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Originally Posted by IrishChief
I fly fish alot here in Ireland. My area has has 2 lakes that the local fishing authority stock every year with a large amount of Rainbow and a smaller amount of Brown trout. The stockies are not generally good fighting fish when on the line but the last few years they have been excellent. Not sure the reason for that maybe new techniques at the hatchery has played a part but long may it continue. The best part of the year however is when the Salmon run (Sep & Oct) . There is a decent sized river a few Kms from our town. I tie my own flies so its always fun and deeply rewarding when i land a big one, no better feeling. The fight from a Salmon is one of a kind and its hard to get that buzz back when the run is over. Its been quite noticeable the past few years the later and later the Salmon have been running. Over 5 years ago we would be fishing them August & September and now its September into late October. Could be something to do with the climate or maybe its localised factors. Have yous noticed any changes in the USA?
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I’ve been fishing in SW Alaska for >20 years and I don’t see that much of a variance in timing. The runs vary in quality from year to year depending on weather conditions during the year of spawning and survivability rate. So if one year there’s not as much rain, that can impact the number of eggs that survive. Historically, the Katmai eruption coated many streams with ash and soot and devastated salmon runs for years but that was a long time ago.
We also get runs of several different types of salmon. Largest runs are reds (sockeye) and those runs number in the millions. We don’t target them because they don’t take a fly so well. Silvers (coho) will and they’re a hoot on a fly as well as good eating. Kings (chinook) are good too but their numbers are tiny compared to the reds. We instead target rainbows, char (Dolly Varden), and grayling. The rainbows eat salmon eggs so we get monster rainbows. My largest rainbow was 32” and every year we get several >25”. Last year the largest one caught by someone in our group was 28”.
So our salmon runs are important but oddly it’s because they are such an important food source for our target fish.