Fly Fishing in the USA

[Sparky94 0]

Hi all,

 

This may seem like a waffle-y thread, with a lot of ambiguity, but please bear with me.

 

I'm currently in my first year of university, studying electronic engineering. My university encourages students to spend a year in industry between second and third year, in order to gain experience.

 

Now I've been doing a bit of thinking, and I've thought about getting out of the UK and visiting the USA for a year, leaning towards working with Lockheed Martin. Of course, the job is the important bit, but I'd also like to get some really good fishing in. However, I have nearly no clue when it comes to fly fishing in the USA, so I was wondering if you guys would be able to offer advice on tactics, equipment, and most importantly locations.

 

I much prefer fishing for what we'd call in the UK 'game' fish; Salmon and Trout. A few google searches has shown that this tends to be further north, correct?

 

So I've found out that Lockheed Martin has a facility in a place called Syracuse, New York (State). Does anyone know what the fishing would be like here? I noticed there's a place called Salmon River (sounds promising, haha), but a few searches on YouTube and I find videos of anglers shoulder to shoulder trying to foul hook the things.

 

Is this common on rivers, or the USA in general? Or perhaps just on this river? I'm not being fussy, just it's a slightly different experience than what I am used to.

 

Are there any 'wilder' rivers for choice that people recommend?

 

Many thanks for your time guys. I will probably fire many different places out here, but let me know whatever you know. I'd be interested to here where/how you fish from all over the states.

 

Many thanks again,

 

Sparky

[Sparky94 0]

Sorry to post back to my own thread, but I've heard a bit about Steelhead fishing.

 

Anybody here do that? Sounds like awful good fun, especially in the snow.

[mikechell 0]

Fishing here, in the USA ... it's going to depend greatly on where you end up going. You'll find the State of New York full of fishing opportunities. Steelhead, salmon, trout, small mouth bass, large mouth bass, pike, musky, striped bass (salt water) ... etc. etc.

 

There's also a facility here in Orlando. We are limited to large mouth bass, a dozen species of Sun Fish, pickerel, crappie, Peacock Bass, carp and catfish ... and salt water - Speckled Sea trout, tarpon, red fish, flounder, lady fish, bone fish, etc. etc.

 

Bring your gear ... there are fish everywhere !!!

[jimk 0]

Plenty of fishing in Colorado for warm water as well as trout up to steelhead size. Snagging salmon is not common in the US as far as I know. You can Fish all year in Colorado, some states close waters during winter. As far as Wild Rivers go, there are plenty of places to flyfish where you will see very few people, depends on how far you want to hike.

[Istripbuggers 0]

Ya and in California, even if mike chell dosent think so.. (Wink wink)

[shoebop 0]

I don't know where all the guys from New York are tonight but I can say that there is plenty of good trout fishing in upstate NY. I'm not sure about the regulations in NY concerning "snagging" but it has been oulawed for some time in most places, especially when it comes to steelhead. You are only a hop-skip-and a-jump from the Adirondacks and lots of good trout water and Lake Ontario to the North with all its steelhead feeder rivers. You could do a whole lot worse than Syracuse.

[troutguy 0]

The Salmon River is an hour north of Syracuse, NY. It has some of the best steelhead fishing from November until April. Chinook and Coho salmon run August to November. Large brown trout follow the salmon to eat eggs and pieces of salmon corpse. New York has Musky and Northern Pike in the St. Lawrence about two hours away. Two or three hours south of Syracuse in the Delaware, Beaverkill, Willowemoc, Neversink, Monguap and Esopus. These are the hallowed ground of trout fly fishing. You must see the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum between Livingston Manor and Roscoe.

 

Within four hours of Syracuse you can almost catch anything. Stripers and bluefish in CT Long Island Sound is four hours away.

 

It is fishing heaven, but.....do you have much experience with snow? Syracuse averages almost 10 feet of snow a year. According to city-data.com it gets 115.6 inches of snow a year. Some years it exceeds 200. The most of any US city. Anchorage, AK is only 114.

 

Steelhead fishing is often done at 17 degrees with two foot of new snow.

[troutguy 0]

Snagging used to be allowed in the Salmon River years ago, but that is gone.

[troutguy 0]

OK here are some NY State fly fishing pictures I just stole from my friends facebook page. I hope he does not mind. I moved south years ago. I last fished in NY three years ago.

 

First photo is a striper from the Hudson. Other two are trout caught this fall on a weekend.

[troutguy 0]

Last two nights fishing in NY July and August 2010

 

 

 

 

 

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

As noted above great salmon and trout fishing in lots and lots of venues here (nobody mentioned it but the salmon in Michigan is world class -now if someone will just explain why those fish are there in the first place...).

 

Of course if you could find some of the education you're needing (and that really should be your first criterion...) down where I am in south Florida.... You'd have access to great fly fishing year 'round (but not salmonids or trout at all....). Think long and hard about coming my way, though. More than one great education got sidetracked down here in Miami...

[JSzymczyk 0]

So, you get to just pick where in the USA, and for what company, you want to come have a job for a year? Now that is one interesting program.

[JSzymczyk 0]

As noted above great salmon and trout fishing in lots and lots of venues here (nobody mentioned it but the salmon in Michigan is world class -now if someone will just explain why those fish are there in the first place...).

the return on investment is worthwhile. Pennsylvania and New York used to do the same with Coho and Chinooks in Lake Erie. The early and mid 1980's were explosive- the numbers of fishermen at what today is called "Steelhead Alley" were incredible. At any given time in the fall, weather permitting, there could be well over 100 boats trolling off the mouths of any stream, and the streams themselves were shoulder-to-shoulder. I was at Walnut Creek on several occasions where the line of boats on trailers waiting to launch was stretching towards the airport.

 

Money dictates everything. At some point the salmon program was stopped and it turned into all steelhead, although the number of fish and fishermen is way lower than it was.

[Sparky94 0]

So, you get to just pick where in the USA, and for what company, you want to come have a job for a year? Now that is one interesting program.

 

Haha, not quite.

 

As I said in the first post, my uni encourages students to find their own work placement between years two and three of our degree course.

 

I'm being a little more adventurous in my planning (I always get a bit excited by things) and have just started scouting at the possibilities out there. So far, a placement as an electronic engineer with Lockheed Martin looks to be quite an interesting possibility. It would also suit my CV when I apply to join the RAF straight after uni.

 

Syracuse is an interesting facility, as that's one where they develop RADARs (I love radars btw). I've also done a bit of investigating of other places such as Lockheed's facilities in Colorado, when they have a more satellite orientated program.

 

I've talked through it with some of my American mates on electronics forums, and they have said that it shouldn't be much harder to sort out than any normal placement. Applying from the UK for a visa is a bit easier than from Iran or North Korea, hehehe.

 

It's not something where I can say "I want to work there" and I'll get it. Which is why I've been doing a bit of research on various areas and companies as back up plans.

 

Of course, after work comes play. So fishing. And bagpipes, but that's another story.

 

Sparky

[Sparky94 0]

Thanks guys for your posts, some incredible fish there!

 

All my fly fishing has been done in Scotland, so a monster trout would be a whole pound! Those things are just massive.

 

Any more stories/advice would be great.

 

Sparky