INDIANANGLER

Salmon River in Upstate New York, is a beautiful place to fish. In fall huge numbers of Salmon enter the river from lake Ontario to spawn and then die and complete their life cycle. I made a two day trip to the river. Early September its mostly Coho Salmon. Mid September to mid October is Chinook or King Salmon season. End of October till February is Steelhead and brown trout season. These fish are huge by any standards here, the King Salmon average 20 pounds and some pushing 30 pounds. Steelhead average 10 pounds. I was totally under prepared in my tackle. I had my 8' St Croix Avid Surf rod which was a stiff rod with lot of backbone, but most people in the river were using a lighter rod with soft action. I didn't have a good reel either. I was using the Shimano Nexave 2500, and that had problems with the drag.
The first day was hard to fish, I didn't know the proper technique on drifting. On second day after observing how the locals fished and after talking to a lot of people I was hooking a lot of fish.
Hooking wasn't a problem then, landing was !! These fish were so strong, that I had my line break, leader broke, hooks bent etc. The bad drag on the reel wasn't helping. Overall I landed about 8 salmon, and may have hooked about 40. Here are some pictures from the trip.


On the crowded river, as soon as you hook the fish you yell "fish on" and when the fish goes upstream or downstream you follow the fish yelling "Coming Up" or "Coming Down" and run with the fish. As you pass people would reel in their lines so as to not to tangle you. Its quite a sight. To successfully land a fish you need a buddy with a landing net, otherwise you would lose most fish. I had some very helpful people net me the fish, but otherwise I was mostly trying to beach the fish and grab them by the tail.
It was a great experience, and I would do it again next year.

Binu, the place looks beautiful where you have trees on the bank and it must be a wonderful experience.
Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Hello Binu,

Lovely, frantic action ! It must be getting towards early autumn there and a beautiful time to fish .... getting nostalgic!!

Those king salmon are extremely strong fish and you were definitely undergunned with the 2500 size reel. We fished for them on the Fraser River in Vancouver and I had a size 5000 Stradic reel with 30lb braided line and heavier leader and still got broken off.

Well, now you know and will be better prepared for future trips.

Regards,
Kingfish

On a lighter note, perhaps we should rename this forum as " The Non-Resident Indian Angler" !

Really, almost all the angling reports emanate from them and there is virtually nothing from the local angling fraternity.

Not good!

Kingfish

Congrats on the Salmon!

And thank you for sharing the report and the pics!
The fish looks beautiful and it must have been fun.

Hoping to see some striper/bluefish reports from you soon....

Cheers!
Maruthu

Kingfish!

I hear what you are saying.
I was busy with our house construction for the past one year and haven't been able to fish much.

Was at Goa for a little over three days and the fishing was bad where I was at. There were nets all over the place and I put in a decent time fishing if not much and I only got a couple of nibbles and nothing to show for it. Since I was there with a friend I could only fish so much, but next time I will try to hit a different location and spend more time fishing.

Here is a little video I made anyways....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-3OLbE_7Ug

Cheers!
Maruthu

Thanks Venky!! I haven't seen any GT reports from you lately. Waiting for your next surf fishing report !!

Kingfish,
You are right, the king salmon are extremely powerful. I haven't caught a mahseer before, but in freshwater this is the hardest fighting fish I have encountered.. Next time I would take a 4000 sized reel, with a stronger better quality mono line.
Yes, its Fall season here, and fishing is starting to pick up. I will be doing more shore fishing starting end of October.

Cheers,
Binu

Thanks Maruthu, hoping to fish for striped bass by end of October. Pheasant hunting season starts in two weeks, I may also try duck hunting for mallard and wood ducks this year. !!

Hello Maruthu,

Saw the video, the sound quality is excellent ... you can hear every four letter word now!

Seriously, it is good if the moderators can interject some life into the forum on a more regular basis, it does not matter if they have caught anything.

Run out of Squidgies?

Regards,
Kingfish

Hello Binu,

On a tangent .... I note that you hunt pheasant and ducks, which used to be my passion until I gave it up some years ago.

Do you own a dog? Use a double barrel ?

Kingfish

Kingfish,
That's good to know. Would love to see some of your hunting pictures. I am very new to hunting, and I am still at an early learning phase. It was something that I always wanted to do and finally bought a 12 Guage Semi Auto Benelli Montefeltro two years back. I don't have a dog.
I spent a lot of time last year trying to hunt different game, like wild turkey, rabbits, Goose, Doves and Pheasant.
I was successful with hunting doves.
Turkey hunting is big game, and was very addicting, but problem was most spots were 2.5+ hours drive away, so I couldn't do much scouting and prep work. But I got a lot of different turkey calls, and I am getting good at calling now.
I found a good spot with some wood ducks while on a State Game lands, and plan to put some decoys and try for ducks this year.
I also tried to hunt for Goose, but haven't been successful yet. Here are some pictures from past year's pheasant hunting.

Thank you Kingfish!
I'll try to do my best....

Yes, on this trip I snagged the last squidgy lure that I had with me in a submerged net that I hadn't noticed

Maruthu

Good luck with the huntong and fishing Binu!

Hoping to see some reports and pics from you soon.

Maruthu

Binu,

Pheasants are nice eating. A good dog (am partial to Labradors) will be very useful to flush out game and retrieve ducks/ geese from lakes and rivers, besides being the family pet.

Not so useful for fishing, though!

Regards,
Kingfish

Last year the rain has ditched us and I too was committed with lot of family attention and had not got good time to do fishing.
But I have some report to share(including my record catch GT ) , not having time (work place has become hell) to dig the photos. will definitely post this weekend.

Kingfish,
I can't have a dog in my apartment. But I would surely consider one if I am settled permanently in one location. I will keep you posted

That's great about getting your personal best GT !! I will be waiting to see your report!!

Regards
Binu

Stunning catches there Binu! Reminds me of combat fishing in Alaska where you're in similar conditions but too many folks shoulder to shoulder. Sockeye makes a great table fare, so does steelhead.

Also great to know someone else in the forum shares the same passion for hunting. I started a couple of years ago mostly into dove and duck hunting and planning to get a lease this year, do y'all get to hunt public lands? Nice pics there as well.

Cheers

Thanks Ulygun !! And good to know that you hunt as well. I hunt only public lands on State Parks and State Game Lands, only on weekends (Saturdays actually because most hunting is not allowed on Sundays) . Pheasant season opened three weeks back, and I managed to get 3 pheasants so far. I will be fishing more for Striped bass the next few weeks and may hunt later in winter. Let me know how you do !!

Good luck Binu!

Can't wait to see your striper reports.
Hopefully it is still not too late for big bluefish in New Jersey!

Maruthu

We have dove season open in sections from north to south and I was able to catch it later September in the south. Dove season was great and I'm looking forward to the duck season which just opened last week. I'll let you know how it goes. Y'all are lucky up north with all the public lands, down south we'd have to lease out lands, which are getting dearer day by day! Lol!

Will be waiting for your report on the SB fishing. :)

Cheers...