Chinook salmon Run in New York

Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, king salmon — 7 New York rivers on this map carry a run of it, Lake Ontario. 7 of them are inside a window as of 1 October 2026.

Where these rivers are

7 run rivers on Lake Ontario — the New York shore, each in the colour of its own run stage today.

Lake Ontario — the New York shore7 run rivers on this shore, 7 inside a window today First runners

Drawn 1 October 2026. The ground is the subbasin mesh the app scores in, so the coastline is where the mesh stops rather than a separate shoreline; the mark at each river is its mouth, drawn for every river including the handful whose whole run corridor is under a mile and has no line to show.

Where it runs, and when

Ranked by the rivers the staging estimator models first — the sixteen systems with a USGS temperature gauge behind them — then by corridor miles. Neither is a measure of fishing, and nothing on this page ranks a fishery.

River	Lake	Window	Peak	Miles	Stage
Salmon River	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	16.3	First runners
Lower Niagara River	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	14.4	First runners
Genesee River	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	6.4	First runners
Oak Orchard Creek	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	5.9	First runners
Eighteenmile Creek	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	2.1	First runners
Black River	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	1.5	First runners
Oswego River	Ontario	Sept–Nov	Oct–Dec	0.9	First runners

Stage as of 1 October 2026. It moves every day and this page does not — current conditions are here.

Identification

A dark, heavy salmon with a black gum line and black spots on both lobes of the tail. The gum line is the field mark that separates it from a coho at the net.

Size

Eight to twenty pounds in the run, and the occasional thirty.

Behaviour in the river

Kings hold off the mouth until the river cools into the 60s F and then move on a rise. They stop feeding as they ripen, so a take is territorial rather than hungry.

Tackle and tactics

Spinning: a medium-heavy 8'6"–9' rod, 15–20 lb line, heavy spoons and crankbaits off the pier, skein or spawn under a float in the river.
Fly: a 8–9 weight with sink tip, egg patterns and heavy leeches, 12–15 lb tippet. A king in a fast river is a tackle problem before it is a fishing one.

Regulations

Great Lakes tributary rules are not the inland trout rules, and they differ by river and often by reach. New York's regulation summary is here; the state's own guide is the regulation.

The rest of the run

Open the lake-run map →Every run river, with where the fish are holding today.Or get BirdTrout on the App Store