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| Salmon River, Altmar NY | Oak Orchard Creek, Albion NY |
| Early last week, Al and I made our first trip out to western NY for the fall salmon, steelhead and brown trout extravaganza. Our first stop was the Salmon River area in Pulaski and Altmar. The recent heavy rains had a significant impact on the water flow. Typical water flows for this time of year are usually a very fishable and “wadable” 300-500 CFM, but due to the rains, the water flow from the Altmar dam was set at 1500 CFM, + runoff from feeder streams, made the actual flow closer to 2000 CFM. This situation made for very difficult fishing as well as wading and crossing certain sections of the river. Be mindful that the Salmon can be treacherous with high water flows. Almost every year a fisherman gets swept away to tragedy. We spent Sunday afternoon fishing the upper fly fishing catch and release area in Altmar. We were able to wade into the edge of a small pool opposite a gravel spawning bed area. Both Al and I traded off casting time as the water flow and the over head tree branches made it most difficult to lay out an accurate cast that would properly present a dead drifted fly to the waiting salmon. After a time, we got the right casting stroke going, and began hooking some large King Salmon. With the high water and very fast current flow we were unable to safely chase the salmon down river and consequently landed none! But we did enjoy the short fight and the great catapulting leaps that the large hard fighting male Chinooks put on. Near the end of the afternoon I managed to fool, hook, land and quickly release a super 5 pound male Brown Trout(note the spawn fly at the tip of the lower jaw) in full spawning colors. What a great fish! Nearly all the action came on various “spawn or cluster” fly patterns (see photos).The best colors were chartreuse and hot pink. We used floating lines, quartered upstream, and a small split shot attached up the leader to get the fly down sufficiently in the strike zone. The Salmon River is an outstanding fishery and worth getting out to during the early and late fall. Whitakers Sport Shop provides honest and accurate daily fish and water reports. For a place to stay, you can’t beat the Double Eagle Lodge in Pulaski, 315-298-3326; ask for Stan or Barb Pietrzyk.  With the high water and limited fishable areas on the Salmon, Al and I decided to head west and fish Oak Orchard Creek. The “Oak” is a “spate river”, getting most of its water flow from runoff and at this time of year, from the Erie Canal drain down. This part of western N.Y. did not get anywhere near the deluge that fell to the east and as such, would no doubt fish better. The “Oak” is located 30 miles west of Rochester just off the Lake Ontario Parkway. The fishing reports we checked clearly described a super King Salmon run was underway, the best in over a decade. The “Oak” is best known as one of the great Brown Trout Fisheries found anywhere, not to mention that it is a beautiful and easy river to wade. N.Y. State fisheries folk do an excellent job of managing this fishery. The reports indicated that the browns had not yet made a significant assault on the creek as yet, and this no doubt is due to the large number of aggressive King salmon taking up lies in the spawning gravel. Al and I usually fish the Oak after November 1st when the salmon have completed their spawning run, so we were anxious to experience the salmon run. We also hoped to find some large male browns mixed in with the Kings. After a 2 ½ hour early morning drive from Pulaski, we arrived at the Oak shortly after sunrise. The Parking area had about 30 cars parked so we expected a smaller than usual crowd of anglers. Most of the anglers we have experienced at the Oak are generally friendly and reasonable when it comes sharing some casting space. We made our way down to river and scoped out some water to fish. I headed upstream to the gravel bars and Al checked along the “flats area”, a wider expanse of the lower gravel beds. It was quickly obvious that there were a large number of salmon moving upstream. I spent about an hour upstream, casting and hooking up several good sized salmon. I landed and released one very fresh female of 20 pounds and decided to head back downstream and check on Al. I found Al hunkered up at the top end of the flats area, just below the fast water that leads to the upstream area where I had just left. Al was excited; he was in the process of landing an excellent 10 + pound male, spawning colored, brown trout, the kind the Oak is most noted for. For the remainder of the day, we hooked 30 or more quality salmon in the 15-20 pound range. We managed to land several fish and broke off most of them. These were really aggressive and not the least bit shy about eating a properly presented fly. Needless to say, we went through about half of our fly boxes! Most all of the typical salmon and steelhead patterns we had with us took fish. Black Wooly Buggers, spawn patterns in various colors, Black Stone Flies, and small steelhead “bump flies” worked well. We typically fished 2x tippets and at times moved up to 1x. At the end of the day, we agreed the day was one that we would not soon forget and decided to return the following morning for more Oak Orchard Creek Kings! We made the long 2 ½ hour trek back to Pulaski, had some dinner, tied a dozen or so flies and crashed. The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit and arrived back at the Oak at 9:30am. The number of cars parked was about the same as the previous day and we made our way to same area we had fished the day before, except we decide to fish it from the opposite side. We remarked to each other “it can’t possibly get better than it was yesterday”, but guess what, we were wrong! During the course of the morning, large numbers of fresh salmon pushed upriver and these salmon were mostly 20-30 pound, super aggressive males in search of the “girls”. There were no counting hook ups, just how many fish ran you well into your backing before breaking off! Our choice of the opposite side of the creek turned out to be excellent. The salmon definitely favored the channel trough and water flow break on our side and, consequently, Al and I hooked many more salmon than the anglers on the opposite side. As the day passed, the mix of salmon gender changed to large aggressive females. What a DAY! We both landed and released some excellent fish near 25 pounds. Al and I agreed that today was one of the best days ever for fishing NY Kings! The Oak is a great river to fish, safe and easy to wade, good bunch of fisherman, easy access and plenty of quality fish! Over the next two weeks, we expect the salmon run to end and the brown trout assault to begin. The trout will wait and stage until the large aggressive salmon have finished their business, so we expect a big push with lots of browns coming into the river together. I’ll be there!     Orleans Outdoor (fishing conditions)
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