Isle-Fish Guide Service
Phone: (315) 480-0552 Email: lou@isle-fish.com
Fishing Reports
For the Salmon River, Lake Ontario, and it's Tributaries
An Isle-Fish Gift Certificate makes a great gift for the fisher person in your family!
All trips include hot breakfast and lunch cooked aboard the drift boat or sandwich's on bank guided trips.
Book your Winter Steelhead trips now to get the dates you want!
Winter Steelhead special! Book 2 consecutive days for 2 people December thru February and save $200!
Many guides fishing the DSR charge a rod fee of $25 or more. My rates include two passes. If there is a third person then you will have to purchase one pass. I also provide lunch which many guides do not. I have been fishing this river for 25 years and guiding it for the last 15 years. I consider my day a failure if you have not learned something new. I am a teaching guide and can teach everyone from the novice to the accomplished angler something new.
There are a handful of relatively new guides that are offering very low rates. Remember you get what pay for! These guides do not have anywhere near the experience nor the professionalism that any of the long time guides working the river have. Spend your money wisely and hire a guide that will teach you something. You can hire a cheaper guide but you cannot hire a better guide.
12-31-11 - Happy New Year to everyone. This has been a great season here on the Salmon River. Lately the fish have been taking wooly buggers, Estaz eggs, and glow bugs. There are plenty of fish in the river. Hope you can all get out and fish. See you on the water.
12-24-11 - It is Christmas eve and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My good friend Ken Forristall, from Cold Spring Manor, and I spent a few hours on the water this afternoon The fish god's where good to us and we landed a couple of beauty's.
The fishing has been very good this 2011 season and should continue to be good into 2012. Good luck everyone and Happy New Year.
09-14-11 - The fishing has been slow for the past few days but the numbers are building in the estuary and I expect a good movement any day now.
09-10-11 - Peter caught a very nice Brown first thing this AM. It was a slow day with only a few hook-ups throughout the day that we could not capitalize on. Here is a picture of Peter and his son Jamie.
09-02-11 - I spent a couple of hours on the DSR this morning and saw a few fish moving. I got into one nice fish but when it blew out of the hole I lost it. We should be seeing more activity every day. The fish are staging in good numbers in front of the river.
08-31-11 - They will begin running 335 cfs at 8 PM tonight. This is the mandated flow as long as they have water. We need a little more rain to help top off the reservoirs but the fishing should definitely pick up with the increased water flows.
08-25-11 - Let's hope that "Irene" sends plenty of rain our way. This will top off the reservoirs and give us plenty of water for our pending Salmon season.
06-25-11 - I am getting reports of some King's being taken on the lake. This is very early for the Eastern end of Lake Ontario. Hope this is a sign of some good early season fishing on the lake.
05-12-11 - The Spring fishing continues to be very good. We have caught some very nice Atlantics as well as some nice Steelhead. I predict that we will have some very nice fish in the river until the end of the month. Here are a few pictures from some recent fishing.
05-01-11 - The water level is currently 1800cfs and the river is fishing very well. The water is currently about 52 degrees and it should continue to warm slowly. With the current water levels and temperatures we should have good fishing right through the month of May and maybe into June. Here are a few pictures of the spring fishing.
04-03-11 - The fishing is getting a little better as the water temperature continues to rise. It is currently at 35 degrees. This is making the fish a little more active and when it hits the 40 degree mark things should bust wide open. Here is a picture of Tom with a nice steelie that he caught on the April 1st.
03-31-11 - The fishing has picked up during the last week. The water is still cold but is slowly getting warmer. We are starting to see fish on the gravel now and the Spring fishing should be getting better with each passing day. Here are a few pictures from the past weeks fishing.
03-23-11 - Things seem to be picking up. Two friends, guides, floated the top of the river today and reported a good day. There was some chrome in the mix. Looks like things will be getting better soon.
03-20-11 - The fishing has been pretty tough lately with the cold water temps. We managed a couple of fish today. Here are pic's of Howard and his son Tim. This is Tim's first Steelhead. Congratulations Tim!
03-15-11 - The water level is now down to 1500cfs. The fishing should be improving with each day. Kenny and Lenny came out with me for a couple of hours this AM. Here is Kenny with a nice hen.
03-08-11 - The fish god's smiled wide for Bob and Mike today. The weather was great and the fish where biting. After a cold start the sun came out and warmed us up nicely. With the high pressure sitting over us the fish where very willing to take a wide variety of flies. Here are some of the pictures of this great day.
03-06-11 - The current water flow is 1250 cfs. The bigger flows over the past 4 days have brought up allot of fresh fish. The fishing Friday and Saturday was terrific. Sunday was slower with the low pressure sitting right over us. Here are a few pictures of the many fish caught over the weekend.
03-01-11 - They will be releasing some more water, 500 cfs, starting at 7 PM tonight. The last 2 weeks of February showed us some pretty good fishing despite the low water levels. Here are some pictures of just a few of the many fish caught and released.
Scott's first 2 Steelhead. Wow! What a nice buck.
02-14-11 - My good friend Kevin came up to spend some time on the water with me. It was a tough bite with the barometer bottoming out but we managed to fight several nice fish and Kevin landed this beauty.
02-12-11 - Mark and I guided the Dean group today. This was a bachelor party of 5 who wanted to do some winter Steelhead fishing in honor of the pending nuptials. The guy's landed several nice fish and a good time was had by all.
02-05-11 - Ken Link joined me today to try his hand at some winter fly fishing. The fish god's not only smiled but they actually grinned on Ken today as I watched him put on a clinic in the lower fly zone. Ken has only been using the Spey rod for about a year and today was his best ever hooking well into the double digits and landing in the double digits as well. We only took this one picture as it was so cold we released all of the other fish in the water as to not harm them. This was a fish that was caught later in the day when the temperature was well above freezing. Congratulations Ken!
01-28-11 - The water flow is still 285 cfs. This makes floating the river pretty tough. But my friends Tom, Fred, and Dave ventured out in the boat anyway. We had a very decent day landing several nice fish using the Spey rods. Here are a couple of pictures.
01-24-11 - The water flow is still 285. The DEC where in the process of removing some of the gravel that washed into the boat launch area and under the bridge when someone called the EPA and the Attorney Generals office to complain about them spilling hydraulic fluid into the river. I am sure there was indeed a very small amount of spillage as will always occur when using this type of heavy equipment. However the amount was miniscule. Especially when you think about all of the contaminates that come into the river every day from the bridges. This was the DEC doing this work. They are supposed to be the professionals when it comes to these types of issues. Why is it that the State does not see it this way and allows the AG's office to halt this badly needed gravel removal.
01-16-11 - The water flow is 285 cfs. Drew is a guide on Hilton Head but has never used a Spey rod and this was part of the criteria for this outing. His vast experience with single handed rods made it easy to teach him the 2 handed techniques. He was well rewarded on this outing landing several nice fish. Here are some pic's from the day.
01-11-11 - The water forecast is for 500 cfs until midnight Thursday. I only got out for a little bit this afternoon and I fished with my friend Frank. Frank landed this nice spawning Rainbow.
01-10-11 - We have a high pressure sitting over us for tonight and most of tomorrow which should give us a great day to be fishing. I hope to get out for a while tomorrow. The water forecast still shows 500cfs until midnight. Hopefully this will hold for tomorrow as well.
01-09-11 - The water flow is still holding at 500 cfs and the barometer is on the rise. This should make for some decent fishing.
01-08-11 - Bob and Joe where out with me today. It was a tough bite with the barometer falling to a little less than 29. We managed to fight a good number of fish and landed a couple as well. We had a great time.
01-06-11 - It was a busman's holiday for Mark, Zeke, and myself. We put in about 1:30 on what was a beautiful afternoon. Zeke got a snow shower from a tree above him and Mark had the hot hand today landing these 2 beauties. The water flow is still at 500 cfs until midnight tonight.
01-01-11 - Andy called and said he wanted to catch a Steelhead on the first day of the new year. We met in the morning and started down river on his quest. Here is a picture of Andy with the first fish of the new year.
12-30-10 - Anthony and AJ came up for a day on the water and the fish god's smiled upon them . The fishing was very good throughout the day. Here are a few pictures from this great day.
12-29-10 - Doug came out from CA for his annual winter fishing trip and we had a very good time and the fishing was good. The bite started out hot at the beginning of the day and then got tougher as the day wore on. We did manage a good number of hook-ups and fish landed. Here are a couple of pictures from the day. Nice Brown!
12-25-10 - Merry Christmas! I only fished a couple of hours the past two days but the fishing was good and I landed several nice fish. The water flow remains at 500 cfs until 11:59 on Thursday.
12-23-10 - The water is holding at 500 cfs and the fishing has been good. There is a good number of fish in the river and not too many fisherman. We have been taking fish on beads and sacks under floats as well as wooly buggers, stone flies, and egg patterns.
12-19-10 - After a cold start, 0 degrees at my house, it turned out to be a nice sunny day and the fish cooperated. I got out for a couple of hours this afternoon and had a great time. The water flow was still at 750 cfs but they have dropped it to 500 cfs and that is what we will see tomorrow.
12-17-10 - Mark and Pete joined me today. They have fished the river for many years but had never float fished so that is how we fished today. It was a great day with a very good number of fished hooked, played and landed. Here are a couple of those that we brought to net.
12-15-10 - The fishing has been very good and the water flows remain favorable at 750 cfs. There are plenty of fish in the river. With the colder weather you will want to wait until later in the day to fish anything below Pineville.
12-12-10 - Even with the warmer weather and rain the flow remains at 750 cfs. The fishing has been very good. There are lot's of fish throughout the river. Some of the low pressure systems have turned the fish off but over all the bite has been pretty good. We may see an increase in the water flows but with the cold weather coming in I am sure it will be nothing drastic. I have some open dates this week. Call or email to book your winter steelhead trip.
12-06-10 - The water level is currently 1150 cfs and the fishing is good. The recent high water did indeed bring in some fresh fish and the reports are good from top to bottom.
12-01-10 - The water level has been dropped to 1500 cfs and the river will be fishable in the morning. By Friday the fish should have settled in to the new water conditions and we should have good fishing over the weekend.
12-01-10 - The river is unfishable until the water level drops back down to more moderate flows. I fully expect that this big water will trigger more fish to come into the river system giving us a whole lot of fresh fish to fish to. What was a good season should become a very good season with the addition of fresh fish.
10-31-10 - The Steelhead fishing has been awesome. There are fish top to bottom throughout the river. We are getting a decent number of fish every day. I will put up some more pictures soon.
10-19-10 - The Steelhead fishing has been very good. We are catching and releasing allot of beautiful fish in the DSR. Here are some pictures from the last several days.
10-14-10 - The Steelhead fishing is heating up. Lot's of fresh fish in the DSR as well as upstream. Here are a couple of pictures from the past few days.
10-11-10 - The river conditions have been improving daily with the water clarity improving and now the water levels returning to normal conditions. There are fish throughout the river and some fresh salmon are still coming in along with good numbers of steelhead. With the Columbus Day weekend behind us the fishing pressure should return to normal. Best bet for some fresh steelhead is the DSR. I will be heading down there this week to do some fishing of my own. Here are a few pictures from the past weeks fishing.
10-03-10 - The river dropped to 1,400 cfs some time last night and is forecast to stay there until midnight. All of the reports that I have received today where good no matter what section of river they where fishing.
10-02-10 - The river is currently running at 2,800 cfs. I would expect more normal fishing conditions within the next few days.
10-01-10 - I woke up this morning to the river running at 40,000+ cfs. There where fish finning in my back yard. Here are a couple of pictures of the flooding Salmon River in Altmar.
09-30-10 - The last several days have been everything from incredible to downright slow. The current water conditions make fishing an impractical idea. The forecast is for 3500 cfs plus run-off. This will make fishing on the main river nearly impossible not to mention dangerous. Hopefully the water will drop as quickly as it went up and we will have more normal conditions in the days to come. Here are some pictures from the last several days.
09-27-10 - The fishing has been very good until today. It was a tough day as very few fish moved on the bottom of the river until about 3 PM. I will put up more pictures as soon as I get a chance. Just working very hard and trying to get a little rest in between. Thanks for understanding.
09-22-10 - The fishing has been very good the past several days. We have seen allot of Coho's and Steelhead as well as a decent number of Kings moving. Here are just a few of the pictures. Check out the Tom Turkey's.
09-15,16-10 - One of my favorite groups was out with Phil Bortz and myself for the past 2 days. It was a great trip and the fish god's where kind and smiled on us both days. We had a terrific time and got into plenty of fish. Here are just a few of the pictures from this great outing.
09-11-10 - Today was a great day with a Teresa her husband Jason and parents John and Maria. The action was a little slow today on the bottom of the river but we still managed to hook a god number of fish and Tereas landed this nice 25 pound king.
09-08-10 - It was another good movement day on the bottom of the river with a mix of King's, Coho's, Browns, and Steelhead. The fished that came in yesterday have already made their presence known as far up as the Trestle pool. Here are a couple of pictures of Miche and Manon with some great Salmon. These where the first Kings they had ever caught. The biggest was 38 pounds.
09-07-10 - Ken Link and Anthony Bavaro joined me on the river this morning and what a morning it was. The fish gods smiled and we had constant action. We landed every species except an Atlantic Salmon today and the fish just kept coming. Here are a couple of photo's from this fantastic day.
09-05-10 - Michele and Mora joined me for the day to try their hand at some early season salmon. We spent the day in the DSR where they got into a few nice salmon. Early in the day there was a nice little push of Coho's.
08-30-10 - There are a few fish in the river and they are stacking up nicely on the lake in front of the river. The scheduled water release for Labor Day weekend should bring a decent number of fish into the river.
Phone: (315) 480-0552 Email: lou@isle-fish.com