Friday Update
11/06/09 - Well, this is the last Friday Update for this year. Next week I'll start the Thursday Reviews and keep them going until spring. I don't have much to say about the river today. It did come up some with this snow and the ensuing melt. However, most any area that's open now is still wadable. Whether the areas will stay wadable depends how fast the melt happens and your guess about that is as good as mine.

However, I have a trip report from my Pulaski trip that you might want to read. Here it is. Be sure and check next week for the Thursday Review. There is a link to the Thursday Review in the upper right box on this page.

Pulaski trip report.
Left the shop at 5:00pm on Saturday, October 31st. Got to Pulaski about 2:30am on November 1st and was happy the clocks moved back an hour because I had to meet Jim Rusher at 7:00am and moving the clock back gave me an extra hour of sleep. The fates were against Jim and I meeting up that morning so I ended up fishing alone on Sunday. I went to the Douglaston Salmon Run. (http://www.douglastonsalmonrun.com/) I didn't know anything about the river or where to go and had heard there were fish coming into the river and Douglaston is right at the estuary so you know every fish coming in has to swim past you. So I paid my $30.00 and waded in.

Now if anyone tells you going to the Salmon River and hooking up is easy I'm here to say that on some days it isn't easy - in fact it's downright hard. I know because I fished all day in various runs in the two plus miles of Douglaston and hooked two fish. Note I said hooked because, as you can guess by the choice of words, I didn't land either one of them.

More than one person told me that when fishing the Salmon River for Steelhead it's a good thing to use 6-pound test for tippet. So I rigged up with 10-pound test tied to my fly line (about 10') and to that I tied 4' of 6-pound test. To that 6-pound tippet section I tied a fly - an egg pattern - and up by the leader to line connection I added a Strike Indicator. And then I added some weight just above the 10-pound to 6-pound knot and set to fishing. I added some split-shot - then I added some more split-shot and found bottom. OK, ready to go I figured and started fishing in earnest.

Hours later I got tired of throwing that rig around and took all that split-shot, the strike-indicator and egg pattern off and figured I'd try a technique I knew something about. I figured I'd fish streamers and I hooked up and promptly broke off. Rookie mistake - changed methods of fishing and didn't change my leader. I learned in a split-second that you don't have a prayer of holding one of those double-digit Steelhead fresh out of the lake on 6-pound test if you're stripping streamers. I got to enjoy the hit and one headshake before that fish was long gone.

So I took a break and re-rigged by taking off the 10-pound to 6-pound combo and put on a 9' leader with 3X tippet. I got to feel the next fish run and jump before it broke me off. Fish two - Mike zero. That was it for the day. I alternated back and forth between eggs and streamers but never got another hit. I did see several others catch fish but none for me.

The next day I met Jim for breakfast and we decided to go back to Douglaston. That day Jim caught two fish and I struck out completely. Waaaaa. I headed back to Maine the next morning fishless but determined to go back again. While I didn't catch any the fish were there and the next time I'll be a little better prepared. Well, not so much better prepared as I had everything I needed for gear but I was lacking a bit when it came to technique but now I know what to practice.

If you care to look back at the 2009 season Here is a link to the 2009 Friday Updates.

If you care to look back at the 2009 season Here is a link to the 2008 Friday Updates and near the top of the page you'll find links to Friday Updates dating back to 1997.