The only bad thing about taking the 8 hour drive to the Salmon river is the trip through Canada. Having to cross through customs is the trade-off for wanting to get there faster, I leave Ann Arbor at 9pm and intend to be knee deep by sunup.

When I crossed into Lewiston the snows began, light at first, until I hit the heart of the surprise early lake effect snow band. I had to stay in 4 wheel drive for almost 2 hours, and 40mph was only possible between squalls and where the plows had been, otherwise I-90 was a single track slow trudge through the whiteout. I'd have gotten pictures but frankly I was too freaked out to take my hands off the wheel long enough to dig out the camera. This was the first snow I have driven through for the season, and was the worst snow I have driven through to date. By the time I made Rochester it disappeared like the blizzard I had left to my west never even existed.

By noon I'll be a walking zombie unless the fishing keeps me motivated enough to fish until dark. Today I was motivated, and for the next three days the fishing remained everything I dream about when I'm fishing in Ohio or not fishing at all.
I met up with two of my friends Dae and Josh. Josh was first to meet me down on the water where I had already landed 2 fish. They were the powerful fish I remembered, in fact, they fought a little harder than I had recalled. It wasn't even 8am by the time I had lost my first submarine, and I was just settling into that fishing mode where your mind clears of everything but the river and the fish.

The beauty of steelhead fishing on the salmon river is that it is very difficult to read where the good holding water is. Fish will hold in unknown spots and dropoffs that are all but impossible to see amid it's roaring currents. This is fast water, a west coast river planted on the east coast. It's steelhead take full advantage of the currents, and to land them you are often faced with the question of whether or not to chase then down though slippery, rocky rivers, risking both life, limb, and overpriced fishing equipment. Adrenaline.

Dae served as camp cook. We stayed with 2 other friends, Johnny and Andrea who also guide on the salmon river. They've helped me immensely with the learning curve that this river is famous for, and I'd probably still be stumbling along fishless and frustrated if it weren't for their guidance. I also like to drop by their website www.nyfishtales.com when I'm not actually there. Most trips they'll come out and fish with us, but things have been real busy in Pulaski with salmon season (and early steelhead) in full swing. Between working other jobs and guiding they had little time. But were more than happy to hang out with us back at the "steelhead camp" and have a few drinks before getting to bed early for another long day on the water.

The next two days on the river were repeats fishwise of the first. The weather became unpredictable however, in the classic upstate New York fall sense: clouds were constantly rolling off of lake Ontario, pouring rain, wind, ice, and sometimes a break would result in some sunshine...All in one day, sometimes the cycle would repeat itself several times in one day. We actually got chased off by a random hailstorm at the end of our second day fishing, but by the time we go to our cars, the sun had come back out. In the winter, it's just snow, either lots of snow, or a little, more wind or less wind driving it. This is lake effect country where on interstate 81 north of Syracuse there's big reflectors along the shoulder of the road that are over 6 feet tall to assist unlucky drivers heading through the lake effect snow machine.