Salmon River

I spent the last three days on the Salmon River in Pulaski New York.  There is so much to love about this river and at the same time you can find a lot that is a bit too gritty.

The history is just amazing as the namesake of the Salmon River is the mighty Atlantic Salmon.  At one time this was a very productive fishery with great quantities of Salmon being netted for commercial value.  The fish never went beyond the boundaries of Lake Ontario.  At some point, Alewives were allowed introduction to the Great Lakes.  The Alewives have thiaminase, that when eaten adult female fish, cause the newly hatched Salmon to have a high mortality rate.  It is recorded that thousands of fish were taken in single nights in the pools close to the town of Pulaski.  Today the Atlantic Salmon is making a comeback from eggs from the Penobscot River in Maine.  Fish as large as sixteen pounds have be angled and the runs are getting larger.

I have fished this gem from the past a number of times.  Mostly during the winter floating from pool to pool by drift boat and bottom bouncing with  nymphs and egg imitations.  On this occasion we went to give a go at winter swinging with two hand rods, larger marabou and bunny leach style files and foot warmers in our boots.

As conditions were not very good, we suffered the fate of winter and did not land a fish.  A few takes and one decent fish I had on for about thirty seconds until my barb free hook fell out.

We found fishing pressure to be light for the most part.  I did see a number of fish taken by the spin boys and center pins bottoming egg sacks down through Schoolhouse Pool in Altmar.

In March we will fish the creeks and then in April, as the fish are making their way back to the lake, it will be back to the Salmon.  This becomes a much better time to swing as the water temperatures start to raise and the fish get more active.

William

If you have any questions about the Salmon River please send an E-mail to flyspoke@gmail.com

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