Fishermen cast their lines in the Salmon River Tuesday
/ photo: Jessica Cain
PULASKI, OSWEGO CO. -- Pulaski Mayor Ernie Wheeler says a state of emergency will continue in Pulaski at least until Thursday, but that's not keeping people from enjoying what the village has to offer.
The Salmon River was packed with people who were fishing. Many came from out of town, from as far away as Maryland or Rhode Island, to try for some salmon.
Some were reeling them in, like Dave Brown. He says he caught a 33 pound fish a few days ago, and today he caught one that's about 20 pounds.
However, other people were facing challenges.
John Tackett from Corning says because of the difficult conditions he hooked about ten fish, but he only landed one. "You're afraid if you fall down or something, you're not going to get back up because it's really high water," says Tackett.
Businesses in the area say this is traditionally one of the busiest weeks of the year, and owners hope last week's flooding won't scare people away. "There have been a lot of misconceptions that there's no fishing going on," says Rob Ripka, an owner of Fat Nancy's Tackle Shop. "We've fielded hundreds of phone calls from people."
Ripka says the water's a little higher than he would like and the it's a little murkier, but he hopes that will clear up in a few days.
Mayor Wheeler says based on how much rain falls Tuesday and Wednesday, he may be able to lift the state of emergency Thursday. He says he just wants to remind people to be safe on the water.
Last week, the high water levels from heavy rain tore down a retaining wall and caused some flooding in the streets.
