Salmon River - Wild Weekend

Thank you Aaron for a great weekend! Sorry for the long post, there is a lot to report. Hope you enjoy the story.

Let's see, where to begin?

Hazardous driving? Check.
Torn waders? Check.
Dead battery? Check.
Broken reel? Check.
Snow, wind, ice? Check.

Steelhead? CHECK!!!!!


What an incredible weekend of fishing. We left after work on Friday to find major lake effect snow North of Syracuse. The roads got slippery fast, but Aaron expertly maneuvered the car, while I held on tight, prayed, and just about sweat through my T-shirt! We arrived in good time, and rigged up for the morning, carrying two rods each, one and two handers.

Up at 430, quick coffee, then the L-O-N-G walk in. About a mile through the snow and wind and cold. Air temperatures were around 20deg. On arrival to the river, I started "casting" the spey rod. Barely five minutes later, right off the rod tip, FISH ON...then off, too much pressure. Guides icing up. Few minutes later, fish on again, and again came right off. I had great difficulty handling the big two handed rod, and the ice on the guides was UNBEARABLE! Difficult to have your first spey experience under those conditions, but I tried, and Aaron patiently taught me the rudiments of the cast. Did I mention that the icy guides were unbearable?

Aaron was routinely casting his spey setup to mid river and well beyond, and honestly catching monster steelhead at will. Fishing was outstanding. I switched to my 9ft 6wt and started hooking up too, and successfully landed a couple soon after. Aaron's advice during the long fights was invaluable.

We found fish just about everywhere we went, more steelhead than browns. A new experience for me was catching a 5+ lb brown trout and being disappointed! Around lunchtime, I heard a gasp and looked upstream to see an ashen-faced Aaron and some cursing. He developed a huge wader tear in a bad spot and the cold 36deg water had rushed in. The tear was the right angle variety about 6in in length. He wanted to stay, but I needed a break anyway, so convinced him to undertake the long walk out. As we were walking out, I think we each caught a couple more.

We accomplished a field repair of the boots at the shop with duct tape and some hot melt glue. It actually held up well enough to get Aaron through the day, and Aquaseal was applied overnight. We fished the afternoon and explored more river, again finding fish in good numbers.

Next morning (Sunday) same scenario, although even colder with the new snow. I didn't even carry the spey, relegating my casting lessons to better conditions. I instead fished with Aaron's 9.5ft 7wt; what a terrific conventional rod.

If you can believe it, Sunday was even better than Saturday, and we hooked and landed many, many more. Overall I would say our landing percentage was about 75%, but we had all manner of failures and lost fish. Aaron had a steelhead grab his fly right off the rod tip and literally yank the rod in half at the ferrule! I had a terrible fly line tip wrap during a fight. I released all pressure from the fish and Aaron untangled it. The fish was still on and we landed it! During the "hero shot" however, the fish squirmed free, oh well. We also had frozen reel failures, a broken reel seat that we repaired by cannabalizing a small screw from my backup reel and I had one especially large steelhead STRAIGHTEN OUT a very strong modern hook! During its run, that fish threw up a wake that would make any jet ski proud!

We quit early on Sunday for the trek home. At the first gas stop, we shut off the engine and gassed up. Turn the key, nothing but a slow turnover, again and again. Dead battery! No jumper cables readily available, so let's try to pop start. While Aaron drove, I pushed, but it was impossible to get traction in the snow and ice on the slight forward incline. I couldn't push it uphill, so we did a pop start in reverse...on the second try, it worked!

A terrific weekend, lots of laughs, some really excellent lessons for me, and a strong desire to go back (and right now!).

Here are some of the many pictures I took, sorry I am too tired to caption them all!

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0456.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0457.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0459.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0462.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0463.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0465.jpg
Aaron caught this same fish downstream two weeks ago!
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0467.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0472.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0475.jpg
The ultimate hero shot...fish not as large as it looks!
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0478.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0479.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0484.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...8/IMG_0486.jpg

DrDaveTheRave --- you will no doubt add the good fish-catching mojo to the spey rod. Good luck!

Great report. Awesome pictures.

I can't wait to get up there. I was going to leave today but it's my Dad's birthday on Tuesday and I want to stay at least three days.

I think I'll head up the week after next for a few days.

That spey rod is tricky even without the ice, great job adjusting.

Have a great Thanksgiving Alain and thank you again for everything you do.

Cheers,

Justin

It was pretty good for sure!

Alain, congrats on breaking the ice and landing your first Steelhead (and a bunch more). Is it addictive or what? And while playing one, anything that can go wrong will, right?

Aaron, was the above post a Freudian slip? I'm guessing the first word was meant to be "It"....

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...onRiver028.jpg
Here is the fish that got scraped up a few weeks ago!

That's a great trip! An adventure to remember.

Great report.

I've never been up there or hooked into a steelhead. Those pictures really makes me think I should make some time in the near future and head up there.

Looks like you had a great first time up there Alain, beautiful fish!

Steve

That sounds like an awesome fishing trip. Although any fishing trip with Aaron is bound to be interesting. I am going up Thursday morning and will be there until Sunday braving the cold & snow I just hope I have as much fish mojo as you guys did. Just bought two new snow tires for the trip.
If you have any hot tips I am all ears.

Dave

Wow!!! You guys did some damage up there. I'm glad you guys had a great trip. So are you addicted now Al?