* Salmon River, Pulaski NY - April 24th-May 1st
Pulaski is about 400 miles north of Maryland member Carl Shrake's home in Columbia (near BWI airport). It was an easy 6 hour drive, Interstate all the way to Pulaski, where we stayed in a luxurious cabin with several hundred yards of river frontage.
Weeks of 80+ degree weather in March had moved all the runs up by three weeks (several species of Pacific salmon, a few half-pounder Atlantic salmon, as well as steelhead). Steelhead had already spawned and were returning to Lake Ontario. Weather was cool and windy until Friday (when the black flies first started to come out), with wind-driven sleet one day that about took exposed skin off. Water was unusually low, so fishable holding lies were few and far between. Catch rate was about 3 per day instead of 3 per hour expected (and experienced on Carl's last two trips). There was some competition for positions on the river, though not as bad as Harry and Gil experienced last November. Used a guide service for three - fish 'til you drop, ten hours on the water - days, recovered, puttered and practiced with switch rods the other three. (Switch or Spey rods were needed to handle the ungainly terminal tackle, 10 foot + non-tapered leader, Thingamabobber, heavy split shot in two or three places, pinned plastic egg just above #10 hook.) Skeeter's Guide Service (oldest and best in the area) was worth every penny.
Fishing (and catching) was great by California standards, so-so compared to Pulaski norms. It was a great trip, worth repeating. - Kent Hull
* Shad Fishing on the Sacramento River late May and early June
I started chasing Shad on Sacramento Valley Rivers when I was going to college at Sacramento State. Shad are a perfect game fish that lend themselves to being caught by fly fishers. May, June and July are the best months for Shad fishing and 50 to 100 fish days are not uncommon.
At the end of May I went on my yearly shad fishing trip to the Sacramento River. About ten of us go every year and fish the road 48 gravel bar on the Sacramento River. This year the access to road 48 has been closed so no one can enter the area, so we searched for a new location. We ended up staying at an RV Park in Princeton above Colusa. We fished several different locations between Colusa and Butte City. The weather was cold, windy with plenty of rain and the river was cold and up and down in volume, making the fishing poor. Between 10 of us, fishing for a week, we ended up with only 120 fish. In normal years two people can get 120 fish in one day, making it a very slow year. We still had a great time and ended up finding a few new places to fish for shad.
I went back for a three day weekend in June and I figured that the fishing would pick up. The river was high the week before we went but dropping. The weather was warm but the wind was howling making casting shooting heads difficult. We arrived in the Princeton area at about 10 am and started fishing right away. The catching was pretty steady all day until the evening and then it got red hot. We fished until 9 pm and ended up with over 100 fish, not bad. Saturday the wind was down and the river had dropped about a foot, but fishing was slow most of the morning and afternoon. It turned on in the evening and we fished until 9 pm, catching over 100 shad. Sunday morning the fishing was slow so we took off for home early. The shad this year were huge, usually you only get one or two big fish for every 20 fish caught. Overall it was a decent year for Shad fishing. - Chris Walters