Salmon River & Pulaski NY daily fishing reports for skamania steelhead, salmon, brown trout, by driftboat guides at Yankee Fly & Tackle Shop, Oswego County, Fly Fishing Stories & Pictures

A last minute call and I was out the door with a small cooler packed with strawberries. I had my fishing license, sweatshirt, polarized sunglasses, and a warm jacket just in case. I didn't even bring my waders because I knew I was just going along for the ride. The weather was perfect with sunshine and warmth. We only had a few hours so we got right to it and launched the boat from the upper section of the river. No one was around until we reached the first pool. There was a guy on our left and a guy on our right. We anchored and let out our rods. Within 30 seconds we had one on....STEELHEAD! Mark grabbed the rod and said, "Here ya go Dawn" and that was that. I fought it while he reminded me to take it easy

because he only had 10 pound test leader on the line. I like to get my fish in fast because the longer I let it stay in the water, the more chances of something going wrong...like the hook coming out or the line breaking, things like that. So I pumed the steelhead like a tarpon and she came in nicely. Thanks to Jimmy for netting her, everything went great and we had 10 minutes of excitement and laughter......ahh...steelhead fishing! This particular steelhead will go to the smoke house and make a nice snack for some of our friends. NYS law allows us to keep one New York steelhead per person. Every once in a while we like to keep one for the smoker. This hen weighed about 10-11 pounds and we guessed that she might have weighed about 13-14 pounds with her eggs. She was able to spawn and this is what we call a "Dropback Steelhead".....one that has spawned and is on it's way back to Lake Ontario. They have to eat on the way back to the lake to get their energy back so she was pretty hungry when we put our bait in front of her face. Too bad for her but good for us and we're grateful to the fish Gods for her...thank you! Later on down the river we pulled over to a nice little spot and there was another angler fishing on the right hand side of us. He was centerpin float fishing, a popular method on the Salmon River in Pulaski NY. He was enjoying himself and his fine cigar and we anchored above him. That's the great thing about a drift boat. We can put it where ever we want and fish the best spots. It was perfect! Jimmy got his centerpin out and had one on within a couple of minutes and Mark got his float rod out and had about 4 or 5 on within about 20 minutes. He lost all of them due to unsharp hooks! Come on Mark...time to use that hookfile...it really does work! Mark did land one small male steelhead and as soon as he held it up to show me so I could snap a picture, it flew out of his hands and fell in the water. Bye bye steelhead, it swam off fast! I think he'll be fine. On down the stream for more action and we came upon another great spot. We saw a bunch of steelhead along the side in the softer water. The flow was about 2500 cfs and if you don't know what that means, well, it's high water for bank anglers and great for drift boat guides and their customers. If you want to learn more about our fishery and what the water levels mean and what "cfs" means, hire us and we'll be happy to teach you what you need to know so you can be a great angler on the Salmon River. Back to the fishing...well, we hooked up a few more times but didn't land our steelhead. The action was great and we got some good footage on my digital camera. Lots of jumping action. My husband John said that a steelhead is like a bird and a bass is like a dog. It's true! Steelhead trout love to jump all around and do lots of acrobatics and that's what makes them so sought after. I'm predicting that the steelhead fishing will continue to be very good as the weeks go by. There are tons of them at the hatchery in the holding tanks and many in the tributaries as well as throughout the Salmon River. Let's hope that the water temperature holds and doesn't heat up too much and it stays at a decent level. If anyone is interested in taking a drift boat trip or a streamside fishing trip with one of our guides, please call us at the shop, 315-298-2466 and I'll be happy to book your trip for you. We still have a few week day trips available and also some weekends left in the first two weeks of May. Then it's trolling the shores of Lake Ontario for brown trout and fishing other small lakes for walleye which opens the third Saturday in May. Right now the crappy and bullhead bite are ON and my brother is filling his freezer full. Over and out and thanks for supporting us because if you don't, we won't be able to give you these reports!