Catherine creek and the Salmon River

Took a little over night New York trip this past couple days and fishe dCatherine Creek and the Salmon River. CC is supposed to have a great Seneca Lake rainbow run but we encountered low flows and lots of suckers. We fished our butts off for seven hours and managed just three trout. One was a nice 17 inch silver fish. The other two were wild rainbows with their parr marks still visible. Beautiful specimens but not the big rainbows heard about. We must have just hit a bad day. I've heard a lot of good things about that run.
The next day we went to the Salmon river. It was cruising along at 1800 cfs, which is apparently low for this time of year. It did not look low and the fishing was tough. I'm ashamed to admit we got skunked despite some hard effort. We fished both fly stretches and all types of water with all types of flies. The only nice thing was I got to use my new TFO Lefty Pro Series 10' 7 weight. It was a pleasure to use. What a great rod and every time I remembered it was only $189 it felt even better. These rods are great values.

Anyone can take a skunk on the Salmon, don't feel bad at all. 1,800cfs is NOT a low flow(although it may be lower than average for right now), but Spring flows do tend to be very high sometimes. Most guys like the flow to be in the 285-750cfs range, but it can fish quite well at much higher flows than that if you know how to adapt to it- it is a matter of part common sense, and part time spent on the river. It is fishable at 1,800cfs, just stick to the edges and side channels. Sometimes the smaller creeks in that area fish much better than the Salmon- North Sandy, South Sandy, Little Sandy, Grindstone, Orwell, etc.- it all depends on water levels & clarity. High water brings them into the smaller streams, but it can also blow them out and make them unfishable and muddy. Dropping and clearing is the best condition of all. Don't overlook the Oswego, I've done well there in the Spring, and it is fly fishable on the edges in spots, even in very high flows. The Salmon will typically hold drop-back Steel until mid to late May most years, and they are eating avidly by then, having completed spawning. Peak drop-back fishing is usually late April to early May.

Thank you for the info. I know the fish were there, it was just hard to keep the offerings in the strike zone for very long with all that current. It takes a long time to cover water thoroughly in that high water and wading was tenuous. I will be up there again as soon as possible.

I get skunked more often than not on the SR. As for Grindstone creek, Thats a tough creek to fish with a 9' rod a 10' er will be a real pain in the @$$! I have heard a lot of good things about fishing the Sandys though I have never fished them. Im gonna roll the dice and put off the dropback fishing for another two weeks and stay close to home and hit the small creeks for brookies.

After the humbling SR, I could go for some willing brookies!

if you want to catch lots of hungry brookies hit the gorge!!! lots of willing participants there. you can also pm me and i can tell you of some great streams in the poconos to hit.

While it is a "bastardized" form of fly fishing, a running line makes it MUCH easier to get down to the fish in the Salmon River, esp. when the flow is up. It also goes by the name, "chuck 'n duck"- are you familiar with this set up? You rig up with a thin running line (which is about the equivalent of a level 2 weight line, give or take), with 6-15 foot long leader (usually a couple feet 15# red Amnesia at the butt, then 4-10 feet of 0x), and a small black barrel swivel with 18-30" of flouro tippet on the end (usually 1x-4x, with 2-3x a good average- use heavier tippet in low light, murky water, faster water, and on "fresher" fish). Put however much split shot is necessary above the swivel- I've used as many as five #5 Water Gremlin lead shot to get down in really fast runs. You actually strip the line in short, and flip it out, using the weight of the shot to pull the thin running line thru the guides, and then you bottom bounce like you would with a spin rod. Throw up and across (further upstream in faster water, more across in slower), and follow the drift with your rod, feel for the take and also look for the red Amnesia leader butt to twitch. DO NOT be tempted to run a long distance between your weight and your fly- you will end up lining & foul hooking fish, and there is a 4 foot legal max between the weight and fly anyways. 4 feet is way too far- long leaders are an unethical lining technique. The only reason I start at 30" is to allow for fly changes and break offs. There is no more effective method to get your fly down and keep it down in heavy flows than this. Indicators & shot with a regular floating line work great in many situations, but there is a limit to how fast and deep you can fish like that. This method is at it's best in water that cannot easily be indicator fished.

That is some great info on that method. i was vaguely familiar with it but had never tried it or actually seen it used. i know that many use it when fishing for steelhead and it's a pretty effective method of getting down in strong flows. I'm pretty sure I heard some people discussing that it may possibly be dissallowed in the fly only stretches of the SR in the near future, or at least that was being considered. the consensous being that using only running line was not "true" fly fishing or chuck and duck "true" casting.

if they changed the regs in the fly zones we would have more fish. the fish go up there to winter and they are constantly getting lined, snagged and then photographed. i have seen many fish swimming in circles when fishing the wire hole. this is because the fish is taken out of the water for a long time and their eyes freeze. also foul hooking the stellhead in the winter when there is no food for them scars them up and sometimes the scars get infected and causes the fish to die. i think the reg changes will be a good thing. it will make people "fish" for the steelhead. the four foot leader law combined with a one fish limit is already vastly improving this great resource. we have a great thing so close to home and we should be doing all that we can to protect it.

I agree 100 percent with everything you said. I certainly hope that those new regs go through as well. I can only imagine the protest to come from those that believe they are entitled to catch fish.