Guest post from Lance Connors:

It’s about 2 months away still, but it’s already on my mind. New York’s Salmon River, teeming with huge salmon, brown trout and steelhead, running up it to spawn. It’s my favorite time of the year for sure.

For those of you have never fished researched, or even heard of the great fishing at the Salmon River, I’ll fill you in. Basically salmon run up the river from the Great Lakes, and the trout follow them up to gorge on the eggs. On top of this the salmon will eat other salmon eggs, and there are big steelhead in the mix too.

I’m fortunate to live on the MA-NY border, because for some of you Eastern Mass guys, it is a long drive. But it’s all worth it it the end. I’m going to summarize the salmon run here, and try to explain why it is the best fishing opportunity in the Northeast in my opinion….

• You’re fishing for BIG fish! Huge salmon, steelhead, and a real possibility of hooking into a double digits brown.
• It’s challenging. You may be thinking, “Boy, Lance, isn’t this kind of like shooting fish in a barrel?” Well, no. It’s true, there are a lot of fish there. That’s why I go. But there is also a ton of food there… eggs and such floating everywhere throughout the river. Why should a trout take your yarn egg fly over the dozens of real eggs floating downstream? And the crowds are unheard of… take the Y-Pools shoulder-to-shoulder fishing, and multiple that by 10 miles of river! That’s the worst part!
• The experience. I just mentioned that the crowds suck. It’s true, there are a lot of bait dunkers, snaggers (Totally illegal! But this is its own post), and fly guys, and truth be told, there are a lot of idiots there. I just mentioned snaggers, but guys keeping everything they catch, etc. That said, with all those anglers, there are a lot of other cool people there who have all sorts of stories and tips to swap. I’ve met some really interesting people there and learned a whole lot. I actually met fellow Fly Fish MA blogger Troy there!