The Lake Ontario tributaries hold the biggest Pacific salmon run in the eastern United States, and New York State is unusually specific about when it happens. The whole thing turns on four weeks.
Seasons, limits and licence rules are set by your state agency.
Each bar below spans January to December, with today marked, and draws the quoted sentence underneath it. Where an agency describes a run by season rather than by month, the card carries the sentence without a bar.
Fish gather off the river mouths in the second half of August and start trickling in around the first of September. On the Salmon and the Oswego, where hydropower releases set the flow, the state puts the peak between mid September and mid October.
Typically, the tributary fishing for Chinook and coho salmon begins in early-September and runs through early-November, with the peak often occurring during the first two weeks of October.
New York is blunt about how short the good part is, which is worth knowing before you plan a trip around it.
The peak of the run when the best stream fishing occurs is actually a rather short 4 week period.
A trickle from mid September, intensifying through October as the streams cool into the range the state names, then fish in the river all winter.
Mature Washington steelhead begin to enter Lake Ontario tributaries in small numbers as early as mid-September.
The fish that came in during autumn do not spawn until the following spring, then drop back to the lake.
Spawning usually begins in Mid-March and continues through late April.
| River | Water temp | Flow | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salmon Riverat Pineville | Loading | Loading | |
| Oswego Riverat Lock 7, Oswego | Loading | Loading | |
| Genesee Riverat Ford Street Bridge, Rochester | Loading | Loading | |
| Cattaraugus Creekat Gowanda | Loading | Loading | |
| Eighteenmile Creekat Burt | Loading | Loading |
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values service. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge list verified 2026-08-24.
New York draws a distinction other states do not. On the Salmon River and the Oswego, where dams control the flow, the run comes on a schedule. On every other tributary in the state it comes on the weather. That is why the Salmon River gauge on this page matters more than a thermometer would: what the river does is decided at Lighthouse Hill, and you can watch it.
On other salmon streams across the state the timing of the runs is more dependent on rainfall. Generally salmon will enter these streams somewhat later with the peak occurring in mid-October.
Fish passage counts are published by the programmes that run the counting stations, linked below with what each one reports.
No agency publishes a live or near live count on any New York river covered here. The live readings above are river conditions, and the agency linked at the top of the page is the source for run reports.
Run windows on this page are quoted from the agency named beside each one. River conditions come from the U.S. Geological Survey and are readings, not forecasts and not fish counts. Fishing seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements for New York are set by the agency linked here, and a run window is not an open season. For rules, see New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. National picture: every state with a salmon or steelhead run →
Hero image: “Fall on the salmon river” by Ron Shawley, CC BY 3.0