7X wrote:
We did a little hiking/fishing around Sportsman Pool on Monday. There were definitely fish there, but they were behaving strange. They were not holding in any sort of lane, rather they were swimming around in circles. Nearly impossible to present anything to them. With the low water, I would imagine the gauntlet they ran to get to that point probably had an effect on there behavior. We only put in about an hour or two before eating and taking a 2 hour nap.

Other than that, we stuck to the DSR.

I was up there from last Friday to Tuesday. I agree with strange fish behavior, we fished below the 2A Bridge and saw a school of Coho's swimming around in circles in a pool above a riffle. Of course, the low water and constant pressure made them spooky. We had most of our luck in the fast water, avoiding the shoulder to shoulder.

The typical holes are crowded with people from Sportsman Hole down, way more than usual. Upstream of there, there is less pressure and little to no fish from what we saw. I think with the rain and cooler temps this week the real run of fish should pick up soon.

Friday, my buddy and I scouted Pineville and saw maybe 1 fish. Saturday between the five of us we landed one King. Sunday we fished the DSR, and all had success all King Salmon and one brown. Monday the morning seemed promising with fish movement below 2A and a couple of hookups, but only one landed. Tuesday we tried Oswego on the way home, and it was very slow.

Sunday on the DSR was very good, some of the best salmon fishing I've had in the last 4 years of going regardless of the low water and unseasonably warm temperatures. Figures that there is now rain in the forecast and cooler temps this week and the following weekend as soon as we leave....

While we may not have gotten a ton of fish, we definitely had a good time and it was good to get away.

 

[Tigereye]

3wt7x

Only too happy to help.

Fish were as spooky as I ever saw them. I am sure you discovered that right away.

Glad you had a good time and were successful.

 

[kobalt335]

I'm heading up columbus day and fishing during the week. Im thinking of heading over to Oswego and checking it out, I've never been there before. Any suggestions are where to park and fish? Didnt find too much online.

 

[tjsingle]

kobalt335 wrote:
I'm heading up columbus day and fishing during the week. Im thinking of heading over to Oswego and checking it out, I've never been there before. Any suggestions are where to park and fish? Didnt find too much online.

Kobalt,

We stopped by Oswego the other day on the way home. You can either park at the City fish cleaning station next to the post office,

Fish Cleaning Station Lot


or there is a lot up there street near the Brookfield Power Plant.

Lot next to Plant

We saw a lot of fisherman parked there, we parked next to the cleaning station.

Please note you need a life jacket to fish Oswego. There are loaners along the handrails adjacent to the river and up by the fish cleaning station.

 

[laurelrun]

Took two trips to the Salmon river this year (so far). It may be the biggest highlight of 2020 for me. Our late September trip was a hot weekend in the 80s with low water as described above. The fish did not care. I began the trip with a Steelhead of about 22", followed it up with a 30" monster of a brown trout who had nosed up beside a pod of coho, and then a full afternoon of tremendous action with coho and kings. Two more days followed that were lights out fishing with mostly big, angry male kings. We took fish from regular holes and from pocket water. It was so good, in fact, that we took another run up for a daytrip last week and absolutely hammered fish all day. Between two of us, we hooked 10 brown and steelhead trout and landed over a dozen big kings, including one brute of a male well over 25 lbs. These two trips, three weeks apart were full of fresh, angry, biters that took dead drifted egg flies, stoneflies, comets, and buggers.