Salmon City

Salmon really do swim upstream! I mean, you read about it in books and see it on the discovery channel, but until you watch it in real life, it just seems like one of those "far away land" occurrences.

Justin and I are up in Syracuse for the weekend visiting brother Matt and heading to a wedding on Sunday afternoon. We woke up early Saturday morning to head out to the Salmon River in Altmar, New York. Arriving at the tackle shop to get our fishing licenses, there were mess tents set up for grilling food and a parking lot full of burly men in camouflage waiters. We forgot it was technically a holiday weekend.... Columbus Day. We were in for crowded banks.

We got lucky in that most of the fisherman were there to bait fish. Since Justin was fly fishing we got to go to a separate area called the Upper Fly Zone. While still pretty peppered with fly fisherman, we were much better off than the bait guys.

In typical "upstate fall" style, the leaves and trees were beautiful. We got to the river around 9am, later than we would have liked but still a bit before the main crowd arrived. It was preeeetty chilly. I ended up wearing both jackets that Justin brought for himself, on top of my fleece, long sleeved shirt and a sweater. (I know mom, with all the ski gear we have, I should have been better prepared...I just haven't unpacked my ski/winter clothes yet!) I wore my ski socks with my rain boots so that I could splash around on the bank of the river.

The area was generally quite, minus the an occasional discussion of fish, line or water between fishermen. There was however, a constant roar of water from the river. The Salmon River had flooded it's highest in 100 years recently, so the water level was still high and the bottom of the river was all new territory to the fisherman. That much water does a lot of re-decorating.

The river was ripe with fish, they would jump sporadically and flop down on their sides. There were a couple of fisherman across the river that were hooking them left and right but only pulled in half as many. We had much less luck however with fish. I did however, count at least 3 different types of mushrooms, lots of moss and several different trees. The river was beautiful and the water was moving fast in most parts.

My toes did almost freeze off. I should know by now to always carry toe warmers with me whenever I plan on being outdoors for any period of time during the months of September through March. So sad. One of our last fishing spots was on a flat portion of the bank, covered with rocks. It was a popular place. I found a funny rock that looked like a face and turned it into a "rock alien." I also decided this would be a good spot to go play in the water. Apparently my rain boots are not entirely water PROOF and my left foot got pretty wet. The sad part was, was that I couldn't feel the cold water because my toes were numb, instead I felt the slosh of water when I took a step. I was able to mostly dry everything by laying the sock and innersole on the rocks for about an hour. By then the sun had warmed up a bunch and I was no longer freezing!

We ended our fishing adventure around 1pm, at which point we were both pretty hungry. We plan to come back another weekend this fall. It was really too crowded to teach me how to fly fish, so the lesson will have to wait for a less popular weekend.