Salmon River Pilgrimage

Jacob, Fritz and Bill crossing the stream ford

Jacob, Fritz and I started up 95 towards Pulaski, NY at 0358 on our annual trip to the Douglaston Salmon Run on the Salmon River on Friday Morning.  We knew the fish were still in Lake Ontario and in the estuary and hadn't begun to run in large numbers to their spawning shoals up river, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we raced up I-81 to meet Bill who had arrived Thursday night to set up camp at Selkirk Shores. Jacob texted Bill in Syracuse and he met us at the DSR parking lot at about 1045 (we made great time).

3 Generation of Pfeiffer watching the sunset at Selkirk Shores

 This fishing trip is much about the camaraderie, the beauty of the river and the ritual-familiarity of the walk to the river and after missing it last year I was determined to soak-up every second of it. Its a treat to watch three generations of Pfeiffer sharing this experience, Bill's stories about the river, Fritz' quiet, steady determination to bring a keeper to hand and Jacob's buoyant joy; still a young-man but increasingly a grown-up angler in his own right.

Jacob in Profile above Meadow Run

We rigged up after our 350 mile jaunt with salmon weight gear (Jacob with an 8wt/9' Orvis Silver Label, Fritz with a 8 wt/11' TFO switch, me with a 7wt/11' Wildwater switch and Bill with a Lamson 8wt/9' switch) and began the beautiful walk to meadow run, through the forest path, down the 44 stairs to the river, through the muddy middle, up to the hill w Joss hole on the left, through the sorn field, back down fording a side-stream to the island, glimpse Spring-hole, pass the Flats until we came upon Meadow Run ...our favorite place.

Fritz and Jacob at the top of Meadow Run

We were happy to see that the run was relatively vacant and Fritz, Jacob and I crossed above the run to get the the 'guide-side' so we could fish back toward Bill on the other bank.  Bill had told us that the river meadow run had changed and that we'd have to read the water to plan our casts and drifts, he was right the channel is less defined and the deep(er) slot on the guide side had worn away since my last visit. I began casting with a kreelex variant I tied with a barrel-head and .20 lead wraps to help sink it but keep it hook side up as I intended to skitter it over the cobble bottom.

King Salmon -- Dead and taunting

 I hooked my first Salmon on the 10th cast and had him for 5 joyous, adrenalin filled seconds enough for a hook-set, short run then a triumphant jump to end our date. This early action made us all attentive but, unfortunately proved the exception rather than the rule. The Run had plenty of fishers but few catchers. Later on in the afternoon I moved up to the top third of Meadow run pool and had a another great hook-up about 15 feet in front of me not 2-seconds into a sweep. Again the Salmon hit, I set the hook, he jumped horizontally 1/2 out of the water running up stream and as I followed him up stream and put him on the reel he was gone after about 10 seconds.

River chub....Any shelter in a storm and any fish when you're fishing!

 This time when I pulled the kreelex in I found that he had BROKEN the hook, not the line, not knot failure or bent the hook, but rather snapped the hook in two as the shank begins its bend. My lesson here is not to use bass and trout weight wire-hooks on Salmon as these brutes are just too powerful. We left around 1630 with smiles on our faces, tired from the long drive, but looking forward to dinner and another try at them tomorrow.

Jacob and Fritz at Upper flyfishing Pool

Sunrise at Meadow Pool

Sunset over Lake Ontari

 

We cleaned up at Selkirk Shores (thanks Shana), enjoyed a few minutes of sunset looking west across Lake Ontario and then enjoyed a dinner of garlic knots, more garlic knots, cinnamon knots polished off by more garlic knots at Stephanos before we lit a quick fire and fell asleep in our well-loved, but comfortable cabin. 

 Saturday morning we started later than our usual 0600 leaning on the gate norm and repeated our walk to meadow Run where we again set up fishing stations on both sides. Action was VERY slow in the run but some fish were being hooked below the run in the right hand channel (as your looking down) as the bank-slot there was more defined and therefore channelizing of the limited fish.

 Fritz had the most success as he was able to find a good fishing slot below the meadow run and hooked two salmon before they broke off after a few seconds of excitement. About noon all four of us crossed to the Guide-side and began a slow walk up toward Spring hole hitting pocket water where it presented itself. We had Spring Hole to ourselves by the time we got there but couldn't raise a fish in this gorgeous deep, fast hole. Tired and a bit frustrated by our general lack of hook-ups we walked back to the cars and headed to Selkirk for a short rest.

Knowing that we'd fall asleep if we didn't quickly recharge our batteries we all loaded into the Van and headed to Altimar to check out the fishing circus from the bridge that marks the start of the upper flyfishing area.....and it was a zoo. If Salmon fishing is sport downstream at the DSR its a no-holds-barred test of snagging skills as locals look to fill freezers in Altimar. For the few fish that made it up this far they had to run a gauntlet of would be meat-eaters. We left Altimar and headed further upstream past the hatchery, sportsman's and the compactor hole until we reached the last parking area in the upper area where we suited up for an evening fish in the deep pool at the limit of the Fly-fishing only section. Bill, Fritz and Jacob stayed on the near-side while I braved the current (thanks for that wading staff Emma) to get to the far side. It looked like our luck had turned as one gent had repeated long hook-up at the bottom of the hole just above the start of the rapid. Fritz was able to move into position to take over the spot when he left with still an hour of daylight, but try as we might we couldn't reproduce his results. 

Fritz ended up with two high quality hook-up, at least one 'true-hooked' but we couldn't land either in the smallish but deep pool. It was all the more frustrating as Salmon were jumping, rolling and splashing in close proximity...it was good fishing but not good catching! We left the upper pool just before sunset and ended up eating at Fast Eddies, which was fast but more gourmand then gourmet. Sleep greeted us quickly at the cabin after we looked through pictures from Bill's summer Atlantic Salmon trip to Quebec.

 What a gorgeous trip and time. We woke earlier on Sunday, grabbed fresh donuts and coffee along the way and Jacob Fritz and I hit the DSR early as Bill packed up the cabin. Let's just say that we took some gorgeous pictures, enjoyed each others company and our camaraderie was not disturbed by pesky Salmons or steelhead. With no fish tempting us to stay longer and a long drive to VA ahead we packed up frustrated but happy, bid goodbye to Bill and began our long drive home.