RE: Salmon fishing, NY
I haven't been in quite some time but practically lived there during the 80's when the area was wide open. Back then there were only a few places to stay in town and most of us stayed in the Log Cabin Hotel which had a restaurant. Douglaston run wasn't named yet and was free to fish providing you were willing to cross the field and go down that bank. The Black Hole from the Coho St side near the chit plant was another good place to get a few on. The area near the park and interstate was better for steelhead than salmon. We used to do really well at the short bridge and the high bridge pools and the top section all the way up to the schoolhouse pool. I got to fish the upper river from near schoolhouse to a bridge where we got out in a drift boat once. That was a blast and we were into fish all day that you couldn’t wade for. Back then you could sell the eggs so we kept lots of hen fish and sold the eggs to pay for our gas. My best day was near Douglaston in a place called Josh hole when I had on over 100 fish on a Saturday. I found it by fishing a run right in the middle of Douglaston just after daybreak and took the fish all the way down to the island. I beached the King on the south side and looked over the island and could see nothing but fish. I was using a 9 foot Lamiglass 8 weight fly rod with a Martin 72 reel and tipped with8 pound test Snagging was allowed then but all of our crowd angled fairly for them and if a fish was foul hooked we broke it off. We used brightly colored flys or spawn sacks and the fish that were fresh in the river would hit them when in the mood. The funny part about it was that I was back there the next day at dawn and the pool was empty. They all moved up and we fished until around noon and only caught a few...then drove home. I live about 4 1/2 hours away and have fished that river and some of the smaller tribs well over a hundred times. Most of our fishing was actually for steelhead during the winter and early spring. I couldn't take too many days of the Salmon fishing because it was too much...which may sound strange but for those who have had great days there you will know what I mean. I was working then and steelhead fishing took up most of my weekends all winter long. Then a friend introduced me to pan fishing around 1990 through the ice and that was the end of the salmon river for me. Talk about an addiction.......can't wait for ice in on Champlain.