Salmon River questions

[Inishmore3]

Hello,

I haven't seen any reports from the Salmon River from the board. I assume nobody has gone as of yet? The last time I checked the Salmon River Sport Shop site it was an old report. Also, does anyone know if the Fish On Motel is still in business?

Thank you

[Mikey topaz]

Any day now they are are gonna start pushin in the river. Theres a handful of fish in the river but by no means any run. As far as the fish on motel i believe they are, any day fellas!!!

[gwl2oneida]

The estuary has some action. From what I hear it will be a slower season than usual due to flooding a few years back at a crucial time. These fish come back in on a 4 year cycle. The oswego river has an early morning bite as well. The Drift boat guides started their seasons over there this week.

[kmaty]

What he said^ that's the word from all the guides however there's fish in estuary and some mid section and Oswego but overall slow right now rained this morning good but the water droped another ft but still predicting 35o for tomorrow but time will tell

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by Inishmore3

Hello,

I haven't seen any reports from the Salmon River from the board. I assume nobody has gone as of yet? The last time I checked the Salmon River Sport Shop site it was an old report. Also, does anyone know if the Fish On Motel is still in business?

Thank you

Basically almost nothing happening yet. The occasional small pod of fish coming in, (and I mean small!) none of the usual Sept coho runs yet, and it's still early for any large runs of kings.
Here's the motel site... http://www.fishonmotel.com/

[Rickhem]

Originally Posted by Inishmore3

Hello,

I haven't seen any reports from the Salmon River from the board. I assume nobody has gone as of yet? The last time I checked the Salmon River Sport Shop site it was an old report. Also, does anyone know if the Fish On Motel is still in business?

Thank you

I took the drive up this past Saturday, 9-13-14. There were a lot of people fishing, but nowhere near what will be there in a couple weeks. I fished the black hole, the staircase, the stretch of river behind the Haldane Ice Rink, Pineville, and even went up to Altmar. I did not see a single bent rod. Only saw two fish on stringers. I think that I only saw 3 or 4 fish doing their jumping thing all day. Talked to a few driftboats as they went by and they said that there isnt anything there yet. My own experience supported that, so I believed them. I check the reports and even the DSR reports only say a couple fish a day being caught. Looks like the early run we had last year was a fluke, and it will be late September and into October for the big numbers this year.

If I hear of anything changing, I'll post it.

[njflyfisher]

Originally Posted by gwl2oneida

The estuary has some action. From what I hear it will be a slower season than usual due to flooding a few years back at a crucial time. These fish come back in on a 4 year cycle. The oswego river has an early morning bite as well. The Drift boat guides started their seasons over there this week.

The flood of 2010 doesn't have anything to do with the fish not showing up and a slower season. Seining sowed that there was more wild fish in the river than usuall.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/lorpt11.pdf

^^^ here's what i have found. There's alot of reading but you guys can skim throught it.

Looked at the pdf but it's rather lengthy. Would anyone care to paraphrase what they're hearing or have read about the upcoming season. I've heard less salmon but better steel head, meaning larger fish. Not sure what happened in '10 but I do remember a year when there was absolutely no water flow and most of the salmon never made it to the hatchery and spawned out in the lower river. Not sure if that was '10 or what year. Was '10 the year they had issues with the dam and had 25,000 cfs and the river damn near flooded the town and everything else. Personally I'm less concerned about the salmon run although it's important to the overall economy up there so in that sense I hope it's decent. If that's not what they're expecting, can someone post what they're attributing that to and what you're hearing about the steel head / brown trout class.

Thanks

Dakota

[njflyfisher]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Looked at the pdf but it's rather lengthy. Would anyone care to paraphrase what they're hearing or have read about the upcoming season. I've heard less salmon but better steel head, meaning larger fish. Not sure what happened in '10 but I do remember a year when there was absolutely no water flow and most of the salmon never made it to the hatchery and spawned out in the lower river. Not sure if that was '10 or what year. Was '10 the year they had issues with the dam and had 25,000 cfs and the river damn near flooded the town and everything else. Personally I'm less concerned about the salmon run although it's important to the overall economy up there so in that sense I hope it's decent. If that's not what they're expecting, can someone post what they're attributing that to and what you're hearing about the steel head / brown trout class.

Thanks

Dakota

Your on point with the better and bigger stealhead fishing. Fall of '10 was the year of the big flood. Alot of guy's iv'e talked to said it washed the eggs out of the river. Salmon usually would be in by now on a normal schedule. Last couple years we've seen very early runs. This year is about 2 week off schedule (just guestimating). Only time will reveal if there's going to be a good run or not. Day by day there stacking up in the estuary. They just need that one push and it will be a salmon river circus. Good luck to everyone.

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by njflyfisher

Your on point with the better and bigger stealhead fishing. Fall of '10 was the year of the big flood. Alot of guy's iv'e talked to said it washed the eggs out of the river. Salmon usually would be in by now on a normal schedule. Last couple years we've seen very early runs. This year is about 2 week off schedule (just guestimating). Only time will reveal if there's going to be a good run or not. Day by day there stacking up in the estuary. They just need that one push and it will be a salmon river circus. Good luck to everyone.

The flood came and went well before the kings spawned in '10. In fact the higher flows in both SR tribs and other L.O. tribs contributed to better than average natural reproduction that year, as evidenced by the the DEC spring 2011 seine net surveys on the SR for young-of-year salmon. What runs eventually transpire of course remain to be seen, but if the reports off of the lake this year are any indication it may well be a poor year for salmon in both size and numbers.
Things definitely are about 2 weeks behind a 'normal' year, and well behind what we've had the past several years. Last year in particular was just unbelievable with the later and long lasting runs of coho! Without question the best early Oct coho fishing I've had in over 3 decades fishing up there! They're usually upriver and done by then. As for this year, if it turns into a banner steely year I sure as hell won't complain!