ALTMAR, N.Y. -- The Lower Fly Fishing Zone of the Salmon River will be open for catch-and-release fishing starting Oct. 31, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has announced.
The zone, which stretches from the County Route 52 bridge in Altmar upstream .25 mile to the marked boundary at Beaverdam Brook, was closed during this fall’s salmon spawning run on the river due to lower water levels on the river.
Normally, the Lower Fly Fishing-Only Zone is open from Sept. 15 through May 14 each year.
The Fly Fishing-Only Zone on the Salmon River. NYS DEC.
The reason given for the closure of the area, according to the DEC, was “drought conditions produced low and warm water conditions.” Fishing on the stretch was banned “to ensure an adequate Pacific salmon egg take at the (nearby) Salmon River Fish Hatchery during the fall 2020 spawning season.”
Under a federal license, Salmon River seasonal baseflows are typically increased from 185 cubic feet/second (cfs) to 335 cfs on Sept. 1, providing that water levels in the Salmon River Reservoir are above a critical threshold.
This summer, though, below-average precipitation resulted in low and declining water levels in the reservoir.
The Executive Committee of the Salmon River Flow Management Team, comprised of natural resource agencies and Brookfield Renewable hydroelectric facility that regulates reservoir water levels, delayed the annual Sept. 1 increase in baseflow and canceled scheduled whitewater releases over the Labor Day weekend.
Making matters worse was that September ended up being one of the driest in years.
Beaverdam Brook is where migrating Chinook salmon access the DEC Salmon River Fish Hatchery for egg collections that support the State’s successful stocking program.
Increasing baseflows prematurely would have likely enticed the Chinook salmon already “staging” in Lake Ontario to enter the Salmon River on their spawning migration, which could have stranded and/or killed fish if temperatures remained high, DEC said. They couldn’t reach DEC’s hatchery without sufficient water levels in Beaverdam Brook.
It’s not the first time fishing has been restricted on the stretch near the hatchery at the height of the annual fall salmon spawning run because of low water conditions.
Similar measures were implemented in 2007, 2012 and 2016 for similar reasons, according to Shane Muckey, of Altmar Outfitters, based near the Route 52 bridge at the beginning of the run.
In an interview last month, Muckey said when the water is low, the fish in the Lower Fly Fishing Zone, get caught and released over and over. The DEC wants to limit that, he said, because multiple hookups result in the death of fish – possibly affecting the egg take at the hatchery.
The egg take at the hatchery has have gone well at this point, DEC said.
“Temporarily closing this section under the low-flow conditions allowed adequate numbers of salmon to reach the hatchery for another year of successful egg collection,” DEC said.
And thanks to recent rain storms, the river’s water level is up, making for good fishing.