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Dec 8, 2009, 7:34pm

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Topic: Tough Trip - Salmon River, NY (Read 374 times)

Frank Swarner
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Tough Trip - Salmon River, NY
« Thread Started on Nov 1, 2009, 3:49pm »

Tough Trip

My father and I arrived in Pulaski on Friday, October 23, 2009 and decided to fish the 2A area for the first afternoon. We landed a couple of little skippers, but not much to write about.

Saturday morning we decided to head to Pineville to see how things were flowing at 335cfs to try to plan our attack for the rest of the week. The heads of the pools had some push, the middle or gut was close to being frog water, and the tail outs picked up a little pace. I realized we had been spoiled by the higher water the past few seasons and some of my favorite haunts would not be worth fishing due to lack of depth and current speed.

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My father worked down thru the pool first, and at the tail out he was hammered by a nice steelhead to start of the trip. She was a pretty little lady that took an orange and brown bead head woolybugger fished on a mono leader. I took a few pictures and she was released to go about her business.

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That was to be the only “fish on” action we had and the next five days we went without a tug. We switched from mono leaders to light polyleaders, weighted flies and un-weighted flies, fished any water that looked good, but it seemed the middle of the river was dead at this time. We talked to other anglers that had success up top and down low, but didn’t hear much happening mid river.

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Sunday I had a fish come up and refuse my fly or spook, not really sure, but there was a big splash right where my fly was swinging. It looked like the splash a trout makes when it is in the riffles feeding on emergers. Pretty cool to see, but no dice.

Monday I had a take in the tailout of the Compactor Pool, but I was day dreaming, counting crayfish, and forgot to drop the loop. Set the hook prematurely, felt the fish for a second, then nothing but a nice big boil.
Two of our buddies were doing good fishing eggs and nymphs at the head of the runs, but my father and I remained stubborn and stuck with swing speys, dees, streamers, and tubes. Something was going to happen if we stuck to it. All we needed was some of the fish around town to make it upriver a little farther.

Wednesday I got a call from an internet buddy (Curro) I had never met so we planned to meet at 2A Thursday morning and go from there. Thursday rolled around and Curro, my father, our buddy Dave, and myself decided to head above the Compactor Pool and fish some nice water that had a little bit of everything as structure and current speed are concerned.

I hopped in first and Curro headed slightly upstream to fish some pocket water. I worked my way downstream so my father and Dave would have some room as well. I was using a 10 ft polyleader with 3.9 ips, a 3ft piece of 10lb ultragreen tippet attached to the crayfish tube fly that had worked well for me last year.

After not dropping the loop yesterday, I kept playing that scenario in my head, reminding myself to “drop the loop.” I was making 60-70 ft casts quartering downstream, swinging the crayfish thru all seams and pockets, hooking an occasional leaf or two. I worked my way down and was in position to fish the head of the upper Compactor Pool. Repeated the casts I was making and the fly swung thru the far seam, into the middle seam, then when it got to the near seam I felt a tug and dropped the loop. The line came tight and there was weight on the end and the hook was set when I raised the rod to the near shore.

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A good fish came up and rolled on the surface twice then took off like a bat out of hell. The drag was singing and I thought the fish was going downstream when it came flying out of the water slightly upstream of me and kept going…….what the heck? I started scrambling downstream and realized my line was stuck on something out in the middle of the river and I couldn’t get it off.

The drag was still singing since I kept it loose, and I got below where my line was hung up and it popped of the snag ……..whew …….. reel…. reel…. reel….. reel……it’s still on!! It’s still on!! I hollered. I managed to get the backing knot on the reel and started gaining ground on the running line. Then there was nothing there. Uh oh!! The line was tight and there was a nice bend in the rod, but I couldn’t feel the fish for a few seconds.

I guess the fish got tired, turned and headed downstream, because the line came free again and I could feel the live weight on the end of the line. Reel…. reel….reel….reel…..reel as the fish came downstream and settled back in the upper Compactor Pool where I initially hooked it. None of us knew what species it was until I got it in closer and it rolled and we could see sheen of a steelhead. He made a few more short runs so I let him have his head. The entire time I was hoping everything stayed tight and nothing was damaged by the two snags during the fight.

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He was tuckered out and I lead him to a little cove out of the main current…………..HOLY SCHNIKIES!!!...............HE’S HUGE!!! My father was shouting WOOHOOO and I chimed in too!! Curro and my father starting taking pictures right away as I quickly taped him at 34 ½” x 19 ½”……….. I was on cloud nine. The crayfish tube was right in the corner of his mouth. A few more pictures were taken and I revived him for a little while and he took off. No fin clips or lamprey marks.

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Joe was having a blast at the Compactor Pool. He hooked about 8 steelhead that morning and landed 6 of them. Curro came down, hopped into the spot when Joe told him to since he was going to take a break. He hooked up right away, landed her, and then proceeded to hook another one that was a true silver bullet.

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After lunch we headed back to the same area and not much happened for my dad or me, but Joe and Dave were banging them in the Compactor pool for most of the afternoon. It was kind of strange that they didn’t hook up with any browns though.

Friday we went back to the 2A area again hoping for more luck. Dave and Joe hit the Compactor pool again and my father and I headed upstream. I worked my way down thru the run and didn’t move a thing. I met my father back at the truck and he told me he landed one on a purple Mahogan that I had tied for him……Yeah baby…way to be pop!!

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After lunch we headed back to 2A and I stayed downstream and my father went back to where he was in the morning which paid off for him. He had one light take and when he set the hook a steelhead came flying out of the water and spit the purple Mahogan. He started the run over again and hooked another one, but when he got it in it was foul hooked. This was strange since he wasn’t fishing anywhere near the bottom. I told him the barbless hook may have come free during the fight and the fish might have accidentally snagged itself, but we will never know.

That was it for the trip and the next day we packed up and headed back to PA.

« Last Edit: Nov 3, 2009, 2:38pm by Frank Swarner »

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Let it swing and hang on.............oh yeah...make sure you drop the loop.

Nick Pionessa
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Re: Tough Trip - Salmon River, NY
« Reply #1 on Nov 1, 2009, 6:27pm »

at first when i saw all the fish photos i wasn't too sure about the post title. didn't look that tough! when i read it i realized the time involved so yeah, back to tough trip. hell of a nice fish you got there too, that is a big boy. also great to see the generations sharing a love of the same sporting techniques. i also like to see you getting fish on cool flies. it seems a lot of folks think they are just for show and not really effective and showing is always better than telling. fine job all around Frank.

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fishpaw
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Re: Tough Trip - Salmon River, NY
« Reply #2 on Nov 1, 2009, 10:10pm »

Your description of playing that Steelhead is excellent. I was worried you had lost him!

And looks like your Dad had the same cigar in his mouth the entire trip