Syracuse.com - Anglers taking advantage of early salmon spawning runs up the Salmon River

[HuntingNY-News]

There's always early runs of Salmon up the Salmon River in late August, but this year was unique because several of them occurred on consecutive days. The best, though, is still yet to come, said a DEC expert.

The past two weeks, anglers having been lining sections of the Salmon River to take advantage of some huge, early runs of chinook (king) salmon.

"It was incredible. It was the first time in eight years that I've caught seven salmon before Labor Day - and that's after hooking and losing many more," said Steve Bednarz, of Whitesboro.

Jim Smith, of Syracuse, said he usually doesn't fish the Salmon River until after Labor Day weekend.

"I've been up here the past two weeks. Things seem to be about three weeks ahead of time," he said. "There's fish already some up by the hatchery. Last week ,there were quite a few guys at the village pool (in downtown Pulaski)."

Has the annual fall salmon run, which each fall draws tens of thousands of anglers from throughout the state and beyond, started early this year? One state Department of Environmental Conservation expert doesn't think so.

Fran Verdoliva, the DEC's special assistant to the Salmon River, said there's fish in the river, but it's still too early to get excited. There's still more fish to come - a lot more, he said.

"Every year there's early runs in August," said Verdoliva. "Some come early. Some come when they should. Others come late. The difference this year is that during the past few weeks there were several consecutive days of large runs."

He said things appear to have slowed down this week. Usually, the salmon run peaks around the Columbus Day weekend.

Asked about whether it'd be worth anglers' time to fish the river over Labor Day weekend, Verdoliva responded:

"Would it be worth driving six hours from New Jersey to give it a try? Probably not," he said. "But if you're from say Mexico or Syracuse, I'd say go ahead. There's fish in the river right now. You may or not be able to catch them. But that's why they call it fishing, not catching."

Verdoliva said the river is still relatively warm, with temperatures ranging from 60 to 70 degrees. Ideally, it should be about 55 degrees or colder.

Bednarz pointed out the warm temperatures have a negative side effect on the fish. Those fish that are caught or break loose following an lengthy battle often are weakened and die. He said the best way to prevent, or at least minimize that, is a quick catch and release.

Thanks to the internet, the word about the early spawning runs of salmon on the river traveled fast. It's what drew Mike Fessel, of Jamesville, and Nick Caughel, of Silver Creek, to Altmar, just below the fly fishing only area on the river, Tuesday morning.

"I read about the runs on several websites and the DEC's Fishing Hotline," Fessel said. "I'm off this week from work. We drove 3 ½ hours to get here. This is the first time I've tried it."

Mike French, of Rochester, was also on the river Tuesday morning. He said he was having a slow day. He said he had two fish on and lost them both. He was using salmon roe (eggs) as bait.

"I caught three fish last week. The roe is from one I caught. It weighed about 20 pounds," he said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog