I recently did a quick trip to the Salmon River for my son’s 18th birthday, October 18th. I’ve been fishing out there for 20 years and have fished most of the 13 miles of the river for steal head. This year we traveled out to catch king salmon. It was an experience I feel everyone should try once. The kings are huge and powerful and a perfect test for all your gear.

Most of my trips to NY start with a nine hour drive through the night. This gets us to the river at first light so we can fish all day.  Exhausted and ready for bed we typically end the day by falling into bed at our hotel room or cabin.  This year we chose to go for the full king salmon experience and rented a camper at Scotty’s campground.  We had no heat and never did figure out where the showers were.  We look at lodging a little differently than most when traveling.  We typically spend no time there other than to sleep so it seems a huge waste of money and not super important to stay at a fancy hotel.  If it’s safe, we’re all in!  You will find during salmon season, lodging prices skyrocket. Scotty’s was the cheapest place I could find and we were happy with it. 

 

This year we started as close to DSR section of the river as we could.  We started at the Staircase and despite what I have heard, people were friendly and spread out.

We went to the top of the line and had plenty of room to fly fish. I caught three big kings and hooked one steelhead. Jax didn’t have any luck but that would soon change. 

After checking into our camper we headed to the DSR. This is something I had never experienced so I was anxious to see what it was all about. You have to pay to play in this section of the river.  You get wristbands when you enter and there were people patrolling the river to be sure all who are fishing have paid to enter. I have to say,  it is the cleanest part of the river and I was very impressed. They limited the number of people in there so there’s a lot of water to fish. It was like Disney Land and in my opinion, worth checking out at least once.

The first hole we came to had some great runs so we ended up spending the rest of the day there. There was no point in moving around when all fish had to pass through that area.  As the day went on pods of kings funneled up the river and we actually lost count of how many kings we hooked.  Jax got a steelhead and 10 minutes before we had to stop fishing Jax lands a huge king, 40”! Not bad for day one.

Day two was a Saturday and as usual, that brings out a lot more people. Every spot we went to was packed.

We stayed away from people and didn’t fall into line with everyone. It didn’t take long for Jax to catch his first fish of the day but we kept walking down river to explore.  We didn’t have much luck.  During our explorations we found there weren’t a lot of people in one of the popular holes of the DSR so we decided to go back and try to get in again.  Unfortunately they were sold out for the day. We were pretty disappointed but we kept moving.

We went back to Staircase and quickly realized we would not be fishing here.  People were crammed together fishing and we could hear a fight breaking out down below us.  Clearly people were not following any kind of fishing educate so back up river we went. It was fun to watch but not what we were looking for. We drove to several different spot only to find people everywhere.  We ended up at upper fly where people were spread out and respectful of others around them.  We kept walking until we found an empty pool.  We hooked fish all afternoon but never actually landed another fish.  My arm was sore from the day before so I really wasn’t disappointed.

The Salmon River never disappoints and I find each visit brings a different experience. It was the perfect way to spend Jax’s 18th Birthday. I hope to make it back out there several more times in the next six month. I hope to see you out there!