If you like to chase salmon in the rivers you already know it is all about timing. You can usually pin point the time of year and maybe guess a two to three week window as when you think they will be running. There are a few things you are always at the mercy of when trying to chase after these amazing species of fish in the rivers. Time off, water temperatures, day time temperatures, salmon class size and rain. Typically I can work around the first four items I just mentioned but one that is hard to prepare for is rain.
Why rain you might ask? Rain effects so many variables in the rivers for the salmon. The amount of rain changes water temps, water clarity and most importantly for anglers, water levels. If there is one factor that always seems to change the bite in a negative way I would have to say it is rain. I recently just made a trip up to northern Michigan and the day before I left they had received a whopping 6 inches of rain. Up until then all I was reading about was how great the salmon fishing was and how they seemed to be in great numbers as well. I was pumped to say the least but I had failed to prepare for how the rain would change mine and everyone else luck on the river that weekend.
I’ll just get right to it. I didn’t do very well. I didn’t get one legal fish to take back home with me. Out of all of my years fishing salmon in the rivers during the run, this was the first time I put up a big zero. However, what I learned from this trip and how the high amount of rain fall changed the salmon behavior is something I will remember forever. I am going to go over a few of my findings and hopefully share some tips for you that will make you more successful should these conditions ever happen to you. Dan Stewart of Chrome Seekers Sport Fishing helps me do just that. We go over the conditions we fished in this past weekend with high waters, stained waters and scattered fish. Listen throughout the episode as Dan and I bounce tactics and ideas off each other that we think will make an angler more successful should we find ourselves in these conditions again.
Dan and I also talk about a day in mid October for those who want to get involved in cleaning up the rivers we fish for salmon so that we can keep our public lands clean and our access privileges.
Enjoy the episode.
Cheers
Lee