Trip 3 W.NY, The Salmon and Oak Orchard Rivers
| November 16-18, 2008 | |
Unlike our second trip this season to W NY, that was highlighted for the awesome warm weather, our third trip out to W NY will be remembered most for the wicked mid-winter conditions; wind, fierce lake effect snows and down right cold air. But the fishing action at the Salmon and Oak was quite good with steelhead and browns. Capt. Al and I set out early Sunday morning and made the drive to Pulaski arriving at the Double Eagle Lodge just before noontime. The weather was already crappy, with snow, wind and cold air in place. The water flow was set at 750 cfs at the dam, but the actual flow was a bit higher due to significant run-off from rain earlier in the week. We got unpacked, got our gear together, suited up for winter conditions and headed upriver to fish the Altmar area (where we would find the lower water flows). Al and I decided to split up and try fishing above and below the Altmar Bridge (Al went up and I went downstream of the bridge). The afternoon fishing strategy proved tricky; finding just the right amount of added weight to get the fly down in the strike zone (without hanging bottom) in the fast current, locating the inside seams where the steelhead would be hanging and trying to maintain warm hands to detect the "sometimes" subtle steelhead takes. In the first hour, I managed to hook-up two good sized steelhead, but failed to get either of them to the net, primarily because of my location in the bridge pool. Both steelies took off downstream in an area that made it very difficult to follow them without significant risk to stumbling on the slick bottom of "greased bowling balls". So I decided to make my way across the bridge and fish the opposite side where it would be possible to land a hooked fish. And that was the case…..I hooked two additional steelhead and was able to play them both to the net. It was now approaching late afternoon and I was wondering how Brother Al was doing up river, when I spotted him heading my way. He quickly appraised me of his very good success; landing 3 of 7 hook-ups. We both agreed that, considering the weather and water conditions, we both had a terrific afternoon on the Salmon. At dinner later that evening we decided our plan for Monday would be to head west some 2 ½ hours and fish the Oak Orchard River for browns. We awoke early Monday morning to find a significant amount of snow had fallen and decided that driving west on potentially nasty roads was not prudent and changed our plan to spend Monday on the Salmon. That turned out to be a good decision with snow falling sporadically all day. Al and I both fished the tailout of the Altmar Bridge pool that I had fished Sunday afternoon. It was noticeable almost immediately that the water flow had risen some from the previous day, probably due to an increase in runoff. In addition to the faster current a major tree limb of a bank-side tree had snapped off during the night and laid out some 5 feet into the stream, making it impossible to get by in the event that we hooked up on any real hard running steelies that wanted to head downstream. You guessed it! Several steelies that we hooked that day did exactly that. Of the 12 or so steelies we hooked during the course of the day, we managed only one in the net. But all in all it didn’t matter how many fish came to net, we enjoyed the hook ups and the fast, hard runs they made. When we returned to the lodge we heard that the DAM folks were planning to turn the water flow up an additional 500 cfs for Tuesday (which would make for very difficult fly fishing), so Al and I decided that we would head west for the Oak in the morning. Tuesday morning broke much colder than the previous two mornings, but at least the snow had abated so driving 2 ½ hours west might be possible. We left Pulaski at 5:45 and headed for the NY thruway via Interstate 81. We got onto 90 west in Syracuse and before we could say snow, we were right in one of those famous lake effect “white outs”. Fortunately for us it only lasted 10 minutes and we were again making our way west. The snow squalls came and went the entire way to Albion and the Oak. We arrived safely at the Archer Club parking area at 9:00 AM. The weather, too say the very least, was nasty, windy, snowy and bone numbing cold! The good news was only a very small number of anglers were there and we pretty much had our choice of water to fish. We decided to head upstream to the top of the Archer pool. We both tied on our favorite spawn cluster patterns; I chose chartreuse and Al with hot pink. It didn’t take more than a 5 minute exposure to the weather to realize that keeping your hands warm enough to feel and cast the rod was going to be a problem. That’s where being ambidextrous with a fly rod saved the day for me; one hand in my hand warmer pocket, and the other hand lifting the line, casting and dead drifting a fly through the pool. I was first to hook up a nice cow brown of about 8 pounds. Al followed me with a nice cow of his own. Both Al and I enjoyed several more browns each before the bite turned off near 2 in the afternoon. We took a break for some food and a warm truck before deciding to call it a day…a very good day at that. We made the long drive back to Pulaski and the lodge. Later that evening we got the Salmon River report from the other anglers staying at the lodge; it appeared that the increased water flow and the lower water temps put the steelhead bite off compared to the previous few days. With that info, Al and I decided to call it a trip and we headed home first thing Wednesday morning. Al and I enjoyed fishing together again, another good trip out to the fantastic fishery in W NY. We may try to get out there again as soon as the current “cure” (nasty Pulaski weather “cures” your interest in getting back out there anytime soon!) wears off.
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