10 days and counting…

I got back last night with a sore arm… 🙂

My buddy and I pulled out of my driveway Thursday morning at 3:30am and got in to Pulaski at 7:30. I snoozed the last hour of the trip and woke to severe rain and wind. We stopped at the diner, went to some shops and checked in to our hotel room. We were geared up and fishing at 10:30 and found the river all but deserted by salmon season standards. We finally got in to some fish at about 2:00 and had a blast til 4:00, when I said I had enough. We were hooking up with fresh chrome King’s that entire time, but couldn’t land them. I was using a Cabela’s XST 9′ 8wt. and 11.5 and 14lb tippet. Between the water flow, very slippery river bottom and the size of the fish it was very challenging. I think that the Lake Ontario King’s average 20-22lbs and max out much higher than that. They are amazing when fresh. Steelhead on steroids, jumps and all.

My Cabela’s wading jacket failed miserably. It was raining to the point of reducing visability and very windy. It was 55-60 degrees, but I was wet. When I finally pulled the plug I was probably in the danger zone: fine motor skills gone, speech starting to slur, uncontrolable shivering etc…it could have been ugly with the swift water. BE AWARE and keep an eye on your buddies for symptoms of hypothermia, heat stroke, dehydration etc…I learned that it doesn’t take extremes in temperature to be dangerous. I got fixed up with a hot shower, several dry layers of fleece and a nice greasy buffet dinner.(a few nips off the bottle of scotch probably didn’t actually help, but made me feel better ;)) I found out today that two guys drowned down stream from us that afternoon. I am going to invest in an inflatable belt…

Day two started at 3:30am again and we were PUMPED! We met our guide at 5:00 and went to the put in to find the water flowing at double the cfm from the day before. He gave us the option of going another day, but we decided to just go for it.

We were in to fish right away, but couldn’t land a thing. We got a few smaller ones(15+/-lbs.) close, but just couldn’t get em the last little bit. The rest we only actually saw when they were in the air, which they all did several times. The entire day went like that…Steve and Mike 0, fish 25. I saw backing way more than fly line. We never actually fished from the boat. The drill was to float, anchor along the bank and wade very close to the boat, out of the strong current. To go out too far was a certain swim.

This was my first time fishing with a guide and I was not disapointed. He had a top notch operation. The boat was clean and equipment was immaculate. He had 4 St.Croix 9wt’s with Orvis Mach reels.(I was highly impressed with the reels, by the way) He always had a rod ready to hand to us if we broke off, or wanted to switch up on flies. At 9:00 he busted out with a nice cheese/cracker and venison summer sausage platter. The cooler was full of beer, water and Gatorade and there was a thermos of coffee. Lunch consited of a huge sandwhich, chips, pickles and fruit. We laughed all day and just had a fantastic time.

My buddy and I agreed on the way home that it was well worth the money to hire the guide/drift boat for the day and will do it again next year. If anyone ever gets a chance to get up you have to experience the Salmon River. I wouldn’t want it as my home water because of the pressure it gets at this time of year, but man is it fun once in a while and being able to drift the river made A TON of difference from our past experiences. If anyone wants info drop me a line.

Steve