Putting It All Together:
Using your head to find Salmon
by Ditchrat

Every August fisherman from all around the Mid-Atlantic and New England region start to ask themselves the same question. Are the salmon running yet? With the advent of modern communications fisherman are adding ways of receive more up to the minute information on the latest fish movement via , cell phones, personal messaging, and email and some even go as far as to have portable computer that hooks up to the internet over cell phone. With all of this information available one would think that finding salmon is a sure thing. Many of us know or will come to find out fishing is never a sure thing.

As with anything in life the K.I.S.S (keep it stupid simple) theory applies. With that in mind let's take a step back a talk about what we need to know to find salmon. Where and when will we find salmon? For most of us our trips are governed by one of these to things. For the lucky few a quick phone call and a few hours later and we're on the water fishing.

Since most of us have to take vacation days to fish for salmon the "when" is chosen well in advance. A good rule of thumb to go by is the larger the water, the more stable it is, and there for will have a more reliable and predictable run of salmon. Waters like the Salmon River, the Black River, and Oswego River have salmon in them from late Aug. to early Dec., with most of the fish running from the second week in Sept. to early Nov. Once fish begin to enter these rivers in good numbers, pushes of salmon occur daily with only the number of salmon varying from day to day from dozens to hundreds even thousands.

To the serious salmon angler the where is the most complicated and often frustrating portion of the equation. Ninety percent of your success will result from proper research and preparation of your trip the other ten percent; dumb luck. In the early season we want to look toward the lake fleet for the answers. Salmon will start there spawning runs many weeks prior to entering the rivers and this predictability will help us to get started. A couple weeks prior to my first serious trip to salmon country I'll start to pay close attention to the reports coming from the lake fleet. Salmon begin staging near the mouths of their natal creeks and are targeted by the lake fleet. Look for reports of where the fleet is fishing, often they will report they are catching or marking fish in certain depths. As the fish are gettting closer to the river mouths the depths at which they are caught begin to get shallower. Eventually the fleet will have several days of being unable to locate the salmon. This can occur at different time for different rivers or it can occur all at once. Now is a good time to be on the rivers. Generally the fish seem to disappear when the lake "turns over". The occurrence of a lake turning over is when the surface water temperature drops below 50 degree and the waters mixes evenly from top to bottom. If you get a reliable source telling you that the lake turned over and they are not marking fish, use up those saved sick days and get to salmon country because all hell is going to break loose within a days to a week. It is at this point that salmon are completing changes in their bodies in preparation for the spawning run. Salmon have under developed sex organs that only mature just prior to spawning. In order for them to do this energy is diverted form there digestive system, which essentially makes it nonfunctional and eliminates there need to feed and further. This occurrence also results in the lake fleets catches starting to reduce and is another good sign that the salmon are ready to move into the rivers.

For those of you that want to know when this happens the only thing I can tell you is that it is sometime between Sept. and Oct., with the first week in Oct. being the most common. This is when the lower portions of rivers shine with bright fish and explosive action, with the possibility of fishing over a different pod of salmon every 15- 30 minutes all day long.

So you missed the first couple big pushes of salmon, and you're going to salmon country. Well you may still be in luck, several other things can and will often cause a push of salmon. Lets start with the easiest to find out, a rise in water caused by addition of water to the rivers. First of all any rise in water level from rain, or power generation will bring in salmon. However levels are often too high to fish effectively, too off color or simply make moving about the river too easy for the fish and they spread out. If the rise in water level is caused by rain this is where the internet comes in handy, some river or creek somewhere has the perfect fishing condition, not to mention the right conditions for salmon. Search the USGS sites for water flows; look for rivers that are having sharp increases in water levels, now for get about them because chances are they are too off color to fish. Look for the rivers that have crested and are dropping quick. By then the fish are in the rivers and are now starting to concentrate in holes and pockets with heavy white water rolling over them. This is what I would call "hide mode", these fish are easy targets if you don't spook them and take the time to present your lure properly, in other words resist the temptation to snag or line them and you're rewarded. If the crest is followed by more rain then you just found a good chance at fishing over moving aggressive fish that haven't seen your lure before. As for the larger river with power generation the same effect will occur as the water level is adjusted. Just remember dropping water sends salmon looking for safe places to hide, sometimes upstream, sometimes down either way they move fast.

So now your in salmon country and there are no water releases either manmade or heaven sent, how do you find salmon. First off you'll need to take a look at the weather patterns over the past couple days. Ideally you want to fish a river that has strong winds blowing into its mouth. Every body of water including Lake Ontario has a natural resonances. By this I mean if you fill a pan with water and rock it back and forth you see that the water will go from high to low then back again. This is called a seiche. Lake Ontario has a seiche of 11 minutes, and a high side of 2 cm above normal level. This does not sound like much but if a strong enough wind blows this water will be held back. By combining with the water pushed from the wind it can add up to inches up to a foot. Even a few inches of water will cause a river to back up enough to fool salmon into believing the rivers water level is higher then it is. Conversely if the wind is blowing hard away from a river then the wind stops abruptly, the seiche will be increased in size until the energy dissipates.

Remember it doesn't matter what you think the water level looks like, it only matters what the salmon think it looks like. Kept it Stupid Simple. Do your home work ahead of time, check old reports and ask the right question to help you find your own fish. Make a check list of all the possible waters to fish then work each one out to see which one will have the best water conditions. Loose little sleep and check some water out before you go fish in the morning. By doing this you can greatly increase your chances of finding fish and more importantly increase your confidence.