BrownChickenBrownTrout
New member
I'll be up Saturday and Sunday.
Give us a try!
Welcome back to the new NEFF. Take a break from Twitter and Facebook. You don't go to Dicks for your fly fishing gear, you go to your local fly fishing store. Enjoy!
Salmon River Report 2012
- Thread starter LyNcH
- Start date
flyI4
Fishizzle, I use worms but I'm looking to upgrade!
Got out from Wed-saturday, with holiday plans and the weather everyone got caught up with stuff and I ended up driving up solo. Driving up from Jersey I stopped at Ramsey Outdoors to get some gear, came out 25 minutes later and it was snowing hard, made for a truly scary 9 and 1/2 hour drive up to pulaski and saw atleast 25 cars leave the road during the drive. I was having flash backs of my totaled drift boat and the ole green machine on the side of the road along with the other 27 cars that day, but this time I took the bull by the horns and made it no problemo.
1st day fishing was very good upriver. I figured with cold temps and middle of the week a good strategy would be to get some fish under my belt in the fly zone(literally not another angler there til 9am that day) and before noon I was happy with 6 fish or so landed, mostly good sized and some fairly fresh fish.
Once I got some fish under my belt I started roaming down river. I was very surprised by the amount of fresh fish coming into the river and had some great action hiking in a few sections. I attached some pictures below, and for those who have a negative "combat fishing" impression of the salmon river these pictures will show you what fishing can be like in the winter if you do some walking. Had a beautiful day and a half seeing a handful of anglers the whole time, and having entire runs to myself with a few boats passing through in the afternoon. Overall, numbers were good over 3 days with probably 15 fish landed, some nice fish in the mix, and a good amount of hookups beyond that which turned bad because of frozen reels,guides,ect.
Fly wise, the fish were really keyed into the nymphs on this trip, and by nymphs I mean no flash, purely natural trout nymphs in size 10-14. HE nymphs were especially killing it. Furthermore, not only was I hooking up, but they were straight up inhaling these flies with most flies being stuck deep down in the top of the mouth, which rarely happens, usually the fly is in the side or right in the top of the nose(which can raise questions of Did the fish actually eat it?). Here there was no question, legit takes and some really good looking fish.
Method wise, I decided to take the indy off this trip and nymph by feel/ sighter in the leader style. It made a huge difference. I like fishing with the indy and during the fall early winter when the fish are in the fast water it doesnt really hurt you with hookups, but now the fish are transitioning to the deeper, slower water, and its not always easy to get the indy tuned in right with weight ect. On this trip I fished a very long 15 foot leader, tied in neon sighters, and fished very little amounts of weight about 14'' above the fly. It was very sensitive and you could feel the takes as well as see the sighter react. Not sure I'll be able to totally ditch the indy when fishing suits that style, but I'll definitely be going with this non indy high sticking style of nymphing more often up there. Walking out one afternoon I was actually contemplating what style is best for up there and at this point feel there really isnt a best stye...I think being a consistently successful fisherman requires one to rotate through a variety of methods depending on water type and conditions to find what is best for that particular day at that particular piece of water. Adjustments are key, which most don't make or dont want to waste time experimenting with on the water resulting in most anglers that simply stick with the good ole 4ft leader weight at the top of a swivel with an indy 10 ft up or just an ordinary bottom bouncing rig. I also found changing flies very frequently can help trigger strikes more frequently. Every 5-10 minutes I change the fly and more often than not the first 5 casts with a new fly is when you get your strike
Finally, I stayed at the old "Brenda's Motel" ,but a new guy Mike has taken it over and its now called Mid River Hotel. He's a super nice guy and was a nice change of pace from Brenda who might be the ugliest and meanest person I've ever met combined in 1 human body. I recommend giving him a call if you head up, he really cleaned the place up with no more nasty smell in the rooms, still cheap at 27 bucks a night, and a good guy worth supporting with your business up there.
Me grabbing life by the balls and fighting through the storm
Nice 10-12lb fairly fresh steelie I got into down river, beautiful fish that fought hard and no one around.
Last chromer of the trip----a nice fish that rewarded me for for hiking in some pretty deep snow below 2A
1st day fishing was very good upriver. I figured with cold temps and middle of the week a good strategy would be to get some fish under my belt in the fly zone(literally not another angler there til 9am that day) and before noon I was happy with 6 fish or so landed, mostly good sized and some fairly fresh fish.
Once I got some fish under my belt I started roaming down river. I was very surprised by the amount of fresh fish coming into the river and had some great action hiking in a few sections. I attached some pictures below, and for those who have a negative "combat fishing" impression of the salmon river these pictures will show you what fishing can be like in the winter if you do some walking. Had a beautiful day and a half seeing a handful of anglers the whole time, and having entire runs to myself with a few boats passing through in the afternoon. Overall, numbers were good over 3 days with probably 15 fish landed, some nice fish in the mix, and a good amount of hookups beyond that which turned bad because of frozen reels,guides,ect.
Fly wise, the fish were really keyed into the nymphs on this trip, and by nymphs I mean no flash, purely natural trout nymphs in size 10-14. HE nymphs were especially killing it. Furthermore, not only was I hooking up, but they were straight up inhaling these flies with most flies being stuck deep down in the top of the mouth, which rarely happens, usually the fly is in the side or right in the top of the nose(which can raise questions of Did the fish actually eat it?). Here there was no question, legit takes and some really good looking fish.
Method wise, I decided to take the indy off this trip and nymph by feel/ sighter in the leader style. It made a huge difference. I like fishing with the indy and during the fall early winter when the fish are in the fast water it doesnt really hurt you with hookups, but now the fish are transitioning to the deeper, slower water, and its not always easy to get the indy tuned in right with weight ect. On this trip I fished a very long 15 foot leader, tied in neon sighters, and fished very little amounts of weight about 14'' above the fly. It was very sensitive and you could feel the takes as well as see the sighter react. Not sure I'll be able to totally ditch the indy when fishing suits that style, but I'll definitely be going with this non indy high sticking style of nymphing more often up there. Walking out one afternoon I was actually contemplating what style is best for up there and at this point feel there really isnt a best stye...I think being a consistently successful fisherman requires one to rotate through a variety of methods depending on water type and conditions to find what is best for that particular day at that particular piece of water. Adjustments are key, which most don't make or dont want to waste time experimenting with on the water resulting in most anglers that simply stick with the good ole 4ft leader weight at the top of a swivel with an indy 10 ft up or just an ordinary bottom bouncing rig. I also found changing flies very frequently can help trigger strikes more frequently. Every 5-10 minutes I change the fly and more often than not the first 5 casts with a new fly is when you get your strike
Finally, I stayed at the old "Brenda's Motel" ,but a new guy Mike has taken it over and its now called Mid River Hotel. He's a super nice guy and was a nice change of pace from Brenda who might be the ugliest and meanest person I've ever met combined in 1 human body. I recommend giving him a call if you head up, he really cleaned the place up with no more nasty smell in the rooms, still cheap at 27 bucks a night, and a good guy worth supporting with your business up there.
Me grabbing life by the balls and fighting through the storm
Nice 10-12lb fairly fresh steelie I got into down river, beautiful fish that fought hard and no one around.
Last chromer of the trip----a nice fish that rewarded me for for hiking in some pretty deep snow below 2A
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cntrpin_head
New member
Glad to hear you had a good trip. I almost left on Wednesday myself but a friend backed out and didnt want to make the trip myself while towing my boat. I am glad i didnt this time as a 9 1/2 hr trip is brutal, ive done it before.
flyI4
Fishizzle, I use worms but I'm looking to upgrade!
yeah towing the boat is a tough call this time of year...got stuck in a bad storm last year and had my boat totaled, so decided its best to not take the boat up past mid-late november. Going to ask a few people next year if I can leave it up at their property to make things easier and hopefully get some winter floats in. The boat is a nice way to get away from crowds this time of year and walking around in the deeper snow can be tough especially on the way out.
WBDluver
Official NEFF pot stirrer
I will be up this weekend. Can you please turn up the thermostat before i get there, as I do not like to fish in 5 degree weather.
cntrpin_head
New member
Yeah I hear ya. After seeing you post about a totaled boat I'm glad I didn't brave the roads. I'd check out the uhaul storage place on rt 13. You can probably get a good 3 month rate and you boat is kept out of the harsh weather.
flyI4
Fishizzle, I use worms but I'm looking to upgrade!
I'm heading up this weekend with some buddies that are just getting into it, figured it would be mostly a lower flyzone beers and cigars on stream sort of weekend ,but regardless was still hoping for some decent fishing. Up in LFZ fishing I've never seen it be totally dead and figure we'll still get into some fish, if things really shoot up water wise I might take a shot down in DSR for some fresh fish.
