Salmon River
- Thread starter ryguyfi
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SBecker
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4 for 8, two legal, and two foul hooked, 1 chrome. Fourtunately, we have a super fresh and first run of kings in a certain creek. Super duper silvery, just like in the super duper extra fabolous magic unicorn secret creek I fished today. My cousin went 3 for 9 for his first time ever up here. Tomorrow is just going to be stupid. Glad I never have to fish the circus.
krayfish
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Super secret creek over by the Unicom's lair? LOL Like there's a "secret spot" near that circus. Congrats on 2 hooked in the mouth. You've got a way to go to reach the 95% legally hooked number that someone else claimed to be able to do. That trip isn't worth the gas IMO. Enjoy.
The_Sasquatch
Well-known member
Any of them jizz on you, becks? I saw Tim Robinsin's pic on FB w/ that salmon unleashing a load all over his waders....nasty.
evofly
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Fished open water on Thursdayand DSR on Friday. It was mine and my buddies first trip up and to say we were shell shocked on Thursday was an understatement. I sorta knew what to expect from reading everyone's post but, damn! Crowds weren't too bad if you walked, which we did but, as we walked we watched the circus for a little. The way these guys are catching the salmon is just sick. Definitely not what I call fishing. Especially the Russians, holy crap those guys are ruthless in catching them. Most guys had over 12 fish on their stringers and were just ripping hooks through the water.
Plus the amount of trash the circus left on the side of the river was disgusting.
We didnt hook into anything on Thursday. We talked to a bunch of guys at Whittakers (who are a really nice and helpful bunch) on the technique to catching the monsters so come Friday we were feeling confident. From 7-noon were were hammering the salmon in a nice big hole we had all to ourselves. We either were lucky or started to get a feel of the technique but, whatever it was most of the salmon we caught were in the mouth. In fact most of them we could see take the fly! We did get a few foul hooked and played them a little until we broke off or they rolled us into a rock.
After lunch we fished down stream and hooked into a bunch but didn't land any. We hooked a few steelies but, none landed.
Ryguyfli and his group had a hole surrounded and were killing steelies all day! Nice job guys.
Color of the week seemed to be blue egg patterns for salmon and flesh flies (or white wooly buggers) for steelies although guys were saying they were hooking into steelies with blue egg sack patterns as well.
Caught what to head up again but, definitely fishing the DSR again.
Any interested in heading up in November?
Plus the amount of trash the circus left on the side of the river was disgusting.
We didnt hook into anything on Thursday. We talked to a bunch of guys at Whittakers (who are a really nice and helpful bunch) on the technique to catching the monsters so come Friday we were feeling confident. From 7-noon were were hammering the salmon in a nice big hole we had all to ourselves. We either were lucky or started to get a feel of the technique but, whatever it was most of the salmon we caught were in the mouth. In fact most of them we could see take the fly! We did get a few foul hooked and played them a little until we broke off or they rolled us into a rock.
After lunch we fished down stream and hooked into a bunch but didn't land any. We hooked a few steelies but, none landed.
Ryguyfli and his group had a hole surrounded and were killing steelies all day! Nice job guys.
Color of the week seemed to be blue egg patterns for salmon and flesh flies (or white wooly buggers) for steelies although guys were saying they were hooking into steelies with blue egg sack patterns as well.
Caught what to head up again but, definitely fishing the DSR again.
Any interested in heading up in November?
ryguyfi
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I'll give a full detailed report soon. we KILLED them for 2 days in the DSR. Lots of fresh chrome down low. Patterns for us were orange estaz, egg sucking leaches, white, pink and chartreuse zonkers. One of my guys caught a 28" brownie. Only saw one other the whole weekend and it was foul hooked and maybe 16".
p.s. Grindstone sucks!
p.s. Grindstone sucks!
troutwilleatflies
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"Grindstone sucks" I could have told you that,well I think I did in a previous post but not that bluntly.
I was on the UFZ last week of Sept and first week of Oct and played with many,many Kings and a few Coho,but no trout.First week the hot fly was blue estaz but caught a few on others.The second week they wanted darker,subdued color.My hot fly was a conehead black wooly bugger fished in fast water.Had some jolting hits and epic battles.
Looking at trying for some Steel now that the higher water is bringing them in and up river....I hope!
I was on the UFZ last week of Sept and first week of Oct and played with many,many Kings and a few Coho,but no trout.First week the hot fly was blue estaz but caught a few on others.The second week they wanted darker,subdued color.My hot fly was a conehead black wooly bugger fished in fast water.Had some jolting hits and epic battles.
Looking at trying for some Steel now that the higher water is bringing them in and up river....I hope!
SBecker
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You are right, the Grindstone was no good this year, Lucky for me I had other non crowded places to fish.
The stream I fished Friday with a buddy of mine that lives up there, was amazing. Nice size, good water flow, very few guys, and a ton of fresh Chinooks. The stream I hit Saturday, we had found on our own. Another nice sized stream, with good flow and a good amount of fish. This stream did not have as many fresh fish in it. However, it did have cohos and more chrome. Never even had to go near the circus.
Fresh silvery kings, some cohos and a few steelhead were mixed in for me. Chartreuse crystal meth did the trick on the steelhead, they slammed it. Did not see any browns, and only heard of a very few that have been caught. Ry, your buddy was lucky! It was my cousins first time up and he had a blast. I was pumped that he caught a steelhead the first time up.
We talked about shooting out to Oak Orchard on the way home, but decided it was just to far away. Would have liked to try to get the quadfecta for the weekend.
The stream I fished Friday with a buddy of mine that lives up there, was amazing. Nice size, good water flow, very few guys, and a ton of fresh Chinooks. The stream I hit Saturday, we had found on our own. Another nice sized stream, with good flow and a good amount of fish. This stream did not have as many fresh fish in it. However, it did have cohos and more chrome. Never even had to go near the circus.
Fresh silvery kings, some cohos and a few steelhead were mixed in for me. Chartreuse crystal meth did the trick on the steelhead, they slammed it. Did not see any browns, and only heard of a very few that have been caught. Ry, your buddy was lucky! It was my cousins first time up and he had a blast. I was pumped that he caught a steelhead the first time up.
We talked about shooting out to Oak Orchard on the way home, but decided it was just to far away. Would have liked to try to get the quadfecta for the weekend.
PhilC
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You could call DSR and see how many people bought passes...that doesn't indicate how many ppl will show up in the am though. The other times you where here were during the salmon run so it shouldn't be as crazy this time. If the flows stay up this week more fish should spread out into the upper sections and you could find room in the open water..
SBecker
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Andy, think I am heading up with a couple of buds the Sunday before Thanksgiving and staying till Tuesday. We might be taking up Lennys boat and Jake's boat. Will you be up there around the same time? If so, I am sure there will be room for you and I am guessing Brandon to float if you will be up.
krayfish
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Meeting Brandon for his b-day on November 9 & 10. We may float, we may wade...don't know. The one thing I do know is 8 straight hours of dragging beads will suck. Even if I catch 3 twenty pound steelhead, still won't enjoy it. Hopefully it will be 22 for the high and snow so hard that I can't see 10 feet.
ryguyfi
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Well I'm finally getting around to typing this up.
I went to the Salmon River from Nov 11th to the 14th with 10 total guys. I did every ounce of planning and was glad the trip was finally here. It was a 6 hour drive, but felt like nothing. We left at 5am and got there in plenty of time to toss our stuff in our room and get out to fish. Most of the people filtered in throughout the day. A few of us started by fishing a small trib called the Grindstone. We hopped out of the car, excitedly put together our rods and walked to the stream. We walked a ways to only find 1 salmon and after one guy hooked and soon lost him we decided to head to the Salmon River for the rest of the night. We parked on the shoulder of the road with the other 20 cars and walked until we found a nice run to fish. Most of us got into some hookups, but landing fish was tough. I learned my lesson from last year and bought a big net to help bring the fish in. I had a few hookups, including a very aggressive strike on a swung streamer by what I thought was a coho, but nothing to show for it. We walked pretty far downstream and a few of us landed some kings right at nightfall. It was awesome watching the fish pair up and spawn and the feeding frenzy on the eggs ensued. I tried to take the "easier" route back to the car and ended up in some thick brush, eventually putting a hole in my new neoprene waders, and thought for a second I'd not find my way back to the car. So the first day was eventful but fun.
We got everyone back at the rooms at Rainbow Shores Campground and packed it up early for a start on the DSR the next morning with the whole crew. We got there soon after 5am and waited around for them to let us head down to the stream. I'm going to leave out the details, but we had about 3 experiences with the DSR staff that none of us really appreciated. For paying customers we were treated pretty rudely. The other people fishing, and the guides I ran into on Saturday were all very nice, but the staff put a bad taste in our mouth on this trip.
So Friday we decided to head to the Joss hole. It has a nice set of riffles, with a shelf that drops a good 4 feet where the fish stack up. Where the people are lined up on the near side is where the drop off is.
We had all 10 guys on this hole surrounding it from all angles and had a blast just hooking fish after fish. At the beginning of the day we all had the same pattern on (egg sucking leech with an orange bead) and EVERYONE was hooking fish. The pattern changed that they were on to and we all switched it up to get in on the action. This lasted a few hours and started to slow down in the afternoon. I just had the touch this day. I probably hooked 40-50 fish and landed about a dozen. I would step up to a few guys fishing and 4 casts later, with the same fly, I'd be hooked up. Sometimes you have days like this and you never forget it.
My first salmon on the DSR.
One of the larger Kings of the week for me.
This picture is a bit PG-13 (he didn't realize what was going on for the first few pictures I took.
The evening started the bite over and we did pretty well the first day. The steelhead seemed to be up in the faster water at the top of the pool in the riffles, but there were guys up that way. We hooked a few farther down and the chrome up there are just amazing. I've fished Erie, Pa for steelhead for a few years now and the steelhead in the Salmon River put them to shame. We hooked a few in the 12-14lb range, and landed very few of them over our trip. I had one on Saturday that made an instant 70 yard run, I brought it in, and just as we were about to net it, it did another 50 yard run. Absolutely amazing the power these fish had.
We packed it up to get out of the parking lot by 7pm because the DSR locks the gate then for liability issues.
That night we were all whooped and most guys fell asleep early. I tied a few flies (not that I didn't do enough of that to prepare for this trip) to fill a few holes in our boxes and headed to bed.
We split the group in half on Saturday. Half the guys went to open water, and half, including myself, hit the DSR again.
I wanted to get a few kings out of the way early and then focus on some more steelhead. I landed a few kings easily (forgot my camera that day) and headed to the top riffles to catch some steel. I did some dead drifting and swinging and landed a few up top and then decided to stand at the very top of the riffle and use a technique that I have done well on at times. I stand directly upstream of the fish, tie on a streamer and a decent amount of weight, and toss mends from one side of the current to the other to slowly move my fly, in the current, along the strike zone. This produced a few big aggressive strikes and I landed a few steelhead. I then turned the spot and the technique over to a buddy of mine and he hooked up soon afterwards. He fought the fish for a good 10 minutes and we didn't realize until the fish was in the net that it was a big fat 28" brown trout. I only saw 1 other brown the whole trip and it was foul hooked and maybe 16". So we got a pretty special treat in having someone in our group land this fish. (trying to get a picture sent to me)
That evening we had non stop action for the last 2 hours. The sweet spot in the drop off that I call the "gauntlet" was producing a hookup every couple minutes for our group. We were frantically running up and down the stream fighting and netting fish for each other and trying to get back to that spot to hook up again. It was nothing short of amazing. I was in the spot with about 20 minutes to go after I helped net a fish for a friend and next thing I know he's running frantically downstream in 12" deep water after a fish. I figured it was the fish I just landed for him but I turned around (while laughing hysterically) and saw the fish still in the net. He had 2 fish already on a stringer and was putting the 3rd on when the 2 fish pulled the stringer from his hand and swam downstream. He said later he was very close to diving head first in the water after them. We all had a good laugh and hooked a few more fish to end a great day of fishing. We brought a bunch of fish back and it's really no fun walking a mile back to the car with 30 pounds of fish in tow. We made it out of the lot with about 5 minutes to spare and headed to get the fish cleaned. I'm planning on getting most of mine smoked here pretty soon.
Sunday arrived before we knew it and we decided to try our luck on the Grindstone again. 2 guys fished in on Saturday and saw a ton of fish but got kicked off by a property owner. We checked a few maps and found that they were allowed to fish there. So we headed out and got to the stream to find just a few fish. We walked for a while and found a nice deep hole. I tried to walk through and it got deep quick. I went to the top and while walking up stream I kicked my net off of my magnet and it continued to float down stream a bit and then sunk quickly. One guy later said if I got him a fish to take home he'd go in after it. He decided to do that anyway. He said he was skinny dipping but thankfully he just went down to his long underwear.
So that made our day and we saw a rain storm coming in so we decided to call it and head to Erie, Pa to hit the steelhead for a bit. We stopped at the vegetable patch on 20 mile. Not many fish to be seen, but the water was up a bit.
We only stayed about an hour and a half and I landed 1 fish. It made a good run on me, but nothing like the steel in the Salmon River.
I had a fantastic trip and can't wait till the next one.
Ryan
I went to the Salmon River from Nov 11th to the 14th with 10 total guys. I did every ounce of planning and was glad the trip was finally here. It was a 6 hour drive, but felt like nothing. We left at 5am and got there in plenty of time to toss our stuff in our room and get out to fish. Most of the people filtered in throughout the day. A few of us started by fishing a small trib called the Grindstone. We hopped out of the car, excitedly put together our rods and walked to the stream. We walked a ways to only find 1 salmon and after one guy hooked and soon lost him we decided to head to the Salmon River for the rest of the night. We parked on the shoulder of the road with the other 20 cars and walked until we found a nice run to fish. Most of us got into some hookups, but landing fish was tough. I learned my lesson from last year and bought a big net to help bring the fish in. I had a few hookups, including a very aggressive strike on a swung streamer by what I thought was a coho, but nothing to show for it. We walked pretty far downstream and a few of us landed some kings right at nightfall. It was awesome watching the fish pair up and spawn and the feeding frenzy on the eggs ensued. I tried to take the "easier" route back to the car and ended up in some thick brush, eventually putting a hole in my new neoprene waders, and thought for a second I'd not find my way back to the car. So the first day was eventful but fun.
We got everyone back at the rooms at Rainbow Shores Campground and packed it up early for a start on the DSR the next morning with the whole crew. We got there soon after 5am and waited around for them to let us head down to the stream. I'm going to leave out the details, but we had about 3 experiences with the DSR staff that none of us really appreciated. For paying customers we were treated pretty rudely. The other people fishing, and the guides I ran into on Saturday were all very nice, but the staff put a bad taste in our mouth on this trip.
So Friday we decided to head to the Joss hole. It has a nice set of riffles, with a shelf that drops a good 4 feet where the fish stack up. Where the people are lined up on the near side is where the drop off is.
We had all 10 guys on this hole surrounding it from all angles and had a blast just hooking fish after fish. At the beginning of the day we all had the same pattern on (egg sucking leech with an orange bead) and EVERYONE was hooking fish. The pattern changed that they were on to and we all switched it up to get in on the action. This lasted a few hours and started to slow down in the afternoon. I just had the touch this day. I probably hooked 40-50 fish and landed about a dozen. I would step up to a few guys fishing and 4 casts later, with the same fly, I'd be hooked up. Sometimes you have days like this and you never forget it.
My first salmon on the DSR.
One of the larger Kings of the week for me.
This picture is a bit PG-13 (he didn't realize what was going on for the first few pictures I took.
The evening started the bite over and we did pretty well the first day. The steelhead seemed to be up in the faster water at the top of the pool in the riffles, but there were guys up that way. We hooked a few farther down and the chrome up there are just amazing. I've fished Erie, Pa for steelhead for a few years now and the steelhead in the Salmon River put them to shame. We hooked a few in the 12-14lb range, and landed very few of them over our trip. I had one on Saturday that made an instant 70 yard run, I brought it in, and just as we were about to net it, it did another 50 yard run. Absolutely amazing the power these fish had.
We packed it up to get out of the parking lot by 7pm because the DSR locks the gate then for liability issues.
That night we were all whooped and most guys fell asleep early. I tied a few flies (not that I didn't do enough of that to prepare for this trip) to fill a few holes in our boxes and headed to bed.
We split the group in half on Saturday. Half the guys went to open water, and half, including myself, hit the DSR again.
I wanted to get a few kings out of the way early and then focus on some more steelhead. I landed a few kings easily (forgot my camera that day) and headed to the top riffles to catch some steel. I did some dead drifting and swinging and landed a few up top and then decided to stand at the very top of the riffle and use a technique that I have done well on at times. I stand directly upstream of the fish, tie on a streamer and a decent amount of weight, and toss mends from one side of the current to the other to slowly move my fly, in the current, along the strike zone. This produced a few big aggressive strikes and I landed a few steelhead. I then turned the spot and the technique over to a buddy of mine and he hooked up soon afterwards. He fought the fish for a good 10 minutes and we didn't realize until the fish was in the net that it was a big fat 28" brown trout. I only saw 1 other brown the whole trip and it was foul hooked and maybe 16". So we got a pretty special treat in having someone in our group land this fish. (trying to get a picture sent to me)
That evening we had non stop action for the last 2 hours. The sweet spot in the drop off that I call the "gauntlet" was producing a hookup every couple minutes for our group. We were frantically running up and down the stream fighting and netting fish for each other and trying to get back to that spot to hook up again. It was nothing short of amazing. I was in the spot with about 20 minutes to go after I helped net a fish for a friend and next thing I know he's running frantically downstream in 12" deep water after a fish. I figured it was the fish I just landed for him but I turned around (while laughing hysterically) and saw the fish still in the net. He had 2 fish already on a stringer and was putting the 3rd on when the 2 fish pulled the stringer from his hand and swam downstream. He said later he was very close to diving head first in the water after them. We all had a good laugh and hooked a few more fish to end a great day of fishing. We brought a bunch of fish back and it's really no fun walking a mile back to the car with 30 pounds of fish in tow. We made it out of the lot with about 5 minutes to spare and headed to get the fish cleaned. I'm planning on getting most of mine smoked here pretty soon.
Sunday arrived before we knew it and we decided to try our luck on the Grindstone again. 2 guys fished in on Saturday and saw a ton of fish but got kicked off by a property owner. We checked a few maps and found that they were allowed to fish there. So we headed out and got to the stream to find just a few fish. We walked for a while and found a nice deep hole. I tried to walk through and it got deep quick. I went to the top and while walking up stream I kicked my net off of my magnet and it continued to float down stream a bit and then sunk quickly. One guy later said if I got him a fish to take home he'd go in after it. He decided to do that anyway. He said he was skinny dipping but thankfully he just went down to his long underwear.
So that made our day and we saw a rain storm coming in so we decided to call it and head to Erie, Pa to hit the steelhead for a bit. We stopped at the vegetable patch on 20 mile. Not many fish to be seen, but the water was up a bit.
We only stayed about an hour and a half and I landed 1 fish. It made a good run on me, but nothing like the steel in the Salmon River.
I had a fantastic trip and can't wait till the next one.
Ryan
streamerguy
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- May 9, 2011
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Awesome!! Sounds and looks like you guys had a blast.
