Two weeks ago, we mentioned that Coho and steelhead fishing in the Salmon River in New York state was heating up. Well my friend Tom Marchetto, of Easton, made that trip two weeks ago and reported that he and his fishing buddy Joe Chelak of New Boston, PA, had an exciting trip but landed few fish.

Said Marchetto, “Although there were fish throughout the river, the hot spots seemed to be at both the lower end and upper end of the river, with very little action in the middle.”

He reported that king salmon were the dominant species with few Coho seen during the week. There were steelheads mixed with the kings at the lower end (the Staircase Hole), and they did manage to land a nice 12-pound steelhead.

“We had lots of hookups at the Staircase as well as the Ellis Cove area (upper river). I managed to latch onto two kings which were released upon landing. Several types of bait were used, egg sacks, plastic eggs and flies. There seemed to be no difference in what type of bait was used, so I favored the plastic eggs,” he recalls.

Air temperatures then were a bit on the warm side and the water stayed around 50-55 degrees. Reports indicated a large amount of salmon loaded in the estuary waiting for Mother Nature to pull the trigger and make their run, but it did not occur during their time there.

“Compared to previous years, I would say fishing was fair at best - but always a thrill when hooking one,” he concluded.

Since my friend fished there during a warm weather week, the cold front that just blew in and should continue, could be the incentive needed for more fish to start moving into the river.

FALL TROUT

STOCKING

While on the topic of fishing, local trout anglers who were looking forward to fishing the Little Lehigh this week since it was on the fall trout stocking list, were disappointed to learn that it was postponed. Reason being, the trout stocking truck was scheduled to also stock a lake, but its water level was extremely low so the PF&BC didn’t want to run the truck to the Little Lehigh with only 900 fish aboard.

PHEASANT SEASON

Since pheasant hunting season is underway, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said they stocked 220,000 pheasants this year compared to 170,000 last year. They added that of that number, about 75 percent of the birds were roosters while last year only 52 percent were stocked.

If you’d like to know where pheasants are stocked and the amount, the PGC publishes an online allocation table and interactive stocking locations map at www.pgc.pa.gov. Once there, click on “Hunt & Trap” on the upper banner then “Hunting,” then “Ring-necked Pheasant,” then “Pheasant Allocation.” To find out where they’re stocked, first click on the “Region” to find the number to be stocked in each county as well as the range of dates for each release and a listing of each property to be stocked. Then click on the interactive map to see more than 200 properties to be or already stocked. Click on the dot to see the property name and number of releases. Sportsmen can zoom in to see the pink highlighted areas showing the best pheasant hunting habitat where birds are likely to be found.

Hunters should remember that all adult and senior license holders are required to also have the $26.90 pheasant hunting permit.