Salmon river pros?

[Eric W]

Hey all. Planning on taking a trip to the salmon river to fish late winter steelhead. First trip there ever. Plan on fishing a 9ft fly rod. I'm looking for suggestions. I have two free weekend very late feb or march 16-18. Just looking for opinions on which weekend has a better chance of getting onto fish. Any other tips are welcome.
Thanks, Eric

[gseries69]

Since you're a flyrodder I would recommend the March dates or later. There will be more dropbacks and you'll have a better chance of fishing to aggresive fish that will hit a swung fly. You can swing anytime, but the hook up ratio goes up quite a bit once the water warms and the fish dropback. The alternative is chuck and duck with a ton of weight which may be a turn off for some.

[gseries69]

ps - I've been many times but do not consider myself a pro by any stretch.

[Eric W]

Thanks! To be honest I dont mind the chuck and duck method though swinging flies does sound better. All thing considered I am leaning toward the march dates.

[fleshfly]

Eric, I have an outdated book, that gives pretty detail/description of the entire river. with quite a bit of description of the pools, and how pools fish at the different water levels. I came accross it cleaning things out recently and I coudlnt resist in keeping it even though my trips to the salmon arent as common as they used to. If you PM me your address I'll put the journal in the mail for you. Good luck.

Avoid the chuck and duck, you can catch fish just easily otherways...

[Eric W]

PM was sent! Glad to hear that the Chuck and Duck isn't required!