This week was one hell of a good week. My brother and I planned a salmon fishing trip a few weeks back to the tributaries of Lake Ontario. Fortunately for my brother and I, I live really close to the shores of Lake Ontario. I attend college in the area and in less than two hours in each direction I have dozens of rivers at my disposal. My brother came up on a Friday from Long Island and was able to stay for a good four solid days. It was still a tad bit early in the season for the salmon run to be in full swim. This being due to the fact that it still has been in the mid seventies to low eighties during the day. Also with a lack of rain and the ground still being so green with vegetation, any water that did precipitate down would not find its way the rivers in full force. Even though it was still a little early we were really optimistic that we could get after some nice browns, some kings, and maybe even a steelhead if we were lucky.
Five A.M. Saturday morning came around and the hype was unbelievable. Coffee brewing and heartache medication blasting on full volume you could tell it was going to be an amazing day. The boys were back in town and were ready to freaking send it. We packed the YETI with only the essentials, eggs, peppers, onions, hamburgers, buns, ketchup, and BEER. We loaded the truck up with all our gear and we were off. It was an hour and twenty minute drive to the first spot and we would get there right at first light which was perfect. The whole way there we were just blasting country music and AC/DC and strategizing a game plan for the rest of the day.
After a quick pit stop to take care of that coffee we had earlier we made it to the spot right at sunrise. There were only a few trucks at the spot. However, their weren’t so many trucks that it was packed but there wasn’t no trucks there. Which put two thoughts into my head right away. Either the bite is on and were one of the lucky ones to find it or its still to early and its dead and were the stubborn ones trying to still make it happen. Either way there was only one way will find out. After we got our gear on we scoped out the river from above. Seeing only a couple of carp, as well as two king salmon. When the bite is hot at this spot I’ve seen it where the salmon are stacked on top of salmon swimming up river. However, what we saw was really what we expected, just a few early swimmers, nothing crazy.
We walked down to the river and just watched for a moment. Most of the guys their were just using center pins or spinning tackle and just drifting STRIKE INDICATORS (not to be confused with bobbers, because its fly fishing so it’s a STRIKE INDICATOR) with worms in the slack water. That’s not our favorite style of fishing so we hightailed it up river to the faster moving waters. Luckily for us we had my favorite section of river all to ourselves. There were a few smaller fish jumping occasionally, enough to keep us hopeful. However, we did see three monster northern pike just chillin in the slack water. They kept us entertained for about thirty minutes from our main objective since neither of us have ever caught a pike on a fly. We each got one swipe from the same fish but another angler spooked them away. This older gentleman that showed up next to us was a character. He was a nice guy and made good conversation since it was a slow bite, but he was giving the usual fisherman stories. According to this gentlemen we should have been their ten years ago, the brown trout fishing at this particular spot isn’t good (which I caught a world class brown their the year before but I won’t argue), the Russians are taking all the fish, the Buffalo Bills are actually doing good this season (GO BILLS), people from Ohio need to stop snagging fish, and did I mention that ten years ago he had double digit days every, single, day. Like I said though this guy was a character and made the morning a little more entertaining.
As the morning progressed we only saw about four or five decent kings swim by. We decided while the morning was still young to work our way back east to see if we would have some better luck. We quickly stopped by the mouth of the river to throw some spoons. There seemed to be plenty of fish surfacing but we couldn’t pin what they were. We had a king nearly beach itself on shore behind us which scared us half to death considering there was only six inches of water about two feet wide on the other side of the dock. After a couple cast and egg sandwiches later we hit the road to the next spot.
We got to the next spot and were optimistic we would have different results from the previous spot. We got geared up and walked to the top of the spot to scope it out. It was the same deal as the previous spot not alot of kings and a whole mess of fresh water tarpons (creek chub). We decided to walk up river first that way we wouldn’t blow out any of the water in case there was a fish sitting in a whole. As we just started walking up the river a king scooted up behind us and disappeared into a whole separating my brother and I. This whole was only about twenty feet wide and the water on both ends was shallow enough that we would have seen the fish leave from either end. It was like as it vanished into some underwater cave but we never saw that fish again. We continued up stream for one mile and proceed to do the same thing down stream with no results.
We decided to call it a day, even though we didn’t manage to catch anything it was still an amazing day the weather was beautiful and like any outdoorsman will tell you a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. We headed home to prepare for the upcoming archery whitetail opener. My brother has had the duck hunting itch for the past couple of seasons and now has finally gotten his bow and is a rip, roaring, and ready to jump head first into the world of archery hunting. We went and practiced shooting our bows at twenty and thirty yards since the spots we were hunting we would not be making a shot over that distance. It was really interesting to watch my brother and talk to him about his thoughts on archery hunting. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives on things that people have depending on when you start hunting. For my brother, he didn’t really get into fishing and hunting until about three years ago. As for me I have been fishing all my life and have been hunting since I was twelve years old. I won’t dive to far into this becuause I could ramble forever on it, but it’s interesting to say the least. After this, it was time to kick back, have a few beers, catch up, and come up with a game plan for tomorrow.
The next day we had a new addition to our crew, a good friend of mine decided to tag along on his first ever salmon trip. Not only that it was also his first time ever fly fishing. Already it was gonna be a good day, I love bringing people fishing and introducing them to my world. This day started pretty similar to the last. Up at five A.M. sharp, coffee brewing asap, again heartache medication on full tilt. Out the door and on our way by five-twenty. The night before we decided to switch it up. I got some intel from a buddy of mine that he was having some luck out east. We decided to kick it into high gear and headed an hour and forty minutes east to our first spot.
Looking back and thinking about it, its funny to think about how optimistic hunters and fishermen always are before you head into any situation. Here we are on this drive, never have fished this river before in our lives and we could not be more excited. The most excited of us being my buddy who has never even been fly fishing before. Which you have to give the guy some props, to go full send like this with little background knowledge, I thought was pretty freaking awesome. To go and fish a river that is by lack of a better term sketchy. Sketchy enough that it is required by law that you wear a life jacket. Then to find out that he has never even worn waders until we were about waist deep halfway across this raging river was pretty awesome. There have been plenty of situations where I have brought buddies of mine fishing or hunting and they have either backed out before we have even started because of what we were doing or it was a one and done deal. That being said it was really awesome to see this guy jump head first into it like he did.
First impressions of this new spot was pretty interesting, the crowd of people fishing their seemed decent. All of us were really taken back once we started heading down to the river. On our way down their was a wall of people moving like clock work. Each set up drifting red egg sacks and moving like a conveyer belt around and around in a loop along this one hundred yard section of wall with no hiccups. Even people that were hooked up still kept going, it was honestly a sight to see. After a quick walk down exclaiming how awesome this spot was and how amped we were to get in the water we made our way down to the river. Luckily for us there were a couple of life jackets left for us to wear. I thought this was a really good idea that the state or county is providing the people that fish this river life jackets. Now do I think I needed a life jacket, no i’ve been around a rough river or two and can handle myself. However, those are the rules and I think it is definitely a good thing to require. There were definitely a lot of people there that day that for sure needed them. The life jackets looked ridiculous but I look freaking good in yellow so I was in and it’s better to look like a googan than get a ticket.
We found a pretty decent spot on the river all to ourselves and managed to see a couple decent kings but no hookups. I can only speak for myself here but I was smiling ear to ear the entire time. It was a culmination of things but between the cold breeze coming from the north off of Lake Ontario, to the sun hitting my face keeping my surface warm I was as happy as a clam. To make the situation even better there were so many mallards at this river, it was ridiculous. It was like they were putting on a show landing within spitting distance of us and just looking amazing. The mallards definitely made up for the lack of fish. It was also crazy to watch the occasional salmon scream up and down the river by your feet.
Three hours into fishing it was about ten oclock and still not fish. The night before and all this morning we were cracking jokes about going to this one river. It was one of those situations where everyone in their head wanted to go fish their, however no one wanted to be the one to say it. We made jokes about going their but then rationalized another plan that will still get you their. However, you would just have to make a pitstop along the way. The night before it was just a little too far to drive two hours to go fishing. However, an hour and thirty minutes was easily doable. Once we were fishing the river we all wanted to fish was only another thirty minutes away, so we have to go now. After about ten minutes of joking about going our demeanor changed to we have to go now!
In no time at all, we made it to one of my favorite sections of river at this new spot. I have been fishing this stretch of river since high school when my family took a yearly trip here. We sprinted to get our spot and our lines hit the water. No sooner did our lines hit the water that my brother already hooked up to his first fish of the day a YUGE king salmon. The fight was quick though, when the fish wrapped him around a rock the line snapped and that was it. Less than ten minutes later the same exact thing happened again when a little bit smaller of a fish broke him off again on the same rock.
A few minutes later I was just lost in a trance of going through the motions of cast and cast not really thinking about anything and I hear a splash and there is my buddy floating down the river. After we got him dried off we decided it was time to make some breakfast and refuel. I finished my egg sandy first and was the first one back down to the river. I was quickly back to that state of being in a trance doing cast after cast. All of a sudden I pulled back and set the hook. A nice king jumped not a monster but a good fish and he took off. Started moving downstream so I let out a loud “coming down!” so people would know to get out of the way.
Now this is where my least favorite aspect of salmon fishing these rivers comes into play. I’m hooked up to a decent fish and its general common courtesy to get out of someone’s way whos fighting a fish. This guy who is barley in the water gets my line wrapped around his feet and then proceeds to rip my line over his head instead of taking a couple of steps back. Of course I didn’t say anything but it’s those type of people that get me so mad. Like what if it was my buddy who was hooked up to his first salmon and because of that guys inconsideration and laziness that he lost his first fish. Thankfully the fish didn’t come off and I was able to land it after about a good couple of minute fight. I got it to shore got a couple of pictures and let it go. We fished the rest of the day with no other success went home had some beers and got ready to do the same thing over again the next day.
Next day came and went with no success whole lot of hype, pma, and optimism but nothing. We just scouted for deer for the next day for the archery season opener. Which was a really cool experience because I was getting to show my brother the basics for scouting for deer. Looking for trails, rubs, scrapes, poopies, pinch points, etc… It was really cool to watch him work it out in his head for which spot he was going to sit the following day. The following morning all I saw was another hunter and as for my brother he got to see a nice big doe, but at 60 yards with no shot. For him though that was awesome getting to see a deer on his first hunt. So all in all it was a really good trip and was really nice to see my brother.
I hope you enjoyed reading this piece. Since I am new to this I am still learning and am going to work on improving my writing. I still hope you enjoyed my story and please check back in to read on.
Leaky Waders 