Hey gang, just wanted to post an update on this thread.
We went, we fished, we caught!
So we went out and fished the river in Dexter NY, most of the time either under the bridge or below it. It's an interesting spot as you can fish after dark if you are downstream of the bridge. We fished hard for 10 hours during the day on day 1 and no one got a bite, nada, nyet, nothing. Not a big crowd and about 4-5 boats. People trying very different techniques from chucking spoons, to floating roe or wool to very blatant attempts at snagging (out in BC we called it floosing). Like I said, nothing during the day, despite fish in the river and some splashing and jumping (we seemed to be about 2 weeks early, I betcha it's full of fish right now).
Evening was a whole other story, we switched to sliding egg weights and single hooks with roe bags and the action picked up. Many fish on, several landed over the course of each evening and we fished until 2-3am.
I caught and landed a very nice, fresh doe about 22-25 lbs, if the picture upload works, you will see it. My buddy caught and landed one in excess of 35lbs, but it was pretty dark and we released it. It was a lot of fun and not the crowds and combat fishing I was expecting. I know many believe that salmon stop feeding when they enter rivers, but this simply cannot be true. Growing up in Northern BC we would fish the Skeena system using a very similar bar fishing technique with a 3 way swivel, heavy pyramid weight and roe. I refuse to believe that you snag fish after fish using a stationary system like that, which is what we were doing. Toss it about 25 yards out, tighten the line, set it on a rod holder, light cigar and wait. Anyway all in all it was a good experience, I will be sure to go next year (more cold weather gear, better headlamp, waterproof camera, chair, more cigars and the bottle of marnier was gone in 20 minutes
)
thanks to all for the great advice and tips.
Tight lines!
