We called it a day and headed back to the lodge to get unpacked and cleaned up for dinner. Before leaving the lodge, we checked the 3 day forecast for the purpose of establishing our game plan for the next two days. The forecast called for seasonable conditions on Monday and a storm with rain, wind, and falling temps for Tuesday into Wednesday. So we made plans to make the 270 mile round trip drive west to Oak Orchard River in Albion (in good driving conditions) for the chance to get in on some early season big browns and a few fresh running kings. We left Pulaski at 7 in the morning and arrived at the Oak around 10 and parked in Farmer Roy’s field ($2.00 all day!) adjacent to the state access road. We made our way to the river to find a reasonable, but large crowd of anglers spread out through the river course. The three of us split up and headed for our favorite pools. We had heard that the water level was low and it was even lower than I had expected so I was not able to fish effectively at my chosen pool. Al set up shop at the area abutting the Archer Club property, near the deep cut bank. This was Jim’s first time to the Oak and he decided to hang with Al and I headed upstream to the top of the Archer Pool. It became rapidly clear that the river was chock full of kings; some fresh up from the lake mixed with many in their final stage of life. The kings were everywhere, on every possible spawning bed, in clear view and in very shallow water. I did see some browns here and there, but getting a fly to them was next to impossible with the overwhelming number of salmon. It was difficult at best to make a cast and drift a fly through the horde without fairly or foully hooking a big salmon. I did my best to choose a fly pattern that the salmon wouldn’t strike in hopes a brown would get to it….and only one small 4 pounder did. So I decided to go with the (salmon) flow and walked the gravel beds in search of the freshest of salmon. It was more hunting than fishing! By days end, we all had had our share of big salmon and our empty fly boxes were evidence of the many hook-ups and break-offs that we experienced. We made the long drive back to Pulaski all the while reminiscing and telling fish stories from years past. A good day for sure!

"Skip with a super Oak King and a Salmon River Chromer"

Tuesday morning broke with the forecast spot on; rain, wind and falling temperatures. Armed with reliable information that we had obtained from a group of fishing friends we ran into Sunday evening at dinner, we decided to fish the area they had had excellent success the previous two mornings. This area is one that Al and I hadn’t fished in quite sometime so we very interested to find out how it may have changed over the years. The area is below the High Bridge/ Staircase Pools just outside town and is made up of as the name implies, a cascading set of fast, strong rapids. The Staircase Pools dump into a long flat glide of about 100 yds in length followed by a series of riffles and bends before entering the well known Black Hole pools. We made our way down to end of the glide section and met up with our friends who were already in place and had a few hook-ups. We were invited to squeeze in with them and began casting and re-learning the water. The fly patterns of choice were an assortment of egg imitators in a variety of colors; chartreuse, pink, blue, yellow, orange and two tones. By late morning the rain and wind had increased substantially creating very difficult conditions to say the least. The surface of the fast moving water was almost completely covered if fallen leaves making for impossible dead drifts with the leader and fly line being lifted off the drift by the moving leaf carpet. Getting a fly down into the strike zone became a one cast out of ten success rate. However, we all had our chances, getting a few takes each to maintain our interest. The day ended without landing a steelhead. We hoped Wednesday’s weather would improve enough to allow for better presentations.

"Capt Al with a nice steelie and and Jim Foley with a fresh King"

Wednesday morning broke cloudy and chilly with a lighter breeze than Tuesday. This was to be our final half day of the trip and we wanted to make the most of it so we got down to the river just past sunup. Al and Jim set up in the glide just downstream of the final Staircase Pool and I setup farther downstream just past the first glide riffle. It didn’t take long for Al to hook up on a real nice chrome jumper. Al played the fish quite well for a few minutes before the fish made a serious downriver run, catapulting through the riffle, until finally throwing the fly. Nice start to the morning! A while later Al hooked up again, but lost the steelhead on the first jump. I followed that up with a repeat one jump and gone fish. Steelhead are one very exciting fish to hook up, the run hard, jump high and often, and manage to throw more hooks than any fish I have experienced. That scenario played out a few more times for Al, Jim and I before both Al and I finally got one each landed (and released). Before we knew it, it was time to pack it in for the drive home. We thoroughly enjoyed the few days we spent fishing together at the Salmon and Oak and are already looking forward to our next visit in a few weeks (maybe sooner for me!).

"The pools, upstream and downstream"

Capt Skip Montello