My brother Ray and I are off to Pulaski NY tomorrow.  We were supposed to fish the Salmon River Christmas weekend but the NOAA predicted a mixture of freezing rain, snow, and rain over the weekend so I decided to cancel the trip.  Everything except the laptop is packed and ready to get loaded into the truck so hopefully we'll be on the road by 10:00AM.

	Dec 31, 2009 Ray and I left Gardner around 10:00AM and arrived in Pulaski NY around 3:15PM.  We would have gotten here earlier but it snowed all the way here causing traffic to be slower than usual. Rt 2 was snow covered and traffic crawled along at 10MPH below the speed limit. Road conditions improved to just wet once we hit I90 and remained good for most of the remainder of the trip. We stopped at All Seasons Sports on RT 13 in Pulaski to get our licenses.  It's a small store but it's well stocked with what you'll need to fish the Salmon River.  By the way, the picture doesn't accurately show the weather conditions at the time we were there.   We took a left out of the All Seasons parking lot then went right on RT 11 and drove towards the center of town to check out the Salmon River Sports Shop.  We had gone there last Christmas and met Jim the manager.  We found him to be very friendly and eager to offer advice.  The store might not be as completely stocked as some of the others but they have a wide selection of flies.  Jim suggested stone flies and offered to tie some up for us.  While talking to Jim the subject of guided trips came up and Jim asked what we were looking for in a guide.  We wanted a wadding trip with someone who could show us more than just the hot spots.  We wanted to catch fish but also wanted to improve our techniques and learn a little about fishing the river. Jim suggested "cousin" Tony and we gave him the go ahead. After leaving the fly shop we checked into the Super 8 Motel.  It's not a bad place to stay for a few days.  The accommodations are clean and there's a wall heater that comes in handy for drying gloves, coats, hats and waders.  The rooms also come with TV, a Microwave, a coffee maker, a refrigerator, and wireless access.   The best feature is every room comes with a fish cleaning station that doubles as a shower if you're the type of person who's fussy about your appearance.  There's a sign on the door to the hotel that says "No waders, fish, or boots". It's kind of odd considering the bulk of their winter business appears to be fishermen and snowmobilers.   We dropped off our boots and waders then drove around looking for the spots we fished last year.  I recalled driving through the center of town following RT 11 north so that's the way we went.  We drove around for 30 to 45 minutes and couldn't find the spots, then Ray said that he recalled going the opposite way on RT 13.  I had ignored him when he suggested that earlier but since we were unable to find the spots I turned the truck around and headed the opposite way. Ray was right and once we were headed in the right direction he remembered with great detail how to get to the fishing holes. We stopped at Arby's for supper then returned to the hotel for the night.  We've scheduled a guide through the Salmon River Guide website for drift fishing tomorrow. I'm hoping to get some pictures of Ray holding a nice sized Steelhead.
	Jan 1, 2010 We met up with our guide at Fat Nancy's which is a tackle shop on RT 13, just across the street from All Seasons Sports.   He seemed like a decent guy but I didn't care much for his guiding style.  He explained that he might yell at us at times but we shouldn't take it personally.  He gets excited about seeing his clients catch fish and hollers out instructions when they hook a fish.  Another thing that bothered me was that the boat had been advertised as being heated, but the propane tank ran out of fuel early in the trip. A little heat late in the day would have been welcome and his miscalculation was unprofessional.    The fishing technique we used was to rig a trout bead a few inches above a hook then attach a bobber 2 to 3 feet above the bead and place half a dozen small split shot sinkers spread evenly along the line between the bobber and the bead.  We would toss the bead slightly upstream and let it drift down for a while then retrieve it and do it again.   We caught our first Steelhead of the weekend early in the day.  We had been repeatedly drifting trout beads along the shoreline and every now and then the bobber would dive under  water.  Most of the time I thought the bead was getting hung up on rocks but I dutifully tried to set the hook.  One time the bobber disappeared below the surface in a way that left no doubt it was a fish, so without waiting for the command to do so I set the hook and started the fight.  The fight was incredible. Aided by the strong current the Steelhead was immovable when it didn't want to move.  If it swam upstream I reeled in line.  If it swam downstream I gave line back.  I don't think the fish ever got tired.  I think it made the fatal mistake of swimming within reach of the guide's net. Towards the end of the trip I hooked a fish and was in the process of trying to reel it in but was having trouble.  I asked the guide for help because I thought my bale had frozen open. The guide responded by yelling at me to keep the tip of the pole up.  The fish broke off while I was trying to close the bale and guide went into a diatribe about not being able to help and I should have gotten the tip of the pole up higher.  In retrospect I can't fault him for not helping, it was my fish to land, but I was cold and hungry and tired and more than a little pissed at him for scolding me. Late in the day a frigid wind started blowing up river.  By that time our cloths, especially our gloves, had gotten damp from melting snow and handling the tackle so the wind was painful on our hands. Like I said a heater would have been welcome, but the propane had run out.  We only caught 1 fish but we did have half a dozen hits, we just couldn't set the hook. I have to admit that our guide got us on some fish so I might hire him again but would shop around for someone else first. We went back to the hotel to change cloths and warm up then headed to Eddy's for dinner.  The food at Eddy's was a great value.  For about $25 each we were able to get a main course, soup, salad, and couple of beers.  We sat in the bar section and listened to the locals talk to each other about what's going on in their lives in and around Pulaski.   The first night there I ordered the beer batter fried haddock.  The fish was fine but Ray reminded of something we had seen earlier that day at the Salmon River Sports Shop.  Jim is trying to collect 1500 lbs of perch and was buying them from ice fishermen.  The fish smell in the shop was overwhelming and there were literally huge buckets of slimy perch on display waiting to be sorted according to size.  Jim said he was freezing them then shipping them somewhere for processing.  He wasn't very specific about where they were destined to go.  The chef at the resturant was a creative person and had formed the haddock into a fish shape.  It looked like a perch.
	Jan 2, 2010 We had scheduled a guided wadding trip through Jim at Salmon River Sports Shop and were meeting "cousin" Tony at the store at 7:00 AM.  But first, we had to clean half a foot of snow off the truck, as we did every morning.  I was starting to wonder about the guy who plows the hotel parking lot.  The snow was piling up around the cars and the only section being plowed was a single lane between the rows of cars.  Apparently the hotel didn't want to inconvenience their guests by restricting where they could park so that the plow guy could do his "thing".   The plow guy must have the patience of saint not to have gone rogue and stacked both the cars and snow in a pile at the end of the lot. We got to the store a little before 7:00 and "cousin" Tony arrived soon afterwards.  I was little weary of fishing with a professional fly fishing guide but he had a big smile and firm handshake which put me at ease. As it turns out "cousin " Tony was a great guide, professional in every way.   The first thing he did was replace my flimsy felt sole wadding boots with a sturdy pair of well insulated boots with studded soles.  He then rigged Ray's pole. He took time to explain what he was doing and show us each of the knots he was using.  He offered me the option of rigging my fly rod or going with an already rigged Spey rod.  I've been wanting to try a spey rod since first seeing them a few years ago so that's what I chose. We got to the river and trudged along the deep snow covered banks until we got to a spot "cousin" Tony had picked out beforehand.  There were a few other anglers already there but they were on the other side of the river.  "Cousin" Tony started showing me the basics of how to use the spey rod and he made it look easy.  When I thought I had seen enough I asked for the rod.  The thing was 14' feet long and weighed a ton compared to my heaviest fly rod.  As graceful as "cousin" Tony had been I was just that awkward.   Tony stood besides me watching my movements and offering advice on what I was doing wrong.  Just as importantly he offered encouragement that I was getting better and would eventually get the hang of it.  I didn't believe a word of it but it was a refreshing change from the day before.   He then went over to work with Ray and that's when I hooked my second Steelhead of the week.   It didn't take long to see that my gloves were going to be a problem so I quickly pulled them off and tossed them over my shoulder.  That was a big mistake.  It didn't take long to see that my frozen fingers were going to be a problem so I pulled a rolled up pair of lightweight gloves out of my coat pocket and holding the spey rod in my left hand I unrolled the gloves with my right.  Tony started coaching me on how to play the fish but unlike the previous guide there was urgency but no anger in his voice.  After getting the gloves on I was able to focus on landing the Steelhead and with the 14' rod it didn't take long to get it to Tony's net.   About an hour later Ray hooked a huge Steelhead on his lightweight fly rod.  By now there were half a dozen anglers fishing down river from us and that's exactly where Ray's Steelhead brought him.  With Tony yelling "Coming down!" Ray and Tony started walking down the shore and anglers obligingly stepped out of the water and up the snow covered banking.   They must have walked a hundred yards down river with me following behind apologizing to everyone for the inconvenience.  The Steelhead came to a stop in a pool and Ray started working him to the net. Tony stood in the river with his net ready for the chance to land him and I tried to capture some video of the Steelhead breaking out over the water. I never got the video but Ray did finally get the fish to the net.  It was awesome. When we got back to our original spot a couple of guys had settled in and didn't want to leave. I'm told its bad etiquette to do that and Tony wanted me to fish between them. If I had been more skilled with the spey rod I might have gone along with it, but I figured it was only a matter of time before I hooked one of them.  I hadn't gone all the way to NY for a confrontation and I'm firm believer in Karma so Tony agreed to move us up river a little.  As it turns out while these guys were fishing our spot Ray hooked his second Steelhead just yards away from them.  I figured this was Karma coming to call but for some reason the fish started taking Ray upstream away from the spot stealers.  I still believe it was Karma. The spot stealers came up empty where we had caught 2 Steelheads, and Ray hooked another Steelhead right next to where they were fishing.  They left soon afterwards. The rest of the day was spent at "cousin" Tony's office.  We took a coffee break around 2:00 PM and while "cousin" Tony was tying flies Ray and I decided that we'd rather stay at the office and drink coffee than go back to the frigid water.  "Cousin" Tony and "Skeeter", his partner, seemed OK with that.
	Jan 3, 2010 This was the day to be tested on what we had learned.  I'd like to say we stood tall in the river and showed how well we had studied our lessons.  Unfortunately that's not the case.   Ray got up early but I slept until my alarm clock went off at 9:00AM. I thought I had set it for 6:00.  I must have been holding it upside down while setting the alarm. Ray had already been to the truck to do the daily snow clean off and had sent me a text message that the weather was awful.  The thought occurred to me that I should go back to bed and tell Ray my alarm clock never went off.  But I knew how much he was looking forward to this so I got dressed and headed to the truck. The weather was bad but not much worst than the days before.  The snow was still piling up between the cars in the parking lot. Ray wasn't around so I went back into the hotel to grab one of those little cups of coffee they serve at the continental breakfast.  There was a kid standing near the coffee dispenser looking kind of dazed.  I made some small talk about cutting in front of the line but he didn't respond.   He had somehow managed to burn himself getting some hot cocoa and was waiting for the desk clerk to bring a cold towel.  I asked the clerk about the plow guy and she gave me a nasty look.  She said "He's down the street and should be here soon."   I said that I do some plowing back home and it's always a problem getting people to move their cars.  I admired the guy for taking on a big parking lot in an area that gets so much snow.  I don't think I impressed her.  I grabbed the tiny Styrofoam cup of coffee and headed back outside to wait for Ray. As I was walking to the truck the plow guy pulled into the lot driving a huge front end loader with a 10' pusher box chained to the front.  I looked up at him and smiled.  He looked down at me and gave me a thumbs up.  Plow guys can tell another plow guy a mile away. I walked back into the Super 8 to tell the clerk the plow guy was here and gave her a thumbs up. The news brought a smile to her face. Ray and I got to the river around 10:00 AM and scouted out what we thought would be a good spot.  We pretty much had the river to ourselves when we wadded out.  The temperature that morning was 10 degrees so the poles are icing frequently.  While trying to clear the guides I broke the upper portion of my Scientific Redington so I had to hike back to the truck to rig up another rod. We decided to move down river and found a great looking spot where there was only 1 other person fishing.  Ray extended the customary "How's the fishing?" greeting and the other guy responded "Good".  He had caught a few Steelheads on his spinning rod and had tossed one of them into the snow so he could take it home for supper.   It wasn't long before I ran into more problems.  This time my line became tangled, my reel froze from being dunked, and my fingers were too cold to work on either problem.  Once again I headed back to the truck.  As I was walking back the guy with the spinning rod yelled out that he'd hooked a Coho.  Wanting to be helpful I grabbed his net and waded out to land the fish.  It was a huge, dark salmon.  I complimented him on his catch and after spending a few moments admiring it with him and Ray I continued hiking back to the truck. A half hour later I was back in the river with Ray who hadn't caught anything.  Ray had come up with a good solution to the freezing eyelet problem.  We would take turns guiding each other.  One of us would fish and the other would standby to clear ice off the fly rod.  We fished until 3:00PM then started the 306 mile journey back to my home.  It's another 150 miles to where Ray lives.  I hoped he didn't have to shovel when he got home.