Any NY salmon/steelhead fishermen?

[BowhunterNJ]

Heading up to NY with my brother, his son, and a few of their friends in October.

Was up there once before, pretty cool experience, but I don't know much about fishing for them.

Seems like the common approach is "flossing" them.  We did pretty well when we went up.

 

What do you guys/gals like to use up there?

What type of leader, size hook, rod and reel, etc?

 

I definitely think my rod was a little on the short (reach) and light side...a few I hooked into I couldn't move in the current...so looking to probably grab another rod, maybe something in the 7-8' range.

[CJ3a]

I always wanted to go but the whole thing seems foreign to me. They don't eat anything but you cannot snag them but you can try dragging a hook thru there mouth.

[BowhunterNJ]

Yeah it's definitely different.  Just a lot of fun to catch something that big in a river that small...very powerful fish.

[LittleM]

I used to go a few times a season.  I can remember there was a minimum length between the hook and the weight - we tripled that and "baited" with a piece of black sponge.  We used to hammer them (king salmon).  Steelhead required some finesse - we would fish smaller creeks at the mouth of Lake Ontario and do pretty well. There was one spot that I always thought was the best on the Salmon River.  We parked behind what used to be (and may still be) Big Tony's Salmon County and walked upstream along a railroad tracks to the first section of flat water above the rapids.  We would wade out to a series of big boulders and get on top of them (about two feet below the surface) and fish the current - if you slipped off the boulders you were in over your head for a while till you washed downstream a bit.  Seriously - be careful.