Spring Steelhead in Altmar, NY

Made it up to Altmar, NY to fish the tail end of the steelie run. As usual, I stayed up at the Tinker Tavern Lodge and fished with Scott Glazier. I put my money (literally) on Scott as the best guide on the upper Salmon River. I had a great 5 days of fishing, landing numerous steelhead and a few smaller Atlantic Salmon. Got the skunk out the way early my first late afternoon with a decent sized female, not the most beautiful of fish, but a steelhead none the less. Poked around a bit more and picked up another fish, losing a few along the way. The next day (THR) was a drift trip with Scott. It was one of those days that was actually embarrassing to talk about with the number of people up here who fish all day and never catch a fish. Have to give most of the credit to Scott, who would put us in places where we were on fish and people 30-40 yards away caught squat. Once I'd pull half a dozen fish and completely worked the section we'd move on. Guys would be stumbling to get on the played out spot and still be catching squat. I went back later that evening after the stompers moved out and caught the fish that had settled back in. Would have been there longer, but my TFO rod broke with a fish on (only 4lb. tippit). Not sure what that was about. Managed to land the fish with 2/3 of a rod. While not landing any trophies (I lost some big fish), the action was steady and that's what I'd hoped for. Nothing like listening to line getting stripped off your reel. Helluva day! Friday I was back on my own, and decided to do a bit of exploring lower down the river. Walked a mile or so up from Sportsman's Pool to some islands with nice gravel banks and managed a few fish. Went down to 2a and did a lot of walking, but in the wrong direction. Saturday was another drift day with weather moving in. The location we had started at Thursday had been hammered pretty good, so with only 2 hits and one landed in an hour, we moved down to a place mostly overlooked by people. We hooked some nice steelies and a pair of Atlantic Salmon (those things can burn some line out!). This hole held some monsters, and I had caught a large male there the evening before and lost a really big, fresh run fish. No monsters, but good fish. The rain soon arrived, and as the temperature dropped, the bite really slowed. I lost one more Atlantic Salmon, before we finally headed for the ramp and to trade the cold and wet for a nice, warm bar. All and all, a great trip!