Well, this two weekends ago I popped my Pulaski cherry...and boy was it an experience. Leading up to the trip, I was told a million stories and experiences paired with advice on how to brave the warzone that is Pulaski, NY. This was a great precursor to the trip because I had originally pictured it as a peaceful place in the middle of nowhere full of hungry salmon and steelhead where I could swing big flies and catch giant fish. Anyone who has been to Pulaski during the heat of the salmon run knows this is NOT what it is like. Let me elaborate with a couple stories.
We show up to the campground (which will remain anonymous) late night to check in. We are greeted by a group of hillbillies enjoying a joint filled with dirt and a keystone light. We walk inside to get all of our paperwork filled out and meet the owner of the park. He proceeds to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how much it’s going to cost for 3 nights at 20 bucks a night. Great guy, who needs math anyways? We drive down to meet our buddies at the campsite next to ours, and it’s an effin’ warzone down there; Fireworks going off, people yelling “Fish On!”, drunkerds everywhere, you name it! This really set the mood. We broke out the Johnnie Walker and joined the games.
The next morning we wake up and head into town. We didn’t bother going to the fly fishing section, we just went right for the heart of Pulaski…you know, to get the full Pulaski experience. Picture hundreds of people from all over the world trying to catch these kings as they put on an acrobatic show right in front of us. Seeing those kings jump really got us going and we started drifting every fly we had through the hole. I soon realized the three dozen flies I brought would not be enough after snagging hundreds of yards of mono that was littering the bottom. Pretty quickly, Kev hooks up with a nice King and fights it for much longer than I had expected. “FISH ON COMIN UP THE MIDDLE!” It jumped, ran, and held the bottom as Kev held his doubled over 9wt with a grin on his face. We land the fish and pull the wooly bugger out of the corner of its mouth and take a shot of whiskey to celebrate. The pressure is off and we sit back and watch for a bit
This is when we realize that just about everyone fishing here is just dragging the biggest hook they have across the bottom with hopes of burying it into a King. Like I said earlier, it’s a warzone. We proceed to fish, but more-so watch the shenanigans unfold. Between people fighting over lost fish, the hecklers on the bridge, drunk people floating downstream, and our buddy Bill swimming in his waders, it was free entertainment all weekend long.
Bill, who won the King Salmon 2014 Mug for the biggest King, really put on a show this weekend. A guy came downstream fighting a 25+lb king and his line got hooked on a branch floating downstream. Bill asks the guy if he wants him to go out and get it. The guy doesn’t think he’s being serious and the look on his face when Bill dove head first into the 10ft deep hole with his waders on was priceless. He frees his line from the stick and the fish is still on! Another 10 minutes of fighting and the fish snapped him off. Tough break but what a show that was. We also watched Bill fight a fish a couple hundred yards downstream River Runs Through It style, but lost it at the end. Watching a full grown man go face first down the rapids with a fly rod in hand will always be hilarious. The fight in these fish is unreal. The stories go on and on but I will leave it at that.
The rest of the weekend pretty much played out the same; more and more people each day, tempers rising over fish, tons of laughs, drinks good ole fashioned Pulaski fun. Our buddy Spens showed up Friday and joined us for the games. I caught a small Coho, Kev got a bigger king, and we snapped a few more off. All in all, Pulaski was a huge success. It was everything I never hoped and dreamed it would be…it was so much more. Sure it would be nice to be in the middle of nowhere catching Salmon and Lake Run Browns with the river to yourself, but the atmosphere and comradery in Pulaski is phenomenal; you just have to brace yourself. Below are some pictures I took and a video taken before we arrived on Thursday that sets the mood of pulaski. This is just a little taste of what it’s like up there.
Moral of the story: If you’re going to Pulaski, bring a ton of flies, booze, and good vibes. You won’t have a bad time.
Stay tuned for another post. This weekend I joined my buddy Evan from Sidling Hill Hackle for a float trip in search of big, streamer eating browns on the Delaware. It was one for the books!
Ty
