A Surprise Lifer In Western NY

If it hadn't been for one unexpected turn, my last trip for steelhead would have been completely disappointing. Actually it wasn't completely unexpected, but if Noah and I both weren't the sort to stray away from the target species when a viable opportunity to catch a new species presented itself we wouldn't have had this shot. The progeny of pacific salmon that successfully spawn in the Salmon River can be found sporadically throughout the river. We happened to find schools of them in a series of loosely connected puddles adjacent to the river. They were actually rising, and luckily Noah has one small mosquito dry fly with him. With a very poorly tapered leader, that little dry, and Noah's 9 weight rod, we actually managed to catch a couple. A bit of quick identification work proved them to be cohos, and so not only was Noah's a lifer (because he'd never caught any Pacific salmon species) but mine was as well. 

Lifelist Fish #178, Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch. Rank: Species.

Those little buggers were actually pretty cool. It was almost like fishing for wild brook trout except they were far less skittish. In fact, they at times appeared to spook and darted around as though they had been, but continued to take the fly aggressively. They were also beautiful little fish, with bright oranges on their fins and well defined blue parr marks. I'd certainly like to catch some adults, but getting these little wild parr was pretty cool. Not to mention, it had been months since I'd caught a lifer. Ironically, the previous had been another Pacific salmon and in the same river. In between I'd had to take swordspine snook off my life list as it turned out the tiny unusual looking snook I'd thought was a swordspine was actually a fat snook. Though my focus on acquiring new species has waned a bit recently, there's another lifer I've added to my list that I'll be really excited to share very soon. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien