Pulaski New York Salmon River Steelhead Driftboat fishing guide – Pulaski NY Salmon, river, steelhead, guides spin, fish, drift boat, wade, King, Chinook, Coho, Atlantic, steelhead, Brown, trout, newyork, Pulaski steelhead fishing, Salmon River New York, Salmon River pulaski New York, Salmon River Pulaski NY, steelhead guide, Pulaski New York, Pulaski New York Steelhead, salmon river steelhead pulaski new york, Pulaski NY, Salmon River NY, steelhead fishing, steelhead fishing new york


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Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead- Pulaski, NY. Reports and Ramblings:

Sept. through April
 I hope you find my reports and articles entertainingly informative and mildly educational
Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , SteelheadSalmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead

              Phil Leonardi                           Bill Cody                          
                                                           
  Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead
            Jeff Pierce                                     Capt. Bill
                         Mustad US Sales Co-ordinator
                     
Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead
The smile says it all. Nice colored up male Steelhead.

for the rest of March, April and May
Steelhead Season Report, Forecast, Humor, Tips, Articles, Pictures and Rambling's (Some from the Archives :)
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Cape Cod, Chatham, Monomoy Island Flats and Beyond, Saltwater Fly/Spin Blind and Sight Fishing is just around the corner and I'm booking trips daily. Still some incredible tides left for you!
(See below for much more info :)

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A sampling of one of my recent weekly notes:
Mon. 2 new anglers, averaged a doz. Steelhead.
Tues. 2 very experienced expert S.R. anglers, hit 21, yes, that was 21 Steelies!
Wed. over a dozen
Thurs. over 17!
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Last week over 20 steel played with in a day.
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I had 2 clients who fished two days in a row.
Tues. 18 and Wed. 15 equals, 33.
-==========================================================
As predicted and forecast, the fishing has remained STRONG and will remain strong until the last week of April - first week of May (maybe longer depending on mother nature), as usual. I'd recommend coming over to fish.
-
My guest's have continued to find around a dozen Steelhead each day to play with, almost every trip. Sometimes, even a few more! Same as last year. These are VERY strong averages and not the norm if you look at the last 10-15 years :)
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The fishing WILL remain strong for the rest of the season (until early May approx.) with this many fish around now. As previously reported, every single Winter - Spring holding pool has ok to reeeeeel good number's of Steelhead! Most of these fish are reeel smart after having been fished too all Winter, so dont be surprised if you find the fishing challenging, slow, tuff to simply AMAZINGLY Incredible! We have fish top to bottom of the river.
With the normal higher water Spring flow's (rain, fog, snow, wind, run-off, etc...) having arrived, expect most of the balance of fish to be entering and running the river thru late March to early April. There biological clock is ticking and these higher flows will make them feel much safer about running up the river to find a mate and spawn. The transitional resting holding area's are starting to pick-up. There is already a lil spawning taking place. We call these fish our early spawners. You will notice the fish starting to pair up now. It's very normal at this time of the year to find them paired up. When you hit a fish in particular spot, make sure to cover that area thoroughly because their will normally be the mate (and more) in the same exact area. Have seen and done this a million times. Sometimes you will have 4 or 5 Buck's in this same area. Remember to always release any females asap (no pictures) if you want to keep catching. She is the bait and the reason all of those buck's are there. Once she is gone then the bucks have no reason to hang around. Kind'a like last call at the bar. Once that last ugly girl leaves, you have no reason to hang around any longer :)
March is when the fish will start to spread out over the entire river and beyond and become more difficult to pin point exactly. You will have different % in different parts of the river. Drop back's are starting to appear. This spring season looks super!
Shortly you will see 90% of the fish targeting the gravel, hint!
FYI - I like to leave the females alone. She is spawning, so let her b.
She is also the bait. She is solely responsible for all of those buck's hanging around.
If I accidentally hook her I break her off as fast as a blink of an eye. Sometimes she wont even know she was hooked. Thats the trick to keeping all of those buck's around for your fishing pleasure. The female will always normally be the lead fish, lighter in color. By following these simple instructions you will have many more fish to fish for, for your fishing enjoyment.
Look for drop backs all April. Lot's of'm too :) All in your favorite to fish holes and transitional resting points.
See you on the water! Randy
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Email Bag:
Hey Randy, long time no hear.  Been trying to get the 4-best flats flies
article picked up by a magazine but it probably has more to do with my
lousy writing as anything else.  Some good news though "On The Water
Magazine"  will be using one of my shots for the April cover and
it happens to be you!  It is a shot they used in the past for and article
but now want to use it for the cover. Gave them the low down on who and where
so they should be including your name and hopefully your website in the byline. 
Keep em’ tight. John A. Halnon
-

FYI - I'm looking for a Free lance writer to write an article on
"the 4-best flats flies".
Having flies and flats experience a big plus. We have all the Pro. photo's and outline done.
Having contact's in the National Fly Fishing Publication industry would be helpful to find
a publisher. My Pro. photographer has some contact's. If we can get the article written,
combined with the Pro. photo's, we should have a real nice piece that is acceptable for a
National F.F. Publication. I'm not paying anything for this service and you would look to
the publisher's for this. I am also not looking to get paid myself.
Just a bi-line or name mention or URL. If thats all you would want then that would make it
easier to get published, as you already know how that game is played :) Contact Randy Jones
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Added Bonus Forecast, etc.. for your reading pleasure, entertainment:
Things could not be looking any better for the next couple month's. We still have fish in transition, top to bottom. This recent increase in water flow is bringing in fresh Steelies as we speak and also have fish dropping back to the lake after spawning! The Winter - Spring holes are ALL, yes ALL with fish. There is not a single Winter - Spring holding pool that does not have 5 to 75 Silver bullets in it presently. Some are stacked, Ssssh :)! The previous #'s are also probably a lil on the low side, to be conservative. :) During April, most of these (%) will normally be in the shallows over the gravel.
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Haveing the coorect presentation for the method you choose to fish, rigging properly for your presentation method and being exactly in the correct spot (habitat) will mean numerous fish. Being off just a lil on any one of the above can mean far fewer fish or none at all, unfortunately, which is very normal. Also, by moving around once you have covered your spot thoughorally will increase your odds greatly. That's what some seasoned anglers do and what I find to work the best.
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Of course, as usual, these fish filled Winter - Spring holding pools can be difficult with very educated fish to fool, for obvious reason's. So, dont be surprised if you find them tuff. As some of you know, you can have just 1 thing lacking from your presentation, rigging and or habitat location that can hamper your results. Also, as many of you know, by covering all of your base's thoroughly and running 100% drift can turn your day into fish filled! I find that by knowing all of the pieces of the puzzle related to the above, what causes what to happen, both positive and negatively and then knowing how to correct it or keep it, per drift. Is the key.
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As usual, anglers will find their fishing tuff, ok to outstanding, normally dependent of your previous experience on the water targeting this very special, challenging, magnificent and exciting species of fish.
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After the last two months of Steelhead filled days, it's consistent enouph to be able to easily forecast another good Spring. Besides the ones we already have, we still have more fish to come and drop back (Bonus!), as usual.
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The fishing has been reeeeealllly good for myself and others!
My guest's have been averaging around a dozen Steelhead each day. Some shore anglers our hitting them real good while other's are working for them. I'm finding fish in almost every spot that I fish. I'm fishing both transitional spots as well as Winter holding pools.
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Tip!
For your best fishing opportunities, fish the area's that have a gravel influence above, equal too and below your fishing location - hole - transitional or prime holding water's. It's what I do every spring and Fall when we have fish on and around the gravel laying and eating egg's.
This TIP, comes with a money back guarantee :)
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                    This could be you! :) Ye-Haaaa!

A couple of Spring 20lb. Bucks from Pucker Brush Creek, N.Y. - Ye-haa!
                                               (Released for your future fishing pleasure)
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We are finding fish top to bottom of river in all the normal place.
There are a number of spot's where they are stacked up!
All presentational techniques are working with varying degrees of success. Same with what you are offering the fish to eat.
I'd obviously recommend coming up with the quality fishing we are finding now. It should remain good all Spring at this rate. The fishing to me is as good as last year. And last year, as many of you know, was one of the best in many years. :)
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If becoming self sufficient on this river is your primary goal, covering ALL aspect's, along with catching some trophy Steelhead and maybe some BIG browns. Ill happily do my part to work with you as a team, all striving for the same goals.
OR
If you just want to try to catch some fish while haveing fun, we can do that too, as we always do. :)
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Want to increase your normal catch rate by 50-75% Gaurrenteed? Email me:)
Best Fish's,
Randy

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From the Archives:
Creeks, Streams, Rivers - Winter into Spring

Typically, the other “best time” to fish for steelhead is just around the corner. End of Feb., March can be “prime time” for steelhead as there is not only leftover winter steelhead, but also fresh runs of springtime fish. Winter thaws and early spring rains generate runs of steelhead. The water temperature will rise along with their metabolic rate, so they will be much more apt to move for a fly or bait. Normally, the whole river, creeks and streams are alive because you're fishing transitional areas, etc... and holding-resting points.

When the Salmon River is running high due to run-off, its prime time to walk the many miles of streams and creeks in the area. Ever try to land a 10-pound Steelie in a small creek? Its not easy, but lots of fun! Once ice-out has happened in the smaller tributaries that run into Lake Ontario north and south of the Salmon River, it’s a great time to explore! These tribs will all have fresh chromers moving in.

Imagine walking up a small stream 20 feet wide, light colored bottom, crystal clear water, through the forest and seeing 10-20 Steelhead, 8-12 pound average in one to four feet of water and not seeing a single other person all day. Sound like Alaska? Nope, believe it or not there are several areas not far from here where this is possible. Many of the creeks and streams feeding into Lake Ontario have steelies in them, but only a few that I’ve found are hidden away in a beautiful pristine environment without any or many other anglers. Normally the Salmon River will flood at least once during the spring. Knowing the optional creeks and streams in the surrounding area to fish during this flooding can sometimes save your trip.

Due to possible increasing angler pressure to these areas, (which they can not handle) names will not be printed. Let’s just call them, "Pucker Brush Creek.” :)
 
Please keep in mind that they're maybe a 10 to 25% (approx.) survival rate among steelhead that spawn. These may return as our 15-20 lb. fish next year. Also, they're maybe a 10 to 15% (approx.) natural reproduction of steelhead that provides us with a wild strain. By putting some, if not all of your catch back, you will be helping yourself, other anglers and your children to continue to enjoy this incredible fishery for years to come.
 
When I go fishing, I take all this and more into consideration. In my opinion, steelhead fishing is one of the most challenging and rewarding types of fly/spin fishing you will ever experience. But to achieve proficiency you need to have a clear understanding of the species and habitat in which they live. Then you'll soon be realizing the best part of fishing - FISH ON!

Bottom line: Any month is a good month, providing the fish are there. Which they always are. Just depends on number's. And no one can forecast that.

Happy Hookin;
Randy Jones

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Mail Bag:
Randy,  
I fished with you in 2007 and would love
to do a couple of trips with you this
upcoming year.  I am looking to do a
striper trip with you.  I wanted to get
in touch with you now so you could recommend
some dates for me. 
I would like to plan a trip to the Cape but
was looking for your advise as to when a
good time to come down is (fish being in
and tides). My schedule can be very flexible.
I appreciate your advice.
J.D.
-
Hi J.D.,
Monomoy Island - Sight and Blind, Fly-Spin Fishing, Wade Flats (Cape Cod - Chatham),  I like the end of May - June (Easiest) and the first 2 weeks of July - (Biggest and freshly arrived, yet not totally educated like Aug.). My personal favorite time is August when they are the most difficult to find as well as catch due to their incredible education level. I personally would not recommend the mid to late part of August unless you have VERY fast tides.
Normally (But not always) the faster the tides, the better the fishing for a number of reason's.
-

Get the best Tides while there HOT! :)
Tide speed
Fast - May 21 Thurs. - May 31 Sun.
OK - Average -  June 6 Sat. - June 10 Wed.
Fast - June 20 Sat. - July 1 Wed.
OK - July 6 Mon. - July 13 Mon.
Fast - July 20 Mon. - July 28 Tues.
OK - Aug. 4 Tues. - Aug. 12 Wed.
Fast - Aug.18 Tues. - Aug. 25 Tues.
These do not include the slow tides that also can fish reeel good and have their own advantages. If you coming to the Cape on your own, no matter wade or boat, I'd plan my fishing vacation - trip around the above tides. It would be harder to NOT catch a fish on these faster tides, especially May-June and early July. :)
If booking a trip with me during my favorite times then tide is not that critical. All tides are good tides.
Low Mid day
May 28-June1 (Fast Tides)
June 12-16 (OK Tide)
June 26-30 (Fast Tides)
Personally, I like a low around mid-day. This gives me greater flexibility and I also get to catch the fastest part of the dropping tide which is normally (not always) the best part of either tide. You tend to see a crescendo of fish and catching :)

-
Mustad Hooks:
If you are looking for a great hook, look no further. Many guides, Seasoned Salmon River Steelhead Anglers, my Two expert Fly Tier's and Myself, all use the Mustad Signature Series Ultra Point CO68 and the 37132 for all of our Salmon and Steelhead flies. These hooks are grown locally, almost in your own back yard. I use exclusively the Mustad Signature Series Ultra Point CO68 for every fly that I use for steelhead. Matter of fact, Im haveing about 1,400 flies tied up for my business as we speak, all on those amazing Mustad CO68's.
All of my favorite Salmon Flies are tied on either the CO68 or the 37132.
The reason Mustad went to a Signature Series Ultra Point was to be more competitive with the other high end foreign hook manufacture's. They have succeeded!
If you'd like to visit there website for more info. or get some great Salmon - Steelhead fly recipes, here it is
-
SHARPEST Site on the Web - www.mustad.no

-
www.Seaguar.com
Seaguar - like nothing you'll ever see.
Sea. gets its strength and flexibility from two exclusive unique floro. resin's in patented double structure technology.
Enouph of that tecno stuff. (Boooorrrinnngggg, snooze :) If you want to use the exact same leader - tippet material that I do for steelhead, then this is the exclusive floro. I use in the Winter time. I think it is also the most expensive? I get paid to guide anglers like yourself and feel its my responsibility to offer you the best shot at catching fish. Thats why I only use the best materials, etc.. made, simple. It is not brittle in the Winter time like some other really good floro.'s are. The diameter beat's ALL other's. As Ive always said, anytime you can disguise what your fly, bait, etc.. is tied too, any species of fish, anywhere in the world, the odds are pretty good that you will play with a few more. If you want to use the same floro. as many of the world's TOP guides, then Seagaur is the ticket.
I could type all day long on the advantages you'll have over all other angler's, type all day long about all of the experiment's Ive run. All day long about, well, you get my drift. I only use the best materials, etc.. in my guide business. In many many cases, this one product can make the difference between no fish and a dozen. Been there, done that, I've bought the T-shirt. I like my side of the fence better than the other side. We have all been on the other side, but no more, with Seagaur Fluorocarbon :)
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Hi John,
Thanks again for your sponsorship!
I only use your Seaguar Grand Max for leader/spin and tippet/fly in both the Salmon River (mostly blindcasting with some sightfishing) in Pulaski, NY for Salmon and Steelhead and Salt/Cape Cod/Monomoy Island Flats/Sightfishing/Striped Bass and Bluefish.
In both locations I am normally dealing with very smart/educated (pressured and big) fish. Water is crystal clear and the fish are ultra spooky.
-
The top five things I enjoy about your Leader/Tippet attributes are:
1. Invisibility
2. Strength
3. Invisibility
4. Knot Strength
5. Invisibility
Thanks again for your continued support!
Best Fish's,
Randy Jones
www.Seaguar.com
Seaguar - like nothing you'll ever see.
-

This heated fish catching machine awaits you! 
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http://skiing.about.com/od/skiboots/ss/bootheaters_7.htm

Just an idea:
It seems as though the skiing industry is ahead of the Winter Wader heater industry as far as keeping your feet warm. If cold feet are a concern for you, then I think one of the ways to go is to look into the ski boot heater systems for a possible avenue to take. Above is a link that may help you. Good luck!
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This new and innovative rigging will guarantee all of your fish are hooked in the mouth. (0% mortality rate, 0% foul hooked) I would have not believed it unless I had seen it with my own eyes in the saltwater. Pat has caught 100's if not 1,000's of Steelhead useing this method and I think only 1 was hooked in the tongue. His lost rate is equal to any other method. His method will actually increase your odds of hooking up with flies as they will have more action. You can use this with bait also.

http://www.moffittangling.com
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Mail Bag:
Dear Randy,

         I first became aware of your existence by your post on the steelhead site. I found your post on rod tip placement after hookup to be the single most informative, educational, and accurate advice I've EVER gotten from ANYONE PERIOD!  I used your tips Christmas day at the upper trestle and landed a 15# girl with less fuss than most 6pounders I've caught. Thanx for the help, I reeely appreciate it. It's so rare to find a salmon river guide so honest and forthright sharing lifetime info with beginners like me for free.
        I just tonight (Jan. 9) clicked on the link to your site and can't believe the wealth of great info you've so kindly taken the time to share with the world at a mouse click.
       I live in Rome, and although I fished Salmon as far back as meat hook days, (I think 1979 was my first year) I've never fished steel seriously until this past November. I've fished with guides a couple times with my brother, but I've been going on my own for the most part since Nov. 1st. I plan on going tomorrow (Saturday) and I will try to remember all I can, especially keep the tip as high as I can and keep my tip in front of my line and as tight as I can. I've also been using too much weight. Pre-setting the hook sounds like the golden ticket, too. I've been fishing the upper trestle, pineville side with the trestle on my right and the funky tree with the public fishing sign four feet directly behind me. I feel like I'm getting a great drift there, and no one seems to be there most of the time.There are usually people on the opposite bank and down river on the rt.13 side, though. I don't know if this spot is empty because it sucks, or most people don't want to make the trek through the railroad bed snow for a half-mile. I've been there and caught fish when the guys on the other side didn't, and I've had the opposite happen.
   I bottom bounce with a noodle rod exclusively as this is all I know. I've only had good luck with egg sacks, but want to start using more flies as this seems to be what everyone else is catching fish with. I'm just going to bounce the flies the same way I bounce eggs as again, this is all I know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I also want desperately to learn to float as I see this working all around me.
    What do I do when the wind kicks up? It blows my line into a bow, and I can't feel anything.
     I lived 14 years in south central New Hampshire, and my older brother still lives there. He's a very successful business man, and has a huge passion for the steel. He hires guides (who will for now remain nameless) a lot, and I'm sure once I turn him on to your site, he will be in contact with you very quickly. He's a great guy, but a real serious man when it comes to spending his valuable downtime. He's as loyal a consumer as is possible once he finds a product or service he believes in and trusts. I just know from reading your site he will try you out, and from the good vibe I've gotten from you so far I know you two are going to hit it off and this will prove a very fruitful relationship for both of you. His name is Tom. I'm for SURE going to be there the first and subsequent times he hires you.
   Thanking you again for all the great info I hope to hear from/see you soon.
Regards, Frank
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Hi Frank,
Thanks for the email. Im very happy that you enjoy the site and that it has helped!
Sure, fish your flies the same way as you fish your egg's on the bottom. Same presentation method.
Windy: I fish the same way with rod tip high. The trick is to not watch where the line enters the water. Instead, watch the bow in the line. As soon as that bow start's to straighten out, thats your pause or hesitation, so you give the rod a lil twitch. Then the bow should re-appear as you continue your drift. (your weight just rubbed a rock or something)  If your line does not move then your either snagged or you have a fish. So watch the bow when windy. I hope this helps, it does for myself and guest's.
I'd enjoy very much taking you and your brother out.
I hope you had an enjoyable day fishing.
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Randy
We Had A great time w/ you and got out b4 the snow.
Thank you for everything !!!! We had a blast.
Hit 4 more down at Pineville below the bridge
after fisihin' with you for a total of 17 fish
for the day. We had an incredible 68 fish in 4 days
of fishing.
Take care of your self and thank you for the great get
away. Pat
-
-
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All of us (the local economy) who benefit from this fine fishing would like to "Thank you all" for spending your valuable fishing dollar's here :)
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I hope all of my complementary past, present and future reports, tips, articles, pictures and ramblings entertains and keeps you safe while helping you in your Steelhead quest! Sharing this free info. with you has and always will be my personal pleasure.
As always, my (Our) prayers and hopes go out for a safe stay and return home for all of our service men and women who are fighting over sea's and who also visit my site on a regular basis.
Thanks to all of you who have used my guide services in the past, refer trips to me and to anyone who stops by and spends their valuable internet fishing time here. :)
Best Fish's,
Randy
-
-
I have some good Steelhead articles below if your a new viewer. Ramblings galore if you like to read.
Please see the below fishing report's and fishing tips. It may help you on your next trip up here. :)
All of the below is Archived Material.
-
Please visit the below advertiser's. They help to keep the light's on as well as offering you some of the top of the line fishing products and lodging. :)
-
1880 House B and B, Salmon - Steelhead Season Available Dates
Linda's B and B provide all the "extra's" that include breakfast, home made soup, free commercial ice machine, use of washer and dryers, wader area to hang your waders, fly tying table, cable tv in all the bedrooms, most have a private bath and wireless internet service. Incredible dinners are available from Nov. until the end of April.
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If you would like a personally recommended place to rest your head after a long day of fighting King Salmon, Browns or Steelhead on the Salmon River, Pulaski NY on a year round basis. Linda, who owns and run's The "Very Popular" 1880 House B and B still has some rooms available.
http://www.1880house.com
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Mark and brother Alex celebrate his first landed steelhead ever! (3 years) Congrats to you both!
-
The Sporting Gentleman
The fine owners of the Sporting Gentleman are all stocked up and ready to supply you with all of your Steelhead, Trout, Bass, Tarpon, Bones, Etc.. needs.
If your in the neighborhood, please stop in and say HI to my good friend's at the "The Sporting Gentleman."
They will have all of your fishing supplies. Or, you can visit them by this link. :)
http://www.sportinggentleman.com/index.html
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Welcome aboard Fishage.com
Fish age is a young, highly innovative Italian fishing
company whose main goal is to make fisherman feel
comfortable under the most demanding weather conditions:
from hot to cold and from wet to dry.
-
Cutting-edge raw materials and premium technologies 
are used to manufacture our products, which are tested 
exactly where they should be: in the field. The Fish Age
team is loaded with hard-core fishermen who know what it 
takes to conquer the elements outdoors. We could describe 
our manufacturing process with a lot of fancy technical 
jargon, but we'd rather let our gear prove itself where 
it counts: in the field. We are confident that Fish Age 
products will provide your best outdoor experience ever.
-
New technologies, superior raw materials and a vibrant 
Italian style make the difference when it comes to premium 
products. We leverage these to manufacture a new generation 
of technical gear for the most demanding fishermen and the 
most challenging elements. Our products are designed for 
the true believers in a new age of fishing gear: the Fish Age.
-
You can view their product line in Italy by visiting 
their website: 
http://www.fishage.com
If the website does not come up then you will need to 
install flashplayer. It is free and easily downloaded from 
the net. Here is what I used:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash)
-
Gift certificates are available for trips
 -

Open Salmon dates for the 2009 Season. Get'm while they last!
Sept:18
Oct: 16, 19, 22-23, 26, 28

-

The secret to our success's over many years?
Normally we will fish 6-7 different spots per day and normally will find them that way. The more spots, the more you learn, the more you learn the better angler you become, in my opinion. Even if the fishing is slow, you still come away at days end a better angler. This "better angler", now has the capabilities of positively, confidently pursuing and catching these normally challenging species of fish for the rest of their lives. Besides learning new spots, the most important thing you will be learning and perfecting by fishing a number of different and unique places will be the very most important aspect of fishing, which is the "art" of fine tuning #1, presentation. Each new spot places different and new challenges to perfecting your 100% drift if you truly want to try to be a member of the 10% club. :) Like a snow flake, each area to be fished has it's own unique flavor which will challenge your technique of always trying to perfect and achieve a 100% drift. It's this change through out the course of the day that will help you to remember and perfect yours and mine #1 goal. Presentation. In closing, I guess you could say that The secret to our success's? would simply be presentation.

Tip:
Every new spot you'll need to learn the proper drift first, before fishing it:) I normally give myself 4-6 cast's (drift's) first to acquire the necessary information (most, but not all of this has been written about before in the past years) needed to consistently and productively cover my water and try my best to run 100% drift's. Very few anglers do this but you can be assured that many of the 10%'rs do. (10%'rs are the 10% that catch 90% of the fish :) In the last few weeks fishing 6-7 spots is how we have succeeded in finding the most steelhead. But, only by learning the drift first, then trying to catch some, did my guest's achieve their many success's.


Dec. - Jan. - Early Feb. Steelhead Season Report, Forecast, Humor, Tips, Articles, Pictures and Rambling's (Some from the Archives :)

16 year old ("Hot Rod" for the day) Tom's Holiday present from his Dad, Mike.
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The steelhead fishing has remained very strong! There is an old saying, Presently, with less anglers and guides fishing, there are a few less dick's in the pool. (Har-har:) This is always nice for you, as this means more opportunity for you!

Tom was all smiles after fighting this big (approx. 16lb Steelhead).  This was his first time ever fishing for them. The second one even though  smaller, still gave him a great fight and both will last in his memory for a life time. Congrats Tom! I have a feeling it will be a long ride home for his father Mike! ( Both fish released )
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(What a honk'a! Approx. 16 lb'r. Great way to end the day!)
Good fishing,  John
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Hi Randy,
  I have been planning to make trips up to the salmon R for probably 8 to 10 yrs
and havent made it yet.  I hit 18 mile creek a couple of times right around this
time of yr...but am interested in getting knowledgable enough to make annual
trips up to the Salmon R (about half the drive).  I have all the gear
(7-10 fly rods & flies).
 
I am interested in getting a handle on where, how to fish the Salmon from shore
in areas where I can wade fish without killing myself (58 yrs old, in pretty good
shape but my knee joints have some wear and tear)
 
Any suggestions on areas I could target?  If you have some good ideas on
locations to point me at and think I would benefit from scheduling in some time
with you, please advise.  Are weekdays much better (crowdwise) than weekends? 
Any insight/recommendations will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks - Randy
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Hi Randy,
Any place where there is a bridge crossing the river. Any place where there is a road that runs along the river. They also have a number of public parking area's adjacent to some of the holes. A map or the internet would show you these area's nicely. I'd start there.
Weekdays are the way to go!
Happy Hook'n,
Randy
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Dr. Charles on another Pucker Brush Creek :)
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Gift Certificate good for 2 people,  complimentary day of fishing, either on Cape Cod or Salmon River. Good anytime. (Except weekends and Holidays - my day's off) 

            The fishing of your dreams...

     Come wade or drift boat the world-renowned Salmon River, NY, for hard fighting salmon and steelhead during the splendor of the fall, winter and spring seasons. This summer, if you feel you're up for the fun and challenge, master your technique of sight fishing! Wade fish the many crystal-clear flats teeming with bluefish and striped bass off Cape Cod (Chatham) beaches, bays and Monomoy Island.

      Whether it's steelhead, salmon, blues or stripers that you're after, I am dedicated to introducing both new anglers and experienced anglers to the exciting world of freshwater and or saltwater fly/spin fishing. For novices, I place emphasis on fly-spin  fishing skills and supplement the day with knots, fly-bait selection, fish habitats, and prey species. For the more experienced sportsman, I'll work with you to hone your skills. I guarantee a rewarding experience.  

                                            ...  we'll make it reel.

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Planning a trip up here? This may help you.
Below are a couple of emails with questions about my preference for best months to fish in the late winter or spring. 

Bottom line: Any month is a good month, providing the fish are there. Which they always are. Just depends on number's. And no one can forecast that.

Randy,
 Viewed your website/nice job/got us thinking about fishing again. We're from the Pittsburgh area and mostly fish the tribs East of Erie but we'd be interested in coming up for a day or two. Any good times in Feb or March. Any thoughts on what time might be preferable? We'd like to schedule when it's not snowing(haha). Pretty flex on our schedules down here. Please let me know. Thanks John 


Hi John,
Thanks, Im happy you enjoyed the site!
I like Jan.-Feb. over March. Less fishing pressure in Jan.-Feb. Steelhead are in the river now, more to come. They are in transition as well as in their winter holding spots. Creeks are an option all 3 month's if not to cold. Less pressure is always my favorite time.

For me, March is normally the most challenging month. Their always seems to be a 2-3 week period that I find tuff. High water spreads them out and into miles of diversions, local creeks and streams, etc... Also, some are in transition, some are in the holes, some are near the gravel and the rest are on the gravel flats. The whole river comes alive! Normally you will start to see an increase in angler's in March.
Best Fish's,
Randy Jones
Randy, thank you so much for your informative reply.  i am really excited about this trip 
and would love to go when the conditions are the best. in general, do you thing 
february or april is better?  is there a certain month that the fish are 
moving in the river to spawn?  why do you think that the fish are so spread out 
in march - i thought i had read that they were moving into the river at this time 
to spawn. thanks again for the info - 
it is going to help me book the best trip possible.
chris
Chris,
March is a funny month. Fish are spread all over the place. They are not really concentrated. 
March is probably one of my  most challenging months. Ive had many great days and a couple 
Id just as soon forget. (This could be said about any month. We could be in a small creek or 
stream or the Salmon River. I like Feb. (less anglers around) better or April.
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Hi Chris,
Things can and do change in a day, week up here. Mother nature, my ability, angler ability level as well as a host of other variables contribute to how well we might do or how well the river fish's.
Its almost impossible to say this time is best or we are guaranteed, etc...
The entire 8 months that I work up here can be great, providing the above is kept in mind.
I do well on both months. I like Feb. more because there is less angling pressure, but I've also had some amazing times in April. Same with March.
Steelhead come and go, run, hold, move all winter long into the Spring time. Then they spawn. Fish have been entering the river since Sept. to prepare to spawn.
Fish are spread out in March (normally) due to run-off, which causes the dam to release more water. So higher water spreads them out but more importantly is what their biological clock is telling them to do. This places them in any and all of the many different types of habitat that we have here.
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Drift Fishing w/ a Fly/Spin Rod Part 1
There are numerous ways to present a fly with a fly/spin rod for steelies. This is one of the more popular methods used in the Great Lakes region. Many well know fly fishing authors have written about it. My good friend Tom Rosenbauer mentions it in his Orvis fly fishing technique book.
          Deep nymphing, dead drifting, drift fishing, high sticking, chuck and duck. These are all terms I've heard, used to describe the same method. Anytime you can make it easier for any species of fish to feed anywhere in the world you will increase the odds of hooking up. That's why this presentation technique is so popular, especially during the winter months. It gets your fly/bait/etc.. into the strike zone faster and keep's it there longer than any other presentation technique. It works in every condition you will ever find on a river. (High-low water, cold-warm water, any species, clear-off color water, fast-slow moving water, close in far out, no room for a back cast, crowded conditions, etc…)
        You only want to lightly tap your weight on top of the rocks, (3 light ticks is sufficient) giving your rod tip a slight bounce or 3-4 in. twitch when feeling a slight pause, stop or hesitation. Many times the fish do not slam your egg or fly but instead mouth it before spitting it out. This feel's like a pause or hesitation while you are on your drift. In my opinion, it is critical to concentrate on detecting the pause or hesitation that happens when a fish lightly pick's up your bait or fly. Pre-setting the hook immediately before it has a chance to spit it is critical while you are checking to see if it is a rock or fish. If you slightly twitch the tip of the rod (3-4 inch's) on the pause, then you are pre-setting correctly. If it's a rock, you have just gotten over it, and kept your fly on the bottom. If you fully set, then a lot of the time you have moved you weight and fly so far of the bottom, that your drift is over.  If its a fish (snag) then your line will not move and stop which means you should immediately fully set the hook. I pre-set the hook with a twitch, then set, if line remains still.
         The first lesson I was ever taught when fishing for steelhead or salmon using this technique is if you pre- set on the pause or hesitation, and pull up a leaf, then you are detecting the slight pause or hesitation correctly. If you wait every time for your line to stop before you set, then you are missing fish. I always tell my clients- when in doubt, pre-set the hook, and if the line doesn't move, PLEASE (politely) set it!
         Not a day goes by when you can watch other anglers fishing and see there line pause with no reaction by them. Or watch the line stop dead for 3-4 seconds with no reaction. The reaction to the take has to be immediate or fly is spit out. Many fish are lost and simply never hooked up because many, many anglers are all waiting for that BIG BANG of Fish On.
A blind man can easily detect the take when the fish slams it, but it's the 10% of anglers that catch 90% of the fish that are concentrating mostly on the pauses and hesitations, in my opinion.



Here are several ways to help you detect subtle takes. (Pauses and hesitations)
1.  Watching the line in the water as it moves down stream on the drift. You will normally always see it, before you feel it.
2. Feeling with your rod hand on cork.
3. Lightly touching your rod hand index finger to line. This will only work proficiently if the line is coming straight off the reel to your first rod guide. If your in the habit of making those lil trout loops (what I call them) after you've cast, then it does not work.
4. Holding the line in your other hand. The line should be held in your fingertips for greatest sensitivity.
5. There are some seasoned Steelhead angler's who don't watch their line in the water on the drift. Instead they look at their rod tip through the entire drift. Letting the slight movement of the tip tell them what is going on underneath the surface.

Proper Weighting:
I sometimes change my weight 2-3 times without moving from the same spot. I work the water close, then farther out.  Weighting is critical to helping you detect the takes. The key is to lightly tap the bottom, not dredge the bottom. Too much weight and detecting subtle takes is impossible. Most anglers use to much weight.
          
This technique also works in your local streams and river's for trout during high water conditions. Also in the deeper, faster sections were traditional fly lines will not allow you to get down to the bigger fish.
          
Basically, telling the difference between tapping a rock and a subtle take is one of the most difficult skills to acquire, when fishing in this manner. Most anglers are all waiting for the big BANG. Thereby missing 50% of actual takes. If you think about it, doesn't a pause or hesitation always precede a complete stop? When a fish takes and spits your fly, bait it can happen in a split second. By concentrating on your line movement, correct weighting, depth of drift, contact with the bottom,  pauses and the hesitations. You will be on your way too becoming a part of the 10% that catch's 90% of the fish.

Besides all the other pieces of the puzzle we have covered and will cover, hopefully these tips will help you all to be more in tune with your drift fishing.

Happy hookin;
Randy Jones
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Drift Fishing w/ a Fly/Spin Rod Part 2
Correct speed of drift:
Imitating an egg-nymph dead drifting along the bottom at the same rate of speed as the bottom water column is imperative to successfully hooking up. This is achieved by looking where you're mono butt section enters the water. (Your fly line should NOT be in the water for many reason's) It should be moving slightly slower than the surface current. This matches the bottom current speed close enough. Making your offering look real enough to even the Smartest fish.
Jim Rusher once told me that in the wintertime it is sometimes advantageous to slow your drift down even further. This allows the lethargic fish time to move slightly for what it thinks is an easy meal.

Correct depth of drift:
When I first cast into a new piece of water my first question is how deep. This determination is achieved by raising or lowering rod tip until light ticking of weight on bottom rocks is felt. The next step for me is to look at the distance between the surface of the water and end of fly line. (I prefer to run an 8-11ft. -butt section of 8lb-10lb. test straight mono for steelhead, so fly line never touches the water on the drift.) By this distance,  between fly line and water I know exactly where it should be on each successive cast. Allowing me to set up immediately for each additional cast to achieve the perfect drift. The end of the fly line act's like an indicator. Most angler's do not prepare their drift in advance,  before they reach the 12 O'clock position. (This is where I start every drift and where I can control it) By using the end of the fly line as an indicator it is easy to prep your drift in advance of the 12 O'clock position. Allowing you to run the most productive drift possible. The next question I ask myself is am I weighted correctly?  

Visual and non-visual characteristics of line:
In my opinion, when drift fishing correctly the line between tip of rod and weight should be a straight line. If you try to dead drift with a bow in your line, you not only create additional drag which speeds up your drift making your fly look unnatural but also makes for a lot of unnecessary snags on bottom. (Your rod tip should be as high as you can get it (for many reasons) and the fly line should be totally out of the water) With out a straight line (slack) your weight is simply slogging along the bottom looking for the quickest and easiest rock to call home for good. A lot of the time if you have slack in your line you will not feel the ticking sensation due to the vibrations not being transferred up through the line. There are about 20 other negative things that happen when you have a bow or slack in your line. Remember; with line straight from tip of rod to weight you will be lightly tapping the tops of the rocks. Cutting down on drag, giving it a more natural drift by imitating the correct bottom speed, feeling those pauses and hesitations better, detecting the take better and getting hung-up on bottom less.

Angle of rod tip to line:
To achieve a maximum dead drift and cut down on snags the rod tip should be directly over the line. If rod tip is in front of line then you will be prematurely initializing the swing and probably ending your drift prematurely. Also, if weight runs into structure, you will be pulling it into it and creating a worse snag than if rod tip was over line and twitched directly up and over obstruction.      

Pre-setting and setting of hook:
This has been covered in previous posts. One thing I would like to add is whenever you set and find nothing there. Don't return your rod to its original position unless you draw up the slack. If rod is replaced to its original angle you'll end up fishing with a bow (slack) in your line because when you set you brought your weight closer to you. Getting hung-up will normally follow.


5 Below 0 when this pic. was taken. It's funny how a "Fish ON" can warm you right up!

Common Problems:
If you ever catch yourself bouncing you rod tip constantly on the drift,  (more than 3-4 inches) 4 things could be happening.

1. To much weight. Solution- Lighten-up or you'll be getting hung-up all day. I keep 8 different sized bags of split shot with me to achieve the perfect drift, no matter where I'm fishing.

2. Slack (bow) line from tip of rod to weight. When bouncing the rod excessively you are simply picking the weight up and off a rock, dropping your tip back to its original position and letting the weight return to the snag filled bottom below only to get caught up again.  Solution- Return and re-read, Correct depth of drift, Characteristics of line from tip to weight, Pre-setting and setting of hook.

3. You are setting the hook on the subtle pauses and hesitations, instead of pre-setting with 3-4 inch twitch of the rod tip. Remember; if you do set the hook and come up empty then remove the slack by pulling
additional line in.

4. You are obviously fishing in snag heaven, loaded with big rocks and boulders. Solution- keep fishing because these areas hold unpressured fish. In November the steelies love to hold in 3-5 feet of rippled,
pocket water. Fast moving water with big boulders is steelhead heaven. Normally these areas are not fished heavily by seasoned anglers because you will spend a fair potion of the day retying. Most guides avoid these areas like the plague. But sometimes the fishing can be "Outstanding".

Besides all the other pieces of the puzzle we have covered and will cover, hopefully these tips will help you all to be more in tune with your drift fishing. Putting all of this together consistently will put you into the 10% that catch 90% of the fish!

Happy Hookin:
Randy Jones
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The lesson for today was to hold the rod tip as high as possible to cut down on the amount of line entering into the water. (High sticking) Every time the rod tip was held low several negative things happened.
1. First and most importantly no fish were caught.
2. The fly would swing through the hole, instead of dead drifting through it. There by making our tasty morsel look more like a speeding bullet than something that was naturally moving along the bottom at the correct speed that was edible.
3. The weight would not bring our fly into the strike zone, due to the current bowing the line and keeping it all off bottom.
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Client Hook Test:
Dear Mustad,
I just wanted you to know that I purchased eight boxes of CO68 hooks yesterday. I am very impressed with them - I used to buy Tierce 2457's for this application but no more. I used to tie with Mustad hooks decades ago but preferred the microbarbs that other manufacturers made available. These hooks fill in a niche that other manufacturers haven't filled. Thank you.
Hal Fuller.
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Hello Mr. Fuller

Thanks so much for taking the time to contact us. I'm very glad to hear that you are happy with the CO68 hooks. That has been a favorite of mine since we launched it a couple years back. You'll likely be pleased with the rest of the Signature Series too as there are many other patterns within the range offering proportional designs, premium points and micro-barbs.
Thanks again for the email and your interest in Mustad.
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~     
|   <°)))><         <°)))><
|         <°)))><             <°)))><
|
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¿ >°)))><
Best Fishes,
Jeff Pierce
a.k.a. - Dr. Fish
Sales Manager
O. Mustad & Son (USA), Inc. / Partridge of Redditch
315-253-2793
SHARPEST Site on the Web - www.mustad.no
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From last years archives:
March Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report, Forecast's, Tips, Ramblings, Etc... Enjoy!
I'm noticing more angler's out on the river, which is always nice to see. Less down, more up. Most folks are tangling with a few. Sometimes more and sometimes less, as usual.
The lower in the river you fish the easier the fish are to catch, in my opinion.
We have "a number" of fresh Steelhead making their way up river as well as a lot that have been in the river for awhile. Both transitional (hint:) and Winter holding spot's are producing. Starting to see some spawning activity which is normal. We call these our early spawners. Within the next few weeks we will see approx. 80% of the Steelhead in the river turning their attention to a specific type of rock and current break. Within the next few weeks we will also start to see the early drop backs. These are fish that have spawned and are now on there way back to the lake. Stopping along the way down river in all the normal spot's to feed and regain their strength.
I've seen a fair number of fish that were in a transitional state, moving up the river and briefly holding in the transitional lyes. Presently, all of the fish in the river are starting to feel their biological clock ticking, making them think and behave a lil differently.
I hope the above and ALL of the below report's, tips, articles and rambling's entertains and keep's you safe while helping you in your Steelhead quest! Sharing this info. with you has and always will be a pleasure. :)
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Here is a link my "funny and sarcastic ;) client Warren sent to me. 
http://www.netknots.com/html/fishing_knots.html
He said that I might be able to use it. :O I just started tying knots last week so Im still learn'n how to tie a good one. :)
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A "Much Edited" Sampling of fishing reports, Tips from some of last month's Steelhead trips
In our 1/2 days fishing we tangled with 5 Steelhead. Not bad! Yesterday we went on a Nantucket sleigh ride. We gave chase in the boat and were surrounded with a very narrow river, fast water, log jam's, fish running under the boat in about every direction, boulders, fish moving from one side of the boat to the other, my oar blades, rapids, tree's, you name it. We had to zig and zag our way through this obstacle course with a mad and dashing Steelhead on. Pheeew! Finally that steelhead had had enough and gave up. It was netted nicely off the side of the drift boat as we drifted down the river. Talk about a Chinese fire drill! It would have been a hilarious show to watch as I tried to run the oar's, anchor, missing all the obstacles and net while keeping everyone safe and upright in the boat all at once. :)What a fight, what an adrenaline rush, DAM, I love this job!
TIP:
The fish today in one Winter holding pool did not want any natural looking aquatic insect flies and would ONLY hit glow bug's in pink and cream. (We did not try bait or any other egg colors) In a transitional holding spot they only wanted the aquatics.
After working the entire hole with aquatics with no bites? I tied on a glow bug in Pink and on the first cast, it was hammered "Fish On", Baby! The second rod doubled over in the hole within 5 minutes of changing to a cream glow bug. Boy, it sure pay's to have a pretty good understanding of entomology and baitology on this river. It also paid dividends to be able to listen to what the fish were telling us related to their eating habit's and adjust. I knew we had a minimum of 10-15 steelhead in this spot that wanted nothing to do with our insect fly offering. By paying close attention, we were able to fool a couple before pulling the anchor. 2 more fish came from the next transitional lye before calling it a day. :)
Cream is my #1 color for glow bugs and pink is a close second.
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This came from a post on the www.Steelhead.com site. I could not say it any better. What makes an experienced steelhead angler?
The ability to evaluate a situation and adjust your presentation to maximize your catch
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Tip:
Ice in your guides?
The best stuff to use is either silicone spray or Ice Off Paste, sold at most tackle shops. Works on both fly and spin rods. The paste works the best if you put it on the night before. Re-apply as needed while fishing. 

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I sincerely hope that what little Ive been able to share with you over these past 10 
or more years and will continue to share with you has helped you along the road to 
becoming a better, more informed, experienced angler. Even if you didn't learn anything 
new and only find my site entertaining, than Im very happy to have you spend a lil of 
your valuable internet fishing time here. I'm flattered as usual!
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Hello to all of the service men and women over sea's that enjoy my fishing reports. 
Wishing you all a safe return home!
Best Fish's,
Randy
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From the Archives last year
Feb.  Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report, Forecast's, Tips, Ramblings, Etc... Enjoy!
Plenty of fish (now and in the future) in the river for your fishing enjoyment. Both fresh and older Steelhead top to bottom of the river. All Winter spot's are holding with the occasional Steelie coming from a transitional holding location as they make their way up river. Look for additional Steelhead to continue entering the Salmon River and elsewhere (hint :)  for the remainder of Feb. and March. You will find plenty of fish all April into normally the first week or two of May. What fly should I use now? Let mother nature tell you. (Hint) Take a look along the snowy river banks to see what is hatching this month and next, when it gets above freezing.
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Going with an experienced friend is a great way to short cut the learning curve, increase your knowledge base for the rest of your life and also help you to catch some fish :) Having a clear and precise understanding of Presentation, Rigging and Habitat will help you to consistently and with confidence fool these incredibly magnificent fish.
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The wade fishing for steelhead continues to remain excellent for some, ok for others and slow for smoothers. This is normal and I dont foresee any changes. All fishing techniques are working, all with different success rates, which again is normal.
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Thanks to all of you who have spent your hard earned fishing $$ up here. The local economy thanks you all! I'm always VERY happy to see all of you up here enjoying yourselves. Plenty of room for everyone. Hello to all of the service men and women who are over sea's. Lot's of Steelies in the river for you upon your return :)
Thanks for stopping in and spending your valuable internet fishing time here. :) Go get'm!
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Humor
Today was one of those relaxing, enjoyable, peaceful rainy days. The only thing that was irritating was when the tranquility of the day was interrupted by that darn whining sound of my guest's drag's. Then people would yell, Fish On. Come on folks, can't a guide get a lil rest and peace and quit around here? The nerve of some people! Then I was expected to chase after this 16 lb. Silver beast that kept doing these darn 25 foot tail walks across the pool, then these obnoxious somersault's 4 feet into the air with a big ol loud belly flop with water splashing 20 feet in all directions. I would  have reeeeelly been upset if my hair had gotten wet. Then more speeding bullet run's until that bright orange stringy stuff would appear behind the fly line.
I just could not win today. Every spot I stopped to fish, my guest's would continually hook more fish. Out of 3 spot's my guest's fished, we hit them in all. I got so fed up that I finally stopped in a spot where no fish has been hooked in over 100 years, and my guest's were still able to hook some up. So much for a nice relaxing day on the water. I think I need to find a new, less stressful job, where a person can get a lil R and R. :)
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Fish handling tips:
Please remember to hold your breath. Yup, a fish should not be held out of the water longer than you can hold your breath. Otherwise your injuring it and slowly killing it.
Can you accidentally kill or injure a fish when taking its picture even though it swims off strongly? Sure you can. If the air temperature is in the teens or below the gills can freeze. Many times during the Winter during extreme cold temperatures I'll kindly ask my guest's to not take the fish out of the net - water, for a picture if it is to be released. No one has ever had a problem with that once they are told the reason why and are very appreciative.
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Boga grip
I applaud those of you who use these. We all dislike seeing someone hold a fish up for a picture and then see it fall head first onto the rocks.
One of the common mistakes (approx. 80%) I see (understandable if you've never been informed) being made is not supporting the fish's skeletal frame properly. Possibly injuring or worse killing a trophy that you plan to release unharmed. Sure it will swim off strongly but its what happens once the fish is out of view. Please never lift a fish out of the water with a boga unless you lift at the same time with your other hand under its belly to support it's skeletal frame.
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You have all seen fish slowly trying to swim, sometimes belly up, back and forth in the water, slowly sliding down river in the current, looking like its very sick. I believe that many times the reason for this odd behavior by the fish is caused by a well meaning C and R angler up river who did not practice what is written above. The fish is injured and slowly dying. By changing the length of time you hold the fish out of the water and these other fish handling practices, you can make 100% sure that your fish will not be one of these.
By practicing these fish handling techniques you will be helping this fishery (which we all share) to maintain its excellence for all.
Thank you!
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Steelhead Season 11/24 - 11/28
This will be a short report. Not much to add to the below reports. We continue to see reeeeel good fishing. This past week we averaged between 12 and 16 Steelies per day. Ye-haa! I'd obviously recommend coming up! Besides anglers with guides, Im also seeing plenty of shore angler's finding a good number of fish also. That's always nice to see! Every spot that myself and other's are fishing, are with fish. We still have them in transition, so those spots are still producing nicely. All of us (the local economy) who benefit from this fine fishing would like to "Thank you all" for spending your valuable fishing dollar's here :)
Best Fish's,
Randy
11/17-11/21
Ye-haa!
All week the steelhead - Brown Trout fishing has been nothing short of good, great, reeeel good and or amazing, in most all cases! :)
I'd highly recommend coming up or giving me a call for your future fishing pleasure :)
Please see below for much more info., ramblings, tips, etc... for free. From a full-time S.R. guide :)
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Steelhead Season 11/10 - 11/14
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As the water temp. drop's, look for all of our holding Steelhead to drop into the deep slow water for the balance of the winter. We still have lot's of fish in a transitional stage that are in the normal transitional holding area's.
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Monday
We hit fish in 3 out of 6 spots, 1/2 doz. approx. played with.
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Tues.
My guest's fished off the driftboat on the main river (S.R.) with limited success. We had a MAJOR presence of fish in every spot we fished, but with VERY limited result's by my clients, unfortunately. Habitat, rigging and most importantly, presentation were covered thoroughly thru out the entire day and we succeeded in increasing my guest's awareness of all of the opportunities available to them and also how to work at becoming self sufficient. As always, this info. will last them (as well as yourselves) a lifetime of future fishing enjoyment. Ye-Haa!
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Wed.
My guest's from Tues. joined me again today for another incredible fishing experience. At times we had a dozen 2-4  lb. Browns within a 10 by 10 foot area of the water. Sighted over 75 - 85 Browns over the course of the day with not another sole around. LOADED!! :) Incredible opportunity ALL day.
I hope you all have the chance to some day experience this truly magnificent fishery! Today we felt as though we were in Alaska, and NOT around one of the most popular fishing area's in the country! The fish we played with and landed were WAY to many to try to keep track off. Don't ya just hate when THAT happens? :)
ALL of these fish are just waiting here for YOUR, perfectly cast bait or fly. :)
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Steelhead Season 11/3 - 10/7
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Monday:
I had 2 anglers from the Netherlands. 4 anglers in their group flew 1,000's of miles to fish here for the week. They were not disappointed with the fishing today. They had been playing with none to 3-4 per day so far on their trip but today, they went into the teen's for numbers of fish. Over a dozen Steelhead in an approx. 6 hour period. Wow!! By days end they had a rock solid understanding of habitat, rigging and presentation. Seeing more boats on the water and a few more anglers than last week. It's always nice to see all the anglers out enjoying themselves. Helping the local economy!
I saw numerous fish being played with from one end of the river to the other. Nice! Look's like we may see a repeat of last years amazing fishing. Last year was the best since the early 90's! I'd make plan's to get up sometime this year with the quality of fishing Im seeing. All presentation tec. are working, all with different success rates. The most popular presentation tec. Im seeing is running egg sack's off a spinning rod with a float. All color's of bags are producing.
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Tues.
Off
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Wed.
Dozen Chromer's played with!
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Thurs.
Another approx. Dozen Steelies played with!
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Friday
16 Steelhead played with!
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Steelhead Season Official Opener 10/27 - 10/31
FYI - Steelhead are in the Transitional holding and normal holding water, including the HEAT. Look for the Browns to be in the same habitat but also add in some gravel with lil current for the rest of the month. Look for more steelhead entering and running the river. Fish top to bottom of river. All normal flies are working. Want to increase your catch rate over night? Simple - 80% of all this, maybe more is presentation, presentation, presentation :) Send me an email if your intrested.
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Monday:
Browns and more browns 3-4lb. average, nice looking Coho's.
To many fish played with and landed to be able to count and
keep track of. Dont ya just hate it when THAT happens? :)
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Tues.
Steelhead and more. In 2 hours one angler played with 2,
and the other was 1 for 4
An email from my Monday and Tuesday guest's who were with me both days.
=
Hello Randy,I'm glad we left early, the ride home was "interesting".
Thanks again for showing us a great time, and paying
a little extra attention to my dad.  He'll remember this trip forever.
Within the time frame of 48 hours you put us on Browns,
Salmon (Kings and Coho) , and Steelhead. It was a blast landing
that monster Coho
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Wed.
About a dozen (maybe a couple more?) chromers with 2
very experienced steel anglers. 4 for 4 on spots, ye-haa,
its hammer time! We found them in every spot we fished.
All week we fished a number of different spots and there might
have been only 1 or 2 places where we did not find any players.
Hot Dam! And in those couple of spot's we didnt even fish them
for more than 20 or so minutes. We found Trout in all area's of
the river. From Transitional Holding to Holding. Shallow, deep,
rocky, gravel, slow water, fast water. The one thing in common
for all of our fish were "current breaks."
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Thurs. - 3 spots, hit'm in all! Ye-haa! Brand new Steelhead
fisherman today. They made me proud to be their guide by
working hard to achieve that perfect 100% drift. They played
with 5-6 Steelies on their day. Those 5 or 6 never would have
come had they not achieved most of our common goal's. To run a
consistent, 100% drift, every drift, every spot, all day.
Preparing - helping them to become self-sufficient, so they wont
need me anymore. Thats one of my many, primary professional daily goal's.
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Friday:
Over a dozen steelies! Please see below email :)
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An email I sent to a client a few days ago:
Hi Pete,
I had 2 guys out today who have never fished the river before.
They used fly rods all day and played with over a dozen Steelhead. Ye-haa! (Biggest - 14 lb's!)
This season is off to a great start. It has started to remind me a lil of last years amazing season! (To soon to tell)
All week, my guest's played with approx. 6 to over a dozen chromers, per day, which are reeeel good numbers. (the 6 came on a day where they only fished for approx. 2 hours and these were brand new Salmon River Steelhead anglers to boot! :)
The average angler would be thrilled to play with just 1 or 2 steelhead.
I took my guest's for Brown trout last week on the S.R. and we SAW, yes SAW over 30 Browns. (3-4 lb. average) Also, good numbers of reeeeeeeel good shape Coho's and some old crusty Kings that we did not cast at. We did not see another angler ALL day, just a LOT of fun Browns. Reminded us of being out in the wilderness in Alaska :)
Today, as well as most others this week, we did not have anyone above, below or directly across from us fishing.
The best way to keep up on my guest's - clients fishing is to view my website from time to time.
Very VERY few anglers or boats out presently. Of course, it's also late mid-week and the season is young.
Thanks!
Randy
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Salmon Steelhead Season 10/20 - 10/24
Still a few good looking Salmon around. Lot's of old ones.
Trout top to bottom of the river.
Brown's making their way to their spawning habitat.
All Trout eating Salmon egg's (and the usual)
Most angler's are having to work for any trout that they find, but not all. :)
We have been playing with ALL species of fish that call the Salmon River home.
Water temp's dropping :)
Best of luck!
Randy
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Photo's complement's of my client, Karl A. Mueller, III (All fish released for you, your friends and or your children's future fishing pleasure!)

A BIG male King Salmon. Nice underwater head shot. Dont know if Ive ever seen one of these before. Unique view!
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For anyone who is wondering, I am taking reservations for 2009. Most of this years Salmon and Steelhead guest's are re-booking their same day for next year. Email if intrested. :)
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First Mate Matt, dad and myself out on my 16 foot heated driftboat, enjoying a Steelhead filled day during the Winter on the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY. 35 minutes drive North of Syracuse off the Interstate. Approx. 5-1/2 hour drive from the Boston area, approx. 4-1/2 hour's from N.Y. City. Steelhead average 8 to 12 lb's. We fish for them from Nov. all Winter into the first week of May approx. My personal favorite time to fish for them in order of preference, April - May, Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. and Nov. I have a BIG propane heater on the drift boat that I use during the Winter to help take the chill off. :) Works great!
We also (wade only) fish for (10-20 lb. average) King Salmon (Coho Salmon too) that run from Mid-Sept. until the end of Oct. Then we have Brown trout that average 3-5 pounds with some reaching into the teens during Nov.
Very reasonable flight's into Syracuse, car rentals, very inexpensive lodging, food and guide rates. :)
I supply everything but the chest waders.
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Anyone with any heart problems will not be allowed to fish for steelhead w/ me :) With there acrobatic nature, speeding bullet runs, they have been know to stop and or jump start a few hearts, including mine on an almost daily basis. (Im kidding, of course!) Someone thought I was serious :) Randy 

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Steelhead Nov. - May


Steelhead Open Dates:
Lots of openings for early, Mid, Late Winter and Spring.


Good stuff Les, Congrats again! Mustad Hooks, the best their is!
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Ron with a Reeel Steel Hum Dinger!  
                                        I'm often asked, "What was your best day on the water?” After 20 plus years of guiding in Vermont, Cape Cod and the Salmon River in New York, many best days tend to flash across my mind. As I search deep for one of my best fish stories, it suddenly hit's me. It wasn't my fish, my day or even my story that gave me one of the most rewarding experiences!
Just look at that young man's smile!    Congrats on that 16lb'r Tom!
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Steve and Vinny had a "Day for Kings".
Biggest Steelhead was approx. 15lb's as it catapulted itself skyward toward the heavens, somersaulting several times before splash down! I could see angler heads turning as it sounded like a big brick being thrown into the water. Then a tail walk for about 20 feet. Dam..... I love this job.

Chris with a nice 10 lb'r. Final tally for the day was 9 total Steelhead, fly and spin rods. Congrats Gentleman!

        

Congrats everyone, on those fine "Holiday Cheer" Steelhead! I can't tell who is smiling more, the fish or my guest's.
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Mail Bag:
Just to pump a little info from you with out paying,,,What do you think the best floro carbon line would be? I mean one that is strong and holds a good knot,,,thanks Mr. Jones
Hi Paul, Seaguar Fluorocarbon - http://www.seaguar.com/home.html Any time..... Best Holiday Fish's, Randy
Fishing Report:
Monday - Played with about 12-13 steelies. Good numbers all over the place. East to West, North to South. :)
Tuesday - Played with 7 or 8 Steelhead! Hit them in 2 out of 3 spots. Learned over 3 miles of some of the best chrome hold'n territory on the river
Wednesday - 5 Steelies with one guest. Ye-haa! It's hammer time.
Thursday - 6 Steelies with my one guest. Same as yesterday. Did one more fish today and cemented in presentation, presentation, presentation! :)
Friday - My 1 guest had fished all day yesterday with a very experienced freind without a touch. What would today bring? 3 quick fish, on and off. Beats a sharp stick in the eye and knowing that you accomplished 80% presentation, 10% habitat and 10% rigging for you first time fishing the river is rewarding and very confidence building in itself. Intrested in some Slam'n Salmon River Fish?
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Much of the week was about learning, studying, becoming the 10% that catch's 90% of the fish consistently. Listening to the fish. When we listened, we were rewarded. :) I know we succeeded in many more ways than to simply catch a fish. It's this knowledge (fishing a number of different good spots - habitat, changing your rigging, changing your drift according to the spot) that builds confidence and allows you to consistently return to this river, without a guide. And catch more fish than you have ever dreamt of before and for the rest of your life. It's this knowledge that helps you to pick up fish all day long.
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We moved around a lot and hit fish in almost all spot's fished. Transitional and holding.
Holding produced better, 100%, more consistent. Transitional produced about 50-50. Send me an email if your intrested in acquiring the skill's necessary to proficiently and consistently with confidence catch these fish.


Wow, so silver. Now you know why we call them the silver bullet. This one is almost translucent and you can't buy a fresher looking fish on this river. :) Congrats!
We've been targeting Salmon lately due to the incredible numbers around. We have been picking up the occasional Steelie almost everyday, sometimes 2 or 3, different area's, while fishing for salmon. :)
The above picture was the last spot of the day. Planned on making just a few cast's on our way back to the parking lot. I knew this spot had remained unfished for the last hour before we got there. The odds were very good that at least a couple of fish had moved into it, as they often do. First cast, fish on, it's a steelie! Then another Chromer, then a couple Salmon in just 20 minutes or so. Out of the 4 fish, this was the only one landed. How sweet it is! Congrats on that beautiful Silver Bullet!
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Time for a commercial break ;)

Randy,
Every time I go fishing, the optimist in me says "This might be the day."  Athletes pray for days like this, hoping they play in "the zone." I think fishermen do too. Surely, this is what keeps many of us thrashing the water with a piece of string. I can count on one hand the number of days when this has happened. Two of them have been with you. The first was two years ago today, Oct. 8, when I hooked 40 or 50 fish, including a 35 lb male king that now sits above my fireplace as an reminder of that one remarkable day of fishing. The other was last Friday. Not only did I land a pair of nice Kings, I also caught my first Cohos, a beautiful male brown and three fall-run steelhead -- my first grand slam on the Salmon River. All told, I had maybe 20 hookups, while my buddy Myles had almost as many and landed cohos, a brown and several steelhead. It wasn't as if this was a great day on the river. I saw many long faces and shaking heads as other anglers came up empty, lost lead and flies to the river bottom and called it quits by midday. The credit for my experience is all yours. I know there are many fishermen who can work the Salmon River and catch plenty of fish, especially when a run is on. I can do it on my own sometimes. But putting it all together when the fishing is slow as you did is a testimony to your skill, knowledge and hard work. Looking forward to my next trip with you and the chance to yell "Fish On"!
Regards, Jim

The Silver Bullet, Chromer, Metal Head, are all names we use for the Steelhead we catch all Fall, Winter and Spring on the Salmon River in Pulaski, N.Y., 30 miles North of Syracuse. (Interested?)
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Randy, had another great fishing trip with you recently. Your knowledge, patience, and professional attitude gave us everything we had hoped for and more. We had a great time, and we are both still so impressed!  We learn something new every time we fish with you.  4 years and 7 trips....and you still have the same drive and desire we saw the first time you took us out!  You are a true professional, and you have customers for life.
Until the next fish bites, Garry
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Where the land ends LIFE begins
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May devoted anglers read these words and relive the simple pleasures of finding 
and landing - the big one.(The fisherman's book of wisdom )
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Archives from Winter, Spring - 2008
A Sampling of fishing reports from some of last month's Steelhead trips

One of my better trips recently:
My 2 guest's experienced their first time Steelhead fishing. They came back amazed at the numbers of fish we played with but most importantly, the knowledge they gained. For them, the fish were second to achieving a rock solid Steelhead fishing foundation on which to build. That was their main goal, to which we succeeded! I think we played with about 10-11 Steelies for the day. Just icing on the cake. :)
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Hit Steelhead in 3 out of 5 spots today. Played with about 8 total for the day. The 2 spots we didnt hit any fish in were only fished for about 5-10 minutes. Im sure there were fish there, and we would have found some if we had stayed longer, but we were only looking for some McDonald's fish. (Fast and easy:)

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My guest today had 4-5 goals that we wanted to achieve. A better, complete, expert analysis and understanding of flies, tying flies, reading water, presentation, Steelhead strategies, rigging, how does the lower and higher water effect the fish, were do the fish lay in all the holes, high water current breaks, where to stand in every hole, how to access each hole, advanced rigging and presentation, stream etiquette, where to cross the river safely, how to rig and present a fly-bait while sight fishing to the Bucks in the Spring, Spring strategies, Winter strategies, where to find the Bucks in the Spring and lastly and least important were fish.
Ken only had 4-5 goals but I covered all of the above and much more. This is a normal day for me. We hit some fish while completely and thoroughly achieving all of Kens goals plus some! :)
We spent time in each and every hole over a 3 mile distance. Approx. 40 or more spot's.
We saw fish with the help of todays sun. Saw a fair number of fish that were in a transitional state, moving up the river and briefly holding in the transitional lyes. Presently, all of the fish in the river are starting to feel their biological clock ticking, making them think and behave a lil differently. Care to learn any of the above while catching a few fish? :) I still have a few dates still open.
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A Sampling of fishing reports from some of last month's Steelhead trips
1. My guest's hammered them today! I was very surprised at the large numbers they tangled with.  Amazing! I think we set a record for this year. Which means we fought less than 30, but more than 20. Last year at this time my same two guest's had two incredible Steelhead days where they did numbers around 19 fish one day and another in the upper 20'ish Steelhead.
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2. We hit 5-6 fish in a full day with one fly angler. :) Nice day out with warm temp's. Lil slower than expected, but, you never know. We found fish in every location my guest fished off the drift boat. We were 100% on all 3 spot's fish'd. Noticed a few other anglers in other places playing with Steelhead also. There are fish in EVERY Winter spot. Guaranteed! If for some reason you are fishing in a good spot and not hooking up then the fish are telling you to make a change. Guaranteed. This change could be 1 of a vast number of things which would be related to either Presentation, baitology, taking 3 steps down, entomology or Rigging.  :)
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4. "Fish ON" were the first words Al shouted after his first cast of the morning. Then another and another. Long story short, Al by himself played with 14 Steelhead today. We got lucky and found a pod of mostly dime bright Steelhead that fought as hard as any Nov. Fish. Whewww!

Al told me he had been fishing the river since 78 and that he had never - ever played with so many Steelhead in one day!

Last time Al fished with me he brought a note pad and pen. With the average being that most folks (including myself) retain 20-30% of what they hear or read, he wanted to make sure he did not forget a single chrome hold'n spot over the entire 3 miles of river I stopped at and explained in great detail. (One of the biggest complaints that I get from my clients is information overload when it comes to all of the many many places there are to fish. Where to park, how to get there, where to cross the river safely, where to stand, where to cast, where the fish normally lay, (many times it is exact as fitting a key into a lock) and anything that might be of a safety concern.  :) All was written down with an exciting, feverish, exactness. One of the highest compliment's was paid to me by AL as he stated, Randy, you know that spot you showed (did not fish) me by such a such a tree. You said stand here, cast there, the fish sit there and you can expect one to bite anywhere from 10 to 25 feet off the bank in a 30 foot length? (This was a hole within the hole spot)
I went back to both of those spots and every time I go there I get into some fish.
One day alone I hit six fish in that one spot using a spin rod, floats and egg sacks. And I was the only one there. I've never seen a single drift boat or person stop and fish it.
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Fishing Report
As we were launching the drift boat my guest's were not very enthusiastic about fishing today.
Can you catch fish in 2,000 cfs Randy? Where do you fish in 2,000 cfs Randy? Dont you think it's really going to be tuff fishing in 2,000 cfs Randy? You can't really fish when the water is this high, can you Randy? :)
This is a very normal (and understandable) feeling if your not used to fishing higher flows. My guest's were delighted to learn and experience first hand that there concern's were highly unwarranted.
We went 6 for 12 on steelhead! We could have easily played with more Steelies if we had stayed in any of the 4 places we found them in a lil longer. My guest's really wanted to learn even more new and exciting water to fish in this higher flow, so we left fish to find more. :) My guest commented that with 30 years of Steelhead experience that this was one of his best days ever. No matter your experience level, we always learn and experience new and exciting Steelhead tactic's, etc... No longer do my guest's feel uncomfortable with higher flows. They will now simply adjust, as I do. Thus, opening up an entirely new window of opportunity for them. It's nice to have options and not allow mother nature to control your hobbies and interest's! :)
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Guest Testimonial and Fishing Report:
Thanks again for taking the time and putting in the awesome effort with Chris and I these past 2 days. I learned more about Steelheading in a day and a half than I had in prior years. I'm convinced what happened 10 minutes after you left would have never happened if it weren't for you. In the spot you left me in I hooked and fought a 12 lb hen. Fought her all the way down the rapids. Headed back to my spot. First cast, fish on!! Back to my spot again, second cast, fish on. Short fight. By now you can imagine the talk around the area. I'm not their favorite angler. Only to get worse when next cast, another fish on. Other anglers could not believe their eyes. Randy I basically fought 4 fish for forty straight minutes. Hearing people talk about me was very strange. I'm usually wondering and wishing "how come I'm not that guy". What a special place and thanks again for all your help and knowledge. I called Chris at the airport and he couldn't believe it. I think you might be seeing us again before golf season. Take care, Kevin
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Thanks again, to all of you for your valuable internet fishing time, interest, continued support, referrals, Kind Words and business :)
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As always, we pray and hope for all of our service men and women's safe return home. We will leave you all a few fish in the Oceans and Rivers to catch and enjoy upon your safe return home :) I hope my fishing reports have helped you to forget about work, for just a lil :)
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I sincerely hope that what Ive been able to share with
you over these past many many years has helped you along
the road to becoming a better, more informed, safe,
knowledgeable and experienced angler.
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Mustad Hooks, the BEST their is! :)
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The Author, Guide, Outfitter:
Randy Jones is a full-time professional fly/spin fishing guide with over 24 years of 
experience. He has represented the Orvis Corporation as a guide and chief instructor 
of their 2 1/2 day Saltwater Fly fishing schools. 

    During the summer, Randy can be found wade guiding the S.E. (and beyond) Cape Cod 
area's,  where sight casting on the flats to trophy Striped Bass is his specialty. 
During the Fall, Winter, and Spring Randy runs drift boat and wade trips on the world 
class Salmon River, Pulaski N.Y. for Steelhead, Coho, Browns, Atlantic's and Kings.
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Thank you Jeff Pierce and Mustad for the below Fly Tying links!!
http://www.mustad.no/
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To read this amazing story that I was apart of:
http://www.mustad.no/action/field_reports/nyfishst.htm
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To read the rest of the story and tying instructions, please go to
http://www.mustad.no/action/flyofthemonth/archive/glo_bug.html
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For more flies and tying instructions.
http://www.mustad.no/action/flyofthemonth/archive/jeffscohocandy.htm  -
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Habitat - Reading Water - Current Breaks

One of the most important aspects of Habitat is to figure out the relationship between all of the different water levels and all of the individual and different current break's. How each current break effect's the water movement and then how the fish relate to each current break. By having a clear and precise understanding of this allows the knowledgeable angler to understand our quarries weakness and then exploit them. Basically, where do they hold at during all of the different water levels on this river to help you catch them. They change and so should you. :)

The reason a current break is so important to the fish is that it decreases the amount of energy they need to expend to maintain it's position in the river, creek or stream. If they have to expend to much energy they will die. You can see how these current breaks can be the difference between life or death for a fish and why it is critical for them to use them and for us, the angler, to understand this relationship.

The fish change their lies every time there is a major change in water flow in most holes. Due to the effects that the current break has or does not have on this new flow of water. They will also change their preferences due to time of year, fishing pressure, temperature of water and their biological clock to name just a few. Their change could be as little as moving from the head of the hole (heads of holes are current breaks) to the middle of the hole where the current is not as strong. Or from the tail (higher water flows - the tail is a current break) to the middle of the pool when the water drop's. During real high water sometimes the hole (current break)  itself provides little to no protection from the current and you will find the fish moving to the seam of the hole. A seam - where the faster water meets the slower water. Seam's are another current break that the fish love to use. During extreme water flows they could even position themselves directly along the bank of the river.

We have low water current breaks and high water current breaks. Many times a current break is not large enough to effect the high water and the fish's relationship to it becomes useless. Just the opposite can be said for larger current breaks during low water. A prime example of this would be Snaggers hole. During low water this large hole is normally not used by the fish because the water moves so slowly above it that there is no current for the fish to need it. But, during high water when the current is really moving, this spot is used by the fish because it provides shelter (a current break) for the fish to conserve their energy as they move up or down the river. So, we have high water spots (current breaks) that we only fish during high water and low water spot's that we only fish during low water.

So the trick is to know when each spot (or part of the spot)  is productive (when the fish will use them) and only fish these area's during the correct water flow. Similar to saltwater tides, fish each spot when it is fishing at it's maximum productivity level. We have different current breaks that the Steelhead use in the Fall (more aerated moving water) compared to the Winter (less aerated moving water). We have different current breaks that the fish use while they are moving up or down (in transition) the river that are different than where they would want to stay for an extended period of time. You have heard me talk about these spots as transitional holding and holding. During their spawn their current breaks change again.

The small island you stand on to fish the hole in low water is now the current break for the fish in much higher water flows. The small boulder on the bottom of the river holds fish behind it in low water flows but becomes almost useless during high water.
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Transitional water is where the fish keep swimming up river and do not stop.
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Transitional holding water is structure or current breaks that the fish use while in a transitional mode while moving up river to rest for awhile. The length of time any species of fish will hold on these current breaks is determined by the quality of the current break and what the fish had to go through to get to it. (There are other factors also) Fish normally use the depth of water and the current to navigate. So any current break that is on this path is normally used. Whenever we have fish that are in transition then these locations should always be fished.
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Holding Water:
They have reached a place in the river where all of their survival instincts are satisfied.
We need the same things they do to survive.
A prime lye consists of:
1. Depth of water for safety from predators.
2. A good enough current break to decrease the amount of energy they need to expand to maintain this position.
3. Enough food.
These "happy fish" will not move from these positions unless one of a number of things happen.

Any type of holding water (that i know of)  is caused by current breaks.

As predators, we need to study and decipher current breaks (Habitat). There is a lot of empty water out there. Our predatory instinct's are to find our quarries weaknesses and then exploit them. Having an intimate understanding of Current breaks and when and where to fish them according to the water flow will allow you to achieve this.
Randy :)

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Fish Fighting Techniques for Steelhead:

Yes, that's me with the stupid looking hat and the spinning rod.
The first thing I did upon hooking up was to immediately get even or below the fish. This tires the fish out sooner by knocking it off balance and causing it to work harder to stay upright. (An exception to this would be if there was very fast water (drop in the river), deep hole that you can not get around, snags or anything below you that might cause the fish to break you off. Then I would stay a little above the fish)

I see 95% of the angler's on this river never really load their rod properly when fighting a fish. This is totally understandable (as with everything else :) because if you've never been told or learned much of this, then it's all new. I certainly didnt know much of this when I was new and I still don't know it all. :) Most angler's only pull back 1/4 to 1/2 way back. In the above photo I am about 3/4 of the way back with the rod. Before I stop pulling back, the rod is pointed directly behind me with the rod horizontal and next to my ear. The butt (very bottom) of the rod is pointed at the far bank. It's hammer time!

By holding your rod upside down with rod tip in the water the fish will normally, slowly and quietly come in without much fuss. By keeping it's head under the water the fish feel's much more comfortable and tends not to freak out.  This at times can also be used as a stalling tactic. You will notice some of the more experienced Salmon River anglers inverting their rod shortly after the hook up. This greatly increases the odds for the fish to remain in the hole-pool and not speed off down river. It also helps by hopefully controlling the fish's attitude. Keeping it from thrashing around and breaking off.

The above is an example on how many Steelhead are lost with the rod tip up. (If snag's or strong current's are around you then this would be the correct way) Notice the splash? Miss Steelhead did not like it when I pulled her head out of the water. Many fish are lost-broken off at this point.

If you listen to the fish it will pretty much tell you at what angle to hold your rod. If the fish is on the other side of the river I always hold my tip high. If I held it low then the full amount of the rivers current would put an awful lot of additional pressure on my line and tippet as it bow's. Many times resulting in breaking the fish off. If the fish is approx. from the middle of the river towards me then I always hold my rod tip just off the surface of the water down low. (Providing I dont have any real fast currents or snags.)

The funniest thing about this picture and the above photo was as I was playing the fish. Anytime I had my rod tip up I lost total control over the fish. It pretty much went anywhere it wanted to. It also took much longer to tire it out. But, as soon as I put the tip low (down and dirty) or in the water. It came straight in at me. This lower rod position combined with standing below the fish will put approx. 3 times more pressure on the fish when it is within 60 feet or so. Tiring it out sooner and gaining much more control over the fish.

When reeling in the fish with the tip up:
          There are 2 things wrong with the previous sentence. 
#1. I will sometimes hold my rod upside down with tip in water when bringing in a steelhead. Fish don't breath air and with tip up it feel's as if (which you are) trying to pull it's head out of the water. This creates a havoc, wrecking ball of nerves that sometimes ends with fish off. I breathe air, so if you put my head under the water you can be assured I would not be happy. (Same with the fish) By holding your rod upside down with rod tip in the water the fish normally will slowly and quietly (within reason) come in without much fuss.

#2 Whenever targeting large species of fish the rod becomes a flexible lever. We never reel the fish in; we PULL the fish in. The reel is only used to recover slack line. Pull-up, reel-down. Now combine #1 with #2 and by George, you've got it!

Nice lil 7lb Female Steelhead along with my Elmer Fud Hat. Whirrs that cwazy wabbit!
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Stay tuned for more entertainingly informative and mildly educational reports and articles on this never-ending virtual fishing trip with your host Randy "The Yankee Angler" and friends.
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The Author, Guide, Outfitter:
Randy Jones is a full-time professional fly/spin fishing guide with over 24 years of experience. He has represented the Orvis Corporation as a guide and chief instructor of their 2 1/2 day Saltwater Fly fishing schools.
    During the summer, Randy can be found wade guiding the S.E. (and beyond) Cape Cod area's,  where sight casting on the flats to trophy Striped Bass is his specialty. During the Fall, Winter, and Spring Randy runs drift boat and wade trips on the world class Salmon River, Pulaski N.Y. for Steelhead, Coho, Browns, Atlantic's and Kings.
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Thank you all for your words of encouragement, kind words and continued support. Ill continue to do my best in sharing what I've learned through, experience, experimentation, borrowed ideas and taught techniques.
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I sincerely hope that what little I've been able to share with you will help you along the path to more enjoyable, safe, knowledgeable fishing. Randy
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Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , SteelheadSalmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead

Cape Cod's Chatham, Monomoy Island, Flats and Beyond
 Inshore Wade Saltwater
Fly/Spin Fishing Report's and Ramblings:

Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead, Salmon , Steelhead, Pulaski, Ny, New York, NY, Pulaski, guide, fish, fishing, Steelhead, Salmon, river, River, guide, Brown, trout, trout, trout, Brown, Coho, coho, coho, coho, Pulaski,

Wade Cape Cod - World Class Destination Flats Fishery -
May through August
Here on the Cape, we have miles and miles of light colored sand flats and crystal clear water that makes sight casting to 5-25 pound stripers the order of the day. This is probably the most exciting type of fly/spin fishing you will ever do. They're cruising the flats eating crabs, shrimp, silversides and sand lances, and just waiting for your perfectly cast fly or bait. Sometimes you need to burn up the water with a fast retrieve and at other times using a dead drift with the current is all that is needed. All methods will require distance, speed and accuracy in your casting. We have some of the finest destination flats fishing in the world right here on Cape Cod. Seeing 100s or more fish in a tide is the norm when sunny. Test your skills and let's work together to help you along the path to hooking up in paradise.
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Blending in and stalking our prey while wading the Flats.
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  5 fish, 2 O'Clock, 75 feet, moving left, throw it 50 feet, 12 O'Clock, leave it, leave it, ok now, strip it, faster, strip it, their on it, there on it...

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  He ate it! Ye-haa! :)
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The following fishing reports will consist of Inshore Saltwater (Fly/Spin) Fishing. It will include Tips, techniques, Habitat, Presentation, Baitology, Flies-Hooks, Moon Fazes, Flats, and even some highlights from year’s past fishing reports. Some of the material will come straight from my past experience as chief instructor of the Orvis 2 ½ day saltwater fly fishing schools. Additional material will come from first hand knowledge, gained from my many years of eating, breathing, living and loving the New England - Cape Cod Inshore Saltwater environment. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this Truly World Class Destination Fishery!

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Late July Fishing Report:
This weeks fishing report from Monomoy.

(Photo John Halnon)
Nice picture of the reeeeel deal. Notice the clarity of the water, lightness of the sand, knee deep water. Pretty neat stuff!
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Ton's and I mean TON's of Blues around. Mostly 3-6 lb'rs with the occasional 10 lb. Blue or schoolies to keeper sized Bass. When wade, fly/spin, flats, sight fishing,  we have been either casting at schools of 100 or less Blues or many - many single 15-20LB. Bass in 1-2 feet of crystal clear water with an almost white bottom and turquoise colored water. Just like the Caribbean,  except $1,000's of dollar's less. :)
I expect things to remain the same until the slower tides arrive Aug. 8. Until then, LOOK OUT!
Fishing has been fishing. Most anglers (except my guest's) are having a VERY difficult time unless intimately familiar with the water they are fishing and are VERY adapt and changing according to what the fish are telling them. Monomoy is VERY slow fishing of late for the unfamiliar angler. Fish have gone into there very normal late summer life style. Very challenging fishing for some, but not all. :) (he-he)
I have a couple of pool's out there that are presently holding 500 to 1,000 Blues and 3-400 Bass. :)
Best wade blind fly/spin fishing on the cape is normally around an out-flow w/ current, w/ a hole combined with cold water - bait and no predator's. Best sight fishing has been on any of the late summer, current, bait,  producing flats while wade fly/spin fishing. :)
Happy Hook'n to all,
Randy
http://www.yankeeangler.com - Fishing reports page for many more additional tips, articles, pictures, etc.. on sight fishing the flats and blind around all of the Cape Cod wade fly/spin inshore water fishery.
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Wade Fly Blind Monomoy Island Wed. 8/6
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We had an enjoyable day out on the island today. First spot,
thru the fly in and my guest came up with a nice Bass. Out of
the next 5 cast's with fly he was hooked up to 4 more bass.
My other client was enjoying useing surface stuff and watching
4-5 Bass explode on it on a single retrieve - 50 feet. As soon
as I retied him to fish subsurface both of my guest's were
doubled up on a couple more nice bass in the mid - twenty inch
range taken on a fly.
That was one the many highlight's of the day while blind wade
fly. We worked (so whats new in August?) for the rest of our
fish. We enjoyed fishing several different spot's and found
more Bass, no Blues.
White and olive clouser's - clear Int. line, white pencil
poppers - floating line.
Best Fish's,
Randy
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Outermost Harbor Marine Shuttle Boat to Monomoy island

I ride the Outermost Harbor Marine Shuttle boat almost daily.
They operate Full - time: 7 days a week, 3 boats,
8am until 4:30pm, 6 Capt.'s., never (rarely) a wait,
no # of people restrictions, fresh water hose to rinse
all of your gear, 100 foot walk to the docked boat,
small general store (shack) for any last minute items,
$20 to Monomoy round trip, free parking in the marina's
secure lot with a parking attendant.)
http://www.outermostharbor.com
They have a web cam set up on their roof, so you can
see the Tub and South beach on their home page. Neat!
Check the weather reel - time before you fish!
Happy hook'n,
Randy
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I'm a proud sponsor of http://reel-time.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3
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This fish was taken at the high in 12 inch's of water, 1 foot off the dry sand to your right in photo! It was the smaller of the five. :) I was standing 30 feet back from the waters edge on the sand. (Believe it or not :)FYI -  3 other anglers were standing waist deep in the water 200 feet out in front of me fly casting to water void of anything swimming. Very normal, I used to do it too!
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July Wade Saltwater Cape Cod Chatham Monomoy Island Fly/Spin Fishing Report, Pictures, Articles, Humor, Tips and much more:
I hope you find my reports and articles entertainingly informative and mildly educational from a fly/spin wade angler's perspective here on Cape Cod.
Over view:
I've been fishing in a number of different habitat's from all around the entire Cape Cod area, depending on several factors or variables.
Just like my last overview, the fishing has been just that. Fishing! Everyday is different and you never know exactly what you will find. Whether we are blindcasting or sight fishing. Some days have been sloooow, some days have been ok but most of our days have been OUTSTANDING!  These fast tides that we are having now 7/4 have improved the fishing from last week in my opinion. Very normal.
Look for your flats fish to become much more spooky and fussy. Time for your stealth presentations, flies, etc... The balance of our resident population of migratory Bass will finish arriving this first week of July (Approx.)  Best time to catch a keeper before they get a phd in whats real or not. :)
Best places to fish here on the Cape will be places that have a cold water influence off the Ocean along with moving water over a hole, hump or some type of structure while wading. Find these things and I'll bet you will find some fish.
Normally, the only reason's the fish wont be in these locations is if they are threaten by predators, water is to warm or there is not enough food for them.
Good luck everyone and go get'm!
Happy Hook'n,
Randy
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Holy Cow-a-Bunga! We absolutely hammered the fish today. Bass and Blues. Blindcasting and sight fishing. We started off blindcasting and within a few cast's were tight. Then another and another. Boring :) (just kidding:) While sight fishing we first came across some singles, doubles and schools of 10-20 Bass (One school had no less than 150 Bass in it) with only an approx. 20-30 foot visual window due to being fogged in. Once the skies cleared we found a school of approx. 500 Bass, all having what I call a jacuzzi party. They had no place to go and just hung out with us in 2 feet of water or less (for an entire 2 hours) and allowed us to constantly - consistently hook them up while sight fishing. We stayed 80 feet away and used the wind at our back to help place the fly on the button. We used the edge of the flat to hide from them and had to duck down several times to help keep from being seen by them as they swam within 30 feet. Another fish ON! Then, we waded after them and or stood still and allowed them to come back to us time after time. After they finally left the flat they hung out in another location allowing us to see them easily and continue catching them. We saw over 800 fish today, with most of these being the 500 Bass that just hung around with us for a loooong time. Simply AMAZING. I hope you all get the chance sometime in your life to experience this endless, all you can eat, smorgasbord while wade sightfishing with the fly rod.
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We sight/fly/wade fished all day. We started off with a school of 100 Bass all Keeper's just sitting there not moving while they rested.  We hooked some up. :) Then it was keeper Bass in schools of 1,2, 20, 30, 50 for the next hour steady (approx. 300). But, no schoolies. Then we hit a lull and all we could find were those nice fighting 10 lb. Blues on the flats while sightfishing in 1,2's, 7-8's and 10's (approx. 40), but no schoolies. We had to force ourselves to put on the wire and play with these darn Bluefish in 1 foot of water. :)  Then as we moved along the flat looking over the edges, we finally found some schoolies in 1,2's and 3's, (approx. 30 of them in total.) They were off the main flat and seemed to be in hiding. Then as we progressed along the flats to another section all hell broke lose. School's of 3lb. to 10 lb. Blues in singles, doubles, 10's, 20's 30's, 40's all the way up to school's of 100. (Saw easily over 1,000 Blues in less than 2 hour's. AMAZING!!  :)
In total we sightfished while wading and useing fly rods to approx. 1,400 fish in a 5 hour time period. (Most of which came within easy casting range of a fly rod in less than a 2 hour period.) Almost steady fish all day with sometimes only seconds inbetween them. At times they surrounded us and Ray Charles could have sight fished to them. :)
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Started off slow on the flats. Saw a school of approx. 7 Bass in the first 1/2 hour. Then we left for greener pastures and again, found nothing for the next 1/2 hour. Left again for another flat and as soon as our ankles touched the edge it was fish, 12 O'Clock, moving right. Fish ON! As we fought this fish we saw more pass'n us by. As we proceeded to walk along this edge we saw more and more fish, had lots of opportunity, caught zip.
I always jokingly tell folks that if you want to improve your odds, then blindcast. You don't have to be fast or accurate, you just have to get it out there. If you want to TRY to catch fish, then sight cast. :)
As we approached the main flat for the day we began to see BIG Bass, more and then some more. Then, as expected, we began to see those schools of blues and more Blues. Amazing numbers. The Bass sighting's slooowed down so we switched to Blue fish rigging and proceeded to hook them up. Along with these BIG numbers of blues, we also began to see these keeper Bass again. Combination of very good numbers of both species consistently on the flats. If you can imagine seeing several pods of blues in schools of 20 to 100 ( in 1 foot of water) and also at the same time seeing 2-3 keeper bass all around you, then you have the picture! Turquoise water, almost matching the color of the sky and looking exactly like the Caribbean. The only difference is that you didnt have to spend $1,000's of dollar's for the experience. :) A good sized Bluefish will give you almost the same run - fight as a bonefish in my opinion. The only difference is about $1,000 per fish. :)
Another amazing day while sight fishing with a fly rod in these crystal clear waters LOADED with Bass and blues. Ended the day with another Blue attacking our lil Sand Lance fly pattern with another one of many spectacular speeding bullet runs ending at the rod while landing with the normal bite off. :)Darn, and that was my favorite fly. :) Amazing, simply amazing. I hope you all get a chance to experience this fishery.
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My one day off to go fishing with a freind
First flat of the morning had a school of 100 Fish in 1-1/2 feet of water just hang'n around that we sight cast too. Hooked a couple, in 2 cast's. They moved into another area that had a couple more schools hanging around. Played with these for awhile. Then off to another area flat complex and found some more here and there to cast at. We then moved to the honey hole. This hole has had approx. 1,000 to 500 fish in it lately. It was LOADED today. Every single cast replied with numerous Blues crashing our surface lures. We had a competition on who could retrieve it the fastest and make the most cast's without hooking up. We tied with each of us unable to keep the plugs away from them by our second cast. Incredible jump's, somersault's, speeding bullet runs. Ye-haa! My buddy tried fishing bait on the bottom and in 4 cast's caught 4 Bass. Blues on top and Bass underneath them. Tremendous amount of bait spraying. I even had fun taking the hook off :0 the lure and letting the blues hammer the plug time and time again. :) Wrist's and arms sore, no more challenge, tooo easy, left.
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Sunday morning caught myself surfing the Saltwater Web sites, sipping coffee, day dreaming of surf, blue bird skies, crystal clear water over light colored sand flats, girls in bikinis - errrr, I mean, cruising blues and bass on the shallow flat's.
5 fish - 2 o'clock! , throw it 12 O'clock, 50 feet ! O.K. , let it sit there, dont move it, stay low, here they come, get ready, Now strip it, strip it faster, 2 fish just broke from the school, strip it - strip it, their nose is on it, there on it, keep stripping, their on it,

He ate it! The pictures above were actually a single 15 or above pound Bass in 12 inch's of water while wade fly fishing the flats. Saw it about 160 feet away. Head shot. Big'n, Cast 70, Adrenaline, leave it, don't move it, wait, Adrenaline, he flashed! Set it!

Ye-haa!! What a honk'a!!! Sometimes setting by sight is the answer.
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When I talk about perfect sight fishing conditions and mother nature being kind to you, this is the type of stuff you can hopefully expect. Obviously, I've also had just the opposite of these days too, which Im sure some of you can relate to. :)
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Had a slooow day on the flats while sight fishing. Only saw approx. 450 Bass all day. Most of these were all Migratory keepers. The rest were migratory Blues and resident Bass.
The morning started off unexpectedly reeel slow. The fish must have over slept. :) Around 11 we started to see them in small numbers. Then unexpectedly, at the BEST part of the tide where we normally see a crescendo of fish, it died. We left for greener pastures and found a few more. Still not enough to make me happy so we left for another flat. Before we even got there all hell broke lose. Would you believe that in the last 25 minutes of sight fishing today, that over 300 Bass (mostly keepers) came by us within fly casting range in schools of 20 to 50? WOW!
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Sight fished to approx. 750 Bass in 2 feet of water or less, the ENTIRE tide while wade w/fly. Ye-hha! Randy
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Same guest's for these two days. We had a blast fishing around Monomoy Island and picked up fish in every spot. The next day due to the wind we stayed inshore and played with Bass, Flounder and Shad useing the fly rods. Ye-haa!
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Last Week's Daily Fishing Log: 

Ton's and tons of Baby Sand Lances. Incredible size of pods. Birds working feverishly. Lot's of fish underneath them out in 20-30 feet of water off hardings beach.
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Massive amounts of tooth pick sized Sand Lances covering the flats today. Slooow sight fishing, but we still had a blast trying our hand at seeing and then casting to a moving target. Schoolies, Blues and a number of keeper sized bass. Saw 1 school of over 100 Bass that looked to be all Keepers. Other school's in 10, 20, 30 along with the usual 1,2 and 3's. Good number of snapper blues that we donated a few flies too. :) Did a lil blindcasting with success also. Another fun and exciting day! Can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.
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Very dangerous and frequent lightning Thunderstorms, hail, rain and very high gusting winds (40 knots) was our forecast for today as of last night. It always pays to have a lot of very good inshore spots that produce at their optimum at different stages of the tide that are out of any wind direction.
Wouldn't you know it, that the weatherman was 100% wrong again today? It was a beautiful day of light to medium winds with 100% sun ALL day! Ye-haa. Another Bonus day. We sight fished almost all day and were rewarded with a good number of opportunities. Short's to a nice number of resident 20 lb. Bass! Saw very very few migratory Bass. The largest school of migratories had approx. 100 Keeper sized bass in it.
As we approached a particular section of the flat, I explained to my client that sometimes the migratory Bass will just sit on the other side, off the edge. Just relaxing, taking a break, having a lil Jacuzzi party is what I call it. Wouldn't you know it. As we approached the edge I suddenly asked my guest to stop walking. 100 feet in front of us was one of those school's of approx. 100 Keeper sized Bass. Just hang'n around, not moving. I've had Bass sit in this location and others for hours on end. But, not today. My guest made one cast into the school, hooked up immediatly and then they all got spooked by his fly line slashing thru the school with his fish on it. This sent them on their way. Besides all of the other fish that we saw that was the most memorable part of the day for me. I love it when what you hope for materializes and I get to share this incredible world of sight fishing the flats while wading with a new fly/spin rod angler. Needless to say it was another amazing, memorable day in many of late. :)
Happy hook'n,
Randy
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(Photo by John Halnon)
When I die, I hope I end up on a flat with sunny skies, (You need the sun to be able to see them) a 5-6 knot wind (this is the preferred speed of wind we like when sight fishing for many reason's) and big Bass doing head stands. (tailing)
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John Knight and myself, hard at work. Trying to stay
out of the fish's window.
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Back in the good'ol ladder days :)
I think this was one of the pictures that appeared in "On The Water" magazine.
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Another Sighted Fly Fish while wading the Flats.
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My good freind Bill O'Mally caught this 40 inch Bass while useing his 15 foot spey rod, 10 feet off the dry sand in the surf off ANY outer Cape beach. He was sight fishing to 100's and 100's of migratory Bass and Blues during the migration at this time of the year. Pretty simple stuff if you hit it just right!
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Archives
Wind and casting aid's while fly fishing tips:
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1. When fly fishing and the wind is blow'n hard on your casting arm:
All we do is turn around and cast on our back cast when the wind is honk'n on our casting arm. Whether in a boat, wade, blind or sight fishing. This casting technique should be practiced until you become proficient at it. It's as simple as spreading soft but'a on a warm muff'n. Before long you will throw it as far or close to it as you presently are on your forward cast. All your doing is letting it go on your back cast instead of your forward. Your arm makes the exact same motion going forward as it does back. The trick is to train your forearm to make that "power stroke" quick and fast (when going back) enough to load the rod and keep a tight loop while fly fishing and letting it go on your back cast.
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2. The "Double Haul" is another valuable casting aid I would try to learn over the summer if you enjoy fly fishing the saltwater. Once learned it's easy stuff. You can do it with your eyes closed and you'll catch more fish. It helps you in all aspect's of casting. With out getting to deeply into the D.H. I start my haul at the beginning of my power stroke, on both my forward and back. Or another way to say it is at the exact moment and time that you initiate your power stroke, haul 6-10 inch's (fast) on both the forward and back. There is a lot more to this casting aid, but that's another article all together.
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3. Next time your fly fishing, got the wind at your back, let the wind make the cast for you . I've taken folks through the Orvis Fly School who in NO wind could cast it 40-60 feet, then put them with a strong wind at there back. Helped teach them how to throw it UP into the sky. And let the wind take it out 80 feet. Amazing!
I swear many fly fishing anglers are amazed at the distance they can achieve once this sky writing technique is learned. Lefty Krey said something about stabbing-jabbing the sky with the tip of your rod during the power stroke. You accomplish 2 things.
A tight loop and the line always goes in the direction you excelerate and stop the rod tip. So with a quick stabbing motion upwards, you maintain a tight loop. Also you are throwing the line up, towards the heavens. Leaving it for the wind to take it along for a looooooong ride. It's fun to teach and watch the reaction of my guest's when they get it.
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4. Another tip would be to use a 2 handed fly rod or spey rod. These are longer fly rods that you use 2 hand's to cast that are normally 12 to 15 feet in length. The longer rod is what I personally use in any and all saltwater fly fishing. The longer rod has soooooo many advantages that someday I'll write an article on it.
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5. Obviously, tight loop's (3-4 feet) are your goal on both your forward and back cast for over all casting. Look at your back cast once in a while to make sure your loop's are tight. Many angler's only perfect their forward cast and sometimes forget about the importance of the back. The back cast set's up the forward and is more important. I used to practice a tight loop by standing on the grass, floating line so I could see it real good and make sure I have a strong wind at my back. With a strong wind at your back, you are forced to throw a tight loop on the back or it fall's apart and with the bright floating line it should make it easy to see. Your goal is to train your arm. Remember - The distance the rod tip travel's during the power stroke is solely responsible for the size of your loop. Nothing else. The shorter the distance the rod tip travels during the power stroke, the tighter the loop. With wind at your back, you will have to make this speed up and stop (power stroke), fast and with power to keep, maintain, consistently throw a tight loop into the wind on your back cast. And have the fly line completely straighten out into the wind. Perfecting this with a strong wind will only make you a stronger caster.
The above are all tip's, techniques, things that we all use while fly fishing the salt. Hope it helps a lil.
Randy Jones
http://www.yankeeangler.com )
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Mail Bag:

What kind of FFing strategies do you guys implement when stripers on the flats seem to be in lockjaw mode? Any particular go-to flies?
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All great suggestions. Without giving the farm away. :)
The very first thing I do at this time of year to determine my fly choice is.
1. Are these migratory fish? I determine this by one factor. If they are they want a a specific fly presented in a very specific manner, In my opinion. Most of these dont like to travel further than 20 feet or so from the safety of the pack and or their leaders to their summer grounds. A lil luck and well placement of fly usually does the trick but not always. Food is not always the most important issue when dealing with these guys.
2. Are these resident Bass? I determine this again by one factor. If they are resident's then the next determining factor on what fly I use is solely determined by the size of these residents. Smaller like one thing and larger prefer something entirely different.
That's the first step, in my opinion to start to determine your fly choice. After that then there are about 4-5 other things I would consider if they are being fussy. Presentation as in most any type of fishing scenario is normally always the most important.
I also always try to pattern these fish before whittling it down to one thing or another. I never know exactly what Ill see on any given day, meaning what will be the most abundant Bass present (at this time of year, Re-read #1 and #2) until Ive had a look see. Sometimes I use 1 fly but fish it in two entirely different presentational styles, depending on type of Bass, (Migratory, Resident, size, etc....)
Hope this helps a lil,
Randy
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Guest testimonial for today:
Well, it has been on my mind for a while to try the Monomoy flats. It became impossible to resist after Maine got off to such a slow start this year. I decided to jump in with both feet by hiring Guide Randy Jones to show me the ropes. He was super good company, patient (as he had to be, given my casting ability) and oh, could he find fish. We estimated that in that in our one day of wading (just this past Thursday) we saw around 700 fish. If I were reading this, I wouldn't believe it, but I was there, and I saw most of them. Coming at us from all directions. In ones, twos, threes, schools of 30 and 50. Makes it kind of hard to focus on casting well with all of that activity. And these were not just schoolies. There were a lot of BIG fish, some swimming within a rods length of me before being spooked. I went out the next day by myself and saw a bit less than half as many fish, but then again, I didn't have Randy's expert eyes helping out and showing me all of the fish that I was missing. I can't wait to get back down there!
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As soon as we approached our first flats of the day while wading with fly rods, it was FISH, 50 feet, moving left, 40 fish. Then it was FISH, 60 feet, head shot, get it out there fast. Then, well, I wont bore you, same ol same hole for the next hour. Steady fish on the flats with in easy casting range with the fly rod in 2 feet of water. Moved to 2 different flats close by and it was 1 here 1 there, slow. Moved to another location close by and we started to get into'm! Did a lil walking to check out a coupl'a other holes and on the 3rd one we hit it. Fish on and on!
That was our day in a nut shell. Another one of many great days to be out on the flats sight fishing and forgetting about work!
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First 2 holes nothing. I bet the seal that was patrolling this area made the fish feel like bit'n. NOT! :) 3rd hole was like magic. Could see 30-40 keepers patrolling these waters and flashing. Caught one with a few short's. Beautiful day to be out sight fishing these crystal clear waters on an almost sugar colored flats bottom. Ye-haa!
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Sightfishing today. Saw one fish in a guzzler, saw another 6-7 at the low in a low tide spot, stood around for an hour and 1/2 nothing? And this is in one of the best low tide to incoming spots. Then, in the last 1/2 hour all hell broke lose, School of 40 migratories, another school of 30, 20, 10, 20, another 10, 1, 20, 1, etc.. Over 100 fish on the flats in a 1/2 hour! Wow!! Overall a very slow day.
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June Wade Saltwater Cape Cod Chatham Monomoy Island Fly/Spin and Beyond Fishing Report, Pictures, Articles, Humor, Tips and much more:
Coming this month. What you can expect. To a S.E. and Beyond beach near you. :)
Look for the balance of our resident Bass to finish arriving here during the first week of July. Look for those resident flats Bass to become more fussy as the month progress's. Be ready to re-rig up your fly/spin rods with fussy Bass stuff. Get ready for even bigger Bass. Make sure your knots are good. :) Look for the Blues to search out colder water off shore and further North shortly. Instead of seeing 1,000's of Migratory Bass in a tide on their travel Rt's, expect to see 100's of those resident Bass in a tide traveling their normal feeding - travel Rt's. Expect not as many fish around as during the migration. You can look forwards to bigger resident quality fish. You will normally but not always see lot's of bass on our faster tides and normally less on our slower tides. Fog will become your worst nightmare so be prepared. Now is the time to prepare for getting lost, turned around, trapped by the incoming tide, on these extremely large flat's, where is that compass, cell phone, GPS at. (Ton's of helpful life saving tips below) Expect more tourist's, old people and in general driver's going 20 miles an hour under the posted speed limit when your in a hurry to catch the first shuttle boat out at 8am. to hit those flats! :)
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Over view - June
Over this last week we fly fished from Barnstable all the way up to P-Town and then back down and around the other side of the Cape to the Bass River. (And many spots in between.) All spot's were hold'n, some LOADED (A fish on almost every cast) and some you had to work for them(slooow.) All wading, during the day, Surface and Sub, blind and Sightfishing on flat's, surf, marsh, channels, Bays, etc...etc..w/all fly. (I dont discriminate, I do spin also.)
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The entire Cape Cod area inside and out are with Blues and Bass of all sizes in our Spring fishing locations. Bring your wire for the blues if fishing anytime soon.
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I have found the fishing this last week to be just that. Fishing :) Every place had fish, it was just a matter of how many Mother Nature was going to give us. Some days we had incredible number's of migratory fish all around us, while a couple of days Mother Nature gave us a lull or low numbers of Migratory fish. With Migratory fish you either are in a peak or a valley it seams (high numbers to low numbers - very normal)
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Easiest time of the year to catch a keeper while wading, Experience helps! Fish in all the normal Spring spots. Same ol same hole.
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Two days were reeeeel slow (still caught some fish), while the rest were epic, whether we were blindcasting or sight fishing. Those faster tides certainly helped. We have had some sight and blind casting days with the fly rods that were fish on almost every cast. We even saw some 20 lb. Bass in 12 inch's of water. Schools of 100 Bass in each school. Schools of schoolies to schools of all keepers (20-30) in a school. The sight fishing around the Cape has normally been amazing! But, we have also had our slow periods thrown in too, which is very normal. That's fishing. Things look to be getting better and better each day. More resident Bass showing up daily. Blues around also as an optional treat.
Top water flies and lures working great if you like your fish on the surface! We had a LOT of fish slurping bait on the surface in 2 feet of water or less recently. For fly fishing Im rigging with a 9 foot tapered leader down to a 12-14 lb. test tippet (leader).
Flies:
Ive been useing with great success whether sight or blind casting are a all white clouser, white and olive clouser or a white squid on the surface. Big white Deceivers to thin sparse white and olive sand lance imitations. If you have large schools of migratory fish around then a simple white and chartreuse clouser will do the trick. Larger Bass go with a more natural looking fly to match the dominant bait that is around in your area for this time of year.
Spin lures:
I like the white Mr. Twister tails on a jig head, sluggos - weighted and unweighted, storm lures, fin-s on a jig head and white 4-6 inch rubber squid on the surface. For Blues I like all the normal top water and subsurface ones. Im running Braid from 10 lb. test up to 20 lb. test, depending on the lures Im throwing, inshore.
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Dangerous Tides:
Please be extra careful with these exaggerated tides. Please remember to carry a whistle, GPS and a compass should the fog roll in fast and make seeing more than 10 feet away impossible. It is soooo easy to get turned totally around in a heavy fog (I have) on those flats. Thats why they call them a flat, there is normally no up or down to help you navigate your way back to safety. Please remember, their is only one right way back (and that will probably zig - zag) and about a thousand wrong ways to walk back to the safety of shallow water or dry sand when we have pea soup fog and the tide is coming in. I like to take a compass reading once Ive reached my fishing location. Even if the weather is bright and sunny and their is no forecast for fog. It can roll in heavy and fast. Be safe as always, they are not worth it.
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June - Last Week's Daily Fishing Log:

Wow! Amazing? Super! The fishing today was nothing short of spectacular! As we sloooowly approached the hole this morning I asked my clients to walk slowly and to keep their eyes open. It was a dark drizzly morning and this means we might have fish on the surface. Sure enough, we had about 100 bass in 1-2 feet of water sipping, rolling, slurping Bait on the surface. We stayed 40 feet away from the waters edge so we would not spook these fish. We cast approx. 30 feet into the water at the boil's. Fish on! Ye-haa! Each of my guest's hooked up. My guest's got a lil overly excited and then started to blind cast into the water. This made waaaay to much noise and put the fish down fast. Darn! I explained to them that casting at these boil's was exactly like sight fishing. Dont cast until you see the boil and then only cast at the boil. They apologized and we all laughed! They said that they were very excited and kind'a forgot. Ha!
John wondered off by himself and continued sight casting to fish that were in 1 foot of water. (both of my guest's are very experienced sight fly) We stopped at a hole and it was a fish on almost every cast. Waaaay toooo easyyyyy. This kept up for over an hour. Next hole was the same way except the fish were bigger! We had big school's of Adult Sand Lances. (Hint:)That was our day in a nut shell. If you can make it to the Cape, I'd recommend coming.
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Found 3, 100 fish school's as soon as our feet touched the edge of the flat while sight fishing. Moved to another location and were rewarded with a fish on almost every cast. Around the high it slowed so we went to another productive flats area, slow, until we got closer to the normal hot spot. Sighted fish galore, mostly schools of all keepers in 10's to 30's. Probably a couple hundred in 1/2 hour of looking and fishing. O'what a day! :)
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Special Cape Flats loaded. Sightfishing wade, fly/spin. I rarely see these types of numbers of fish on the flats, and I do this daily. We had 1 day last year on a flat where myself and some of you saw around 3,000 Bass in 2 feet of water swim by us within casting range on a very popular flats area that many of you fish, nope not Monomoy. :) We were on top of one of those peaks I have been talking about. Mother Nature gave us the mother load. Normal for this time of year, also just the opposite is true, as you just read above. We had easily over 1,500 migratory Bass with a few blues and an ok number of resident Bass for this time of year. We had the normal residents swimming on their normal routes on the flats. The migratories were doing what we all like to see. They were all having a flats Jacuzzi party. Not in any hurry, not feeding all that much and just hanging around by the 100's.
We stayed 80 feet away from them and made our fly cast's from their. Any closer and they would leave. Those and others would filter by us, with many of them stopping to party with us. :) Some stayed with us for over 3 hours! It was fun to visually see them, cast, watch them chase down our flies with reckless abandonment and then watch them open their mouth and eat it. Visually seeing the run all the way to the finish was astounding. Don't get much better!
Normal flies and rigging for this time of year. Presentation was critical. If we didnt present it properly, no go. If we didnt have the correct fly, no go. If we didnt imitate the exact fleeing reaction of the bait we were trying to imitate, yup, you guessed it, no go. Put it all together with consistency and it was almost toooo easy. :)
All fish were in 12 inch's of water to 2-1/2 feet. We could see them easily at times over 100 yards away over these crystal clear water flats and almost sugar colored sand. They were schoolie - keeper sized up to 20 lb'rs.
Wow! Wish everyday was this easy. I guess thats why they call these the salad days.
I've seen thousands of fish on these flats and the next day Ive seen 2 or 3 total for the day this early in the season. You never know and thats why they call it fishing. :) I think even Ray Charles could have sight cast on these magical flats today and caught one. :)  
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Sight fishing heaven! Slooow for the first couple of hours around the high - dropping. Then we moved and all heck broke loose. Residents, from schoolie size to a few 20lb'rs. Some in as lil as 12 inch's of water. Also saw some blues. Enjoyed the company of 4-5 schools of migratory Bass from 20 to 40 fish in each school. Also did some blind casting in a hole with current and for 1/2 hour straight my client caught a fish every 1-3 cast's. :)
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Near death experience out on Monomoy yesterday! (by an experienced wade angler?) Dont let this be you. I see stuff like this happen several times each summer!
Is your life worth reading this? Making a copy of this and reading it each time before you go to the Island? Sharing it with friends? Ive compiled my own and other's post's from http://reel-time.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3
of helpful tips that could save your life.
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If this can happen to someone who has experience out here, then what about those of you who are new or have a few years under your belt? I could sadly go on and on and on. I hope you ALL can learn something from this.
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The main mistake among MANY that this wade angler (not my client's) made yesterday was he waded blindly into an area he was not "intimately" familiar with on an "incoming" tide.
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Got trapped on all sides by the incoming strong current tide. I yelled, do you know where to cross? He said yes, and pointed to an area that was 12 feet deep at this stage of the tide. He tried to wade back across the channel (after I yelled at him and told him where the shallowest part of the channel was to cross and he might have to swim) and got up to his chest with water and current poring into and filling up his chest waders. Barely making it back to his almost isolated trapped casket. (I was the only one around who knew he was in deep trouble, talked him thru it, called for the rescue) Still trapped, panic stricken?, tide rising all around him. He did not have the shuttle boat's number pre- programed into his cell phone and did not know it to call for a rescue. His cell phone probably got soaked and was not working. He did not know where the high ground was to wait out the high tide or wait for rescue. He did NOT even know where he was at when asked twice by me so he could give proper directions to the rescue boat. (Maybe he was panic stricken?) Originally he had crossed a creek channel (did he even know this?) and did not know the proper spot to re-cross. He probably didnt even know he had crossed over a creek channel that was filling up fast on this oncoming tide. He did not know when he HAD to be back across this channel. As he tried to reach the high ground (after I yelled to him where it was at) he kept pushing hard against the current which kept getting deeper and deeper almost reaching his chest again. He may have been panic stricken at this point. I yelled "dont panic" you'll be ok. Walk to your right, its shallower. I called the shuttle service and they were there within 5 minutes to save his life. He said later that if he had too, he would have dumped all of his gear and swam to a certain beach. Only problem was with the current he never would have made the 1/4 mile swim to his beach. And may have died of a heart attack trying. He should have know to swim with the current to another beach, down current. He would of had to swim across the boat channel. Not safe. He may have gotten hypothermia being in the water that long and we all know what happens next.
I was very happy to have helped and very happy that it was me that was there watching his every move while I was working, even when he first crossed the channel when it was "safe", even before he realized he was in trouble. But VERY angry that all of this could have been soooooo easily avoided and that I almost watched someone who has the same love and passion for the sport as all of you and myself, almost die in front of my eyes.
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I'd like to thank "Outermost Harbor and Marine" - http://www.outermostharbor.com
They were there in 3-1/2 minuets. I couldn't believe how fast they got there to rescue him!
They provide a shuttle service to Monomoy Island, South Beach (2 stops on S.B.- across from Monomoy and all the way out to the South Way - (Bird watching, fishing and beach goo's) and Seal watching tours. They have 3 boats and run all day. Its open for the general public, on site parking, etc... I ride their shuttle boats almost daily.
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Another invaluable tip for your safety would be to go to Google Earth and look at this area. Print it out and take it with you. Any white sand you see would be the driest sand. This might be your high ground. Visually confirm this on your walk out. It would help you to get more familiar with the lay of the land and all of those dangerous creeks that fill in. Also, when you are there, most of the grass that is growing off the main island on the flats is normally some of your high spots where you could wait out the tide in most cases.Also, the whitest sand you see is normally the driest and can sometimes be your high spot.
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Another invaluable tip that has been mentioned numerous times on this and other sites is Cape Cod Bay. This area has 8 to 11 foot tides. Presently we are having exaggerated tides. (higher high's and lower lows) These are the tides that most wade anglers get into trouble with. If you are waist deep on Cape Cod Bay and you are 1/2 mile out on a flat (in some cases a 1/4 mile out), on an incoming tide, you CANT out run it. You WILL end up swimming. A lot of the time its the last 200 feet closest to the shore where there is a depression that gets ya. I know anglers that grew up here that are very experienced that have had to swim back from the Brewster flats.
Best Safe Fish's,
Randy
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Archives:
Flats 101- Safety first while wading or kayaking: This COULD save your life!

Here on Cape Cod, fog can become your worst nightmare when 1/8-2 miles out on a flat. Some of us have had close calls on the flats, so I would like to share some of the things I do to remain safe.

Number one rule is do not wonder into an area you are not familiar with. When I say familiar, I mean having an intimate understanding of all of the following.

2- Before I even walk out onto a flat I have already checked several weather related wind internet sites. I know direction and if its going to swing and at what time. As I walk out I pay attention to what direction I feel the wind on my face. This helps should I have to guess ta mate my return.

3- I know exactly in what stage in the tide I'm walking out and when it will change. I'm very familiar with tidal current direction at every phase of the tide for the flat I am on. Knowing current direction also helps with navigation when seeing land is not an option.

4- Over the years the sand becomes like a road map, every trough, sluice, creek, river, depression is memorized over and over each year. Even if you can not see 10 feet you will come across these things that will help you navigate your way back. I plan my return as Im walking out in the morning. Taking notice and studying everything Ive written here, should I need it.

5-Knowing exactly at what stage in the tide I can cross and (most importantly) re-cross (to safety) channels that surround the entire island. This knowledge is invaluable and requires your time and energy to figure each individual depression out. Crossing any channels out here is an advanced move and should not be taken lightly or done unitl you are intimately familiar with the area. By crossing, it allows me access to certain flats and a safe return. But, by no means do you have to cross any of these many depressions or channels to catch fish out here.

6-Taking in all audible clues as I walk out. (Cars, Fog horns, Bells, Motor boat engine noise coming from the main channel.)

7- I take a compass reading when I reach my destination. I carry a compass on my watchband for easy access. I carry a back-up.

8-Know the height of your tides. Worse case scenario is to seek higher ground and sit it out. Knowing were this area is at, is crucial.

9-A cell phone is invaluable should you happen to hurt yourself and walking back is not an option. Pre-program the shuttle boats number in it. Tell your buddies where its at in case something happens to you. Also the coast guard and harbor master's numbers.

10-Go with a friend or someone who knows the area as good as the inside of their pocket.

11- Know your moon fazes. There are certain tides in certain areas that will not allow you to out run them. No high ground to sit it out and the current is so swift you can not walk against it. Put yourself on the edge of a flat with a drop off and this current can at times run like a ragging river, as water drains off it. Someone lost their life a few year's ago under this same scenario.

12- An inflatable vest of some sort makes a lot of sense.

13- Look for the way water drains off the flat. If it drains to your right, then the high ground is to your left. If you can find the area where it drains off left and over to your right, you have just found you exit off the flat when faced with high water. Knowing this direct route will save you valuable time when faced with a fast incoming tide that you can not out run.

14- A good pair of polarized glasses are not only an invaluable tool for seeing fish but also for safety.

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Con't. from above

15 - GPS

Having to feel your way back in by following the edge of the flat with your feet is not an enjoyable feeling, especially when the tide has turned and the fog is overwhelming. This happened to me once (Nauset - Chatham Cut - Pleasant Bay) when I was much younger, STUPID and did not know the above. It well never happen again! I could have easily lost my life!! So be safe, be smart don't fool around with Mother Nature. She always has the winning hand.

In closing, Monomoy is not a play ground and someone could die. If you post a report on it, you should also be responsible enough to point out the obvious safety issues.
Randy Jones

(Photo John Halnon)
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Ray, who is a moderator of a site adds a few of his own safety tips:
There is no question that safety is the biggest concern. Most flats are alluring. You "wander" around in knee deep water casting to fish, what fun.

What do most people do wrong?

1. Don't "know" the area in detail
2. Don't know the tide and how it acts
3. Don't carry basic safety gear like a compass and cell phone (please leave it off)
4. Don't USE their compass (their real good for telling just how lost you are)
5. This is a big one for me, they cross channels that may be 6 feet deep later that day!!!
6. Don't know about fog and how it can really get you crossed up
7. Don't carry enough water and food for a full day.

I have been fishing the NM flats for about 6 years. I do it about 30 times per year. Before each season I go out and wander around to see what changed over the winter.

If you ever find yourself in a place you feel the slightest bit unsure of, get out of there. It's just not worth it.
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Another angler adds;
Great topic. Not to digress or self indulge too much, but something to think about for people like me only fish there a handful of times each year.

I have fished this area for several years now and have hired Randy to show me how to fish the flats once or twice per season. With him I am in capable hands. Additionally, Ray has helped too with line advice, depth and speed (as a PM). Thanks for the help guys, and others on this board as well.

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Catch More Fish with Confidence!
My guest was amazed at the quality and very consistent distance he could easily get when he was taught how to double haul correctly. Once we learned the proper technique to tightened up his loop to approx. 3 feet, the strong wind became child's play and his distance throwing the fly increased almost like magic.  His jaw dropped again when I taught him the art of throwing the fly on his back cast properly when the wind would not allow you to throw it on your forward cast for fear of impaling the hook into some part of your body. He could throw the fly just as far by shooting it on his back cast as letting it go on his normal forward cast. He also was taught the correct form, skill and method in (sky writing with a fly rod) jabbing or stabbing the sky during the power stroke to let Mother Nature make that 100 foot cast with ease when the wind was honk'n on our back's. Easy as spread'n soft but'a on a warm muf'n. :)
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By combining his newly acquired taught skill's of creating tighter loop's, double hauling, sky writing and casting on his back cast. He vastly improved the quality of life long expert skill's that he will be able to use for the rest of his fly fishing life that will surly help him to (bottom line) Catch More Fish! These were just a few of the many many things my guest learned. All the fish he caught were just icing on the cake. We all have the rest of our lives to catch a fish. But, once these advanced skills have been acquired you'll cast, catch more fish, and fish, etc....., etc..... with greater ease, guaranteed! Now, instead of being an ok caster, he took it to the next level and become a good caster. Now, instead of Mother Nature controlling his fishing, he laugh's at her feeble attempts to try to discourage him and charges forward with Confidence! Congratulations!
Interested?

Thanks for stopping by,
Randy Jones
www.yankeeangler.com - Fishing Reports, Tips, Past, Present and Future Fishing Forecasts,  Articles, Pictures, Humor and Much More :)
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The Author, Editor, Guide, Outfitter:
Randy Jones is a full-time professional fly/spin fishing guide with over 24 years of experience. He has represented the Orvis Corporation as a guide and chief instructor of their 2 1/2 day Saltwater Fly fishing schools.
    During the summer, Randy can be found wade guiding the S.E. (and beyond) Cape Cod area's,  where sight casting on the flats to trophy Striped Bass is his specialty. During the Fall, Winter, and Spring Randy runs drift boat and wade trips on the world class Salmon River, Pulaski N.Y. for Steelhead, Coho, Browns, Atlantic's and Kings.
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Thank you all for your words of encouragement, kind words and continued support. Ill continue to do my best in sharing what I've learned through, experience, experimentation, borrowed ideas and taught techniques.
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I sincerely hope that what little I've been able to share with you today on one of many many more post's to come this year will help you along the path to more enjoyable, safe and knowledgeable fishing.
Randy

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Feel free to contact my references regarding my presentations and experience:
  Whitakers Sports Shop and Motel (315)-298-6162
     Trout Unlimited Chapters:  

     Finger Lakes TU, NY
     Iroquois TU, NY
     Chenango Valley TU, NY
     Scranton TU, PA
     Catskill Mt. TU, NY
     Tug Hill TU, NY
     Southeast TU, MA
     Greater Boston TU, MA
     Northeast TU, MA
     Croton Watershed TU, NY
     Clearwater TU, NY
     Mid-Hudson TU, NY
     Iron Furnace TU, PA
     Stan Cooper TU, PA
     Thames Valley TU, CT
     Hammonasset TU, CT
     Chittenango TU, NY
Also:
     Orvis-Manhattan, NY
     Orvis-Boston, MA
     Green Mt. Fly Tiers Assoc. VT
     Rivers Edge Trading Co.(Orvis)
     Central NY Fly Fishers, NY
     Oysterville Yacht Club, MA
     Rochester Sportsman Show, NY  (2 ½ day show, paid featured guest speaker and fly casting demo’s.)
     Albany Outdoors Show, NY  (2 ½ day show, paid featured guest speaker and fly casting demo’s.)
     Wilmington Sportsman Show MA.  (2 ½ day show, paid featured guest speaker and fly casting demo’s.)

The above was written about 5 years ago and I've forgotten some of the International, National, Regional, State and Local Publications  - (Books, Magazines, Internet and Newspapers) I've been involved with since this was posted. Books - Spey Casting - Simon Gawesworth - First and also Second Editions, Rich Murphy - Fly Fishing for Striped Bass.
I was interviewed (along with Lefty K.) for an article on 2 handed fly rods (Spey Rods) in the surf and flats that appeared in Saltwater Fly Fishing Magazine. Once again, in the same magazine for my “go to saltwater striper fly”. Also in Fly Fishing in Saltwater. Additionally, I’ve also been featured in a few guide profile articles for the Albany, Syracuse, Utica and N.Y. Times Newspapers.  Some of my “How To” articles have also appeared in the N.Y. Sportsmen, N.Y. Fishing and Hunting, Salmon River Success Magazine’s. As will as many of the major East Coast Internet Fishing Sites.
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Thank you all for your words of encouragement, kind words and your continued support. Ill continue to do my best in sharing what I've learned through, experience, experimentation, borrowed ideas and taught techniques. I sincerely hope that what little I've been able to share with you will help you along the path to more enjoyable, safe, knowledgeable fishing.

Happy Hook'n,
Randy Jones

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Gift Certificate good for 2 people,  complimentary day of fishing, either on Cape Cod or Salmon River. Good anytime. (Except weekends and Holidays - my day's off)

www.YANKEEANGLER.com 

            The fishing of your dreams...

     Come wade or drift boat the world-renowned Salmon River, NY, for hard fighting salmon and steelhead during the splendor of the fall, winter and spring seasons. This summer, if you feel you're up for the fun and challenge, master your technique of sight fishing! Wade fish the many crystal-clear flats teeming with bluefish and striped bass off Cape Cod (Chatham) beaches, bays and Monomoy Island.

      Whether it's steelhead, salmon, blues or stripers that you're after, I am dedicated to introducing both new anglers and experienced anglers to the exciting world of freshwater and or saltwater fly/spin fishing. For novices, I place emphasis on fly-spin  fishing skills and supplement the day with knots, fly-bait selection, fish habitats, and prey species. For the more experienced sportsman, I'll work with you to hone your skills. I guarantee a rewarding experience.  

                                            ...  we'll make it reel.

                                 Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead, Salmon , Steelhead, Pulaski, Ny, New York, NY, Pulaski, guide, fish, fishing, Steelhead, Salmon, river, River, guide, Brown, trout, trout, trout, Brown, Coho, coho, coho, coho, Pulaski,
                                                       Randy Jones
                         (Photo courtesy of Orvis)     http://www.ORVIS.com         

******************

Salmon, Steelhead, Brown, Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, River, Pulaski, Pulaski, New York, NY, Salmon, Steelhead, Salmon steelhead, guide, Pulaski, NY, fish, fishing, guide, drift boat, fly, fly, spin, salmon, steelhead, lodging,hotel, mote, river, Salmon, steelhead, pulaski, ny, NY, pulaski, Salmon , Steelhead, Salmon , Steelhead, Pulaski, Ny, New York, NY, Pulaski, guide, fish, fishing, Steelhead, Salmon, river, River, guide, Brown, trout, trout, trout, Brown, Coho, coho, coho, coho, Pulaski, 
Randy Jones is a full-time professional fly/spin fishing guide with over 24 years of experience. He has represented the Orvis Corporation as a guide and chief instructor of their 2 1/2 day Saltwater Fly fishing schools.
    During the summer, Randy can be found wade guiding the S.E. (and beyond) Cape Cod area's,  where sight casting on the flats to trophy Striped Bass is his specialty. During the Fall, Winter, and Spring Randy runs drift boat and wade trips on the world class Salmon River, Pulaski N.Y. for Steelhead, Coho, Browns, Atlantic's and Kings.
 

Pulaski New York Salmon River Pulaski NY fish steelhead guide Pulaski New York Pulaski New York Steelhead, salmon river steelhead pulaski new york, Pulaski NY, Pulaski Steelhead Salmon River NY steelhead fishing, steelhead fishing new york
"Salmon River, where Memories are Made"

RATES: SALMON RIVER Sept. to May - Wade or Drift Boat
One Angler:.....$225
Two Anglers:...$300
Orvis Fly Equipment - Spin rods provided (Flies and Egg sacks included)
Pulaski Hm: (315) 298-5999


RATES: CAPE COD May - August  - Wade flats, beaches, bays and ocean islands.
One angler -  $275
Two anglers -$350
Orvis equipment -Spin rods and flies, bait, lures provided

Cape Cod Hm: (508)  Pulaski Hm: (315) 298-5999

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Hamming it up on the Monomoy flats while tight to a keep'a!
                                                 See ya ladder,
                                                            Randy