Syracuse.com - Visit to Syra-Canadian Fish and Game Club meeting produces hook-up with a nice salmon

HuntingNY-News · October 11, 2011

Before the meeting, I was invited to grab a fly rod and check out the salmon schooled at the base of the dam that's in back of the clubhouse along the Little Salmon River.

Submitted photoI battle a nice chinook as Kevin Kelsey offers encouragement.Members of the Syra-Canadian Fish and Game Club recently invited me up as a guest to one of meetings at their clubhouse along the Little Salmon River in Mexico.

Before the meeting, I was invited to grab a fly rod and check out the salmon schooled at the base of the dam that's in back of the clubhouse. With Kevin Kelsey, manager of the Ed Weed hatchery in Vermont and a veteran Salmon River angler as my guide, I was able to hook into a nice chinoon (estimated 25 pounds) in no time.

I fought the fish from shore for about 15 minutes. Man, it tiring. That fish would just not give up. Eventually, the fly snapped off and I lost it. However, it whet my appetite to return soon with my own fly rod to battle one of these powerful fish.

The dinner was a delicious dish-to-pass event, with chili, sausages, salad, etc.. There were two speakers.

Les Monostory, of Fayetteville, who talked about the pollution and cleanup efforts of Onondaga Lake. He also highlighted his involvement in helping to create the Central New York Chapter of the Izaak Walton League and its activities in helping to clean up local streams and involve school children in the process.

Kelsey talked about his hatchery's stocking of northern Champlain with walleye and the great pike and bass fishery there. He also showed some cool videos of steelhead fishing along the main Salmon River

It was a long ride home that evening to Skaneateles. I was thinking about how that salmon felt on my line the whole time..

The club's president, George Lee, of Camillus, told me afterward: "Next morning we all caught and released another 6 salmon from pool and caught and kept one 15-pound steelhead.

Nice.

See the club's home page.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog