SALMON CREEK
Two streams in one, Salmon Creek in Cayuga County is transformed by a high waterfall in the hamlet of Ludlowville. Below the falls, it’s a spawning stream for Cayuga Lake trout and salmon. Above Ludlowville, all the way upstream to its headwaters north of Genoa, it’s a fine fishery for wild and stocked brown trout.

Anglers who get to know Salmon Creek can mine its last mile or so for 3- to 6-pound rainbows in spring and for lake-run browns and landlocked Atlantics in October and November.

From late April through the summer, the creek’s upper end is noted for its stream-bred browns, many of which measure more than 15 inches.

In the mile-long piece of water between the Ludlowville falls and the mouth of the creek, early-season anglers will often find themselves casting to rainbow trout that are plainly visible against a backdrop of smooth slate or light-colored gravel.

The creek muddies quickly after a spring shower, but clears rapidly as well. The transparent water snakes around large boulders and glides over long, slippery slices of bedrock.

Anywhere you can’t easily glimpse the bottom is a likely haven for a big spawner. But don’t be surprised to discover fresh-run rainbows in knee-deep riffles or tail-outs. ‘Bows in the 18- to 24-inch range often hide among the schools of white suckers that run the stream in April.

The lower section of Salmon Creek can be reached by heading north from Ithaca on Route 34 to South Lansing. Once there, bear left onto Route 34B. The first right off that road takes you into Ludlowville. Parking lots for anglers and public fishing areas are clearly marked.

Before you wet a line, give your regulations guidebook a quick review. The Finger Lakes tributary regulations mentioned above, under the Naples Creek heading, also apply to this stretch of Salmon Creek.

Above the Ludlowville falls, standard trout regulations are in force, but the angling opportunities are anything but routine. State hatchery crews stock Salmon Creek and its main tributary, Little Salmon Creek, with about 4,000 brown trout per year, and many of those fish hold over from one season to the next. In some of the deep pools above and below the Cayuga County village of Genoa lurk browns in the 20-inch class.

To get in the neighborhood of such fish, either head north on Salmon Creek Road from Ludlowville or go south from Auburn on Route 34. Between Scipio Center and Genoa, a dozen side roads cross the creek.

There’s intermittent public fishing access in the section of the creek above Ludlowville, but don’t be afraid to expand your horizons by politely asking private landowners for permission to fish.

SKANEATELES CREEK
In the mid-1990s, state sampling crews discovered marginally high levels of a suspected cancer-causing class of chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls -- PCBs -- in the flesh of trout living in Skaneateles Creek.

That finding, and the ensuing state health advisory about eating fish from the stream, led to a 10.2-mile-long catch-and-release or “no kill” fishing zone being established between Old Seneca Turnpike in the Onondaga County village of Skaneateles and the Jordan Road bridge crossing in the village of Jordan.