On the Salmon river the peak for salmon is Columbus day weekend, in terms of crowds anyway. I start watching the report around mid August and generally don't head up until 1st week of Sept. If I had to pick just one weekend to go for salmon it would be the 3rd weekend in Sept. There always seem to be at least a few fish around and they are still pretty fresh, theres a good crowd starting around then but it's generally not to bad. As you probably know it can vary alot from year to year but that weekend has ALMOST never let me down. I would rather be up earlier rather than later because if you wait until mid oct. there will be fish there but they will most likely be half dead and not worth the effort in my opinion.
Steelies start showing up a couple of weeks after the salmon but thats really hit or miss. I'd say third week of Oct. for fishable numbers but around that time you'll have all the leaves in the water and after you've pulled a leaf off of your fly for the 1000th time you'll wonder why you even bothered. My favorite month for steelies is Nov. There's usually fish around and they are very fresh and acrobatic and the salmon crowds are all gone. If I have to pick one weekend for steelies it would be Thanksgiving weekend theres usually a good amount of people but nothing like the salmon crowd and they are generally more well behaved and ethical.
Hope this helps
good luck, Chris

[This message has been edited by Turk (edited 19 July 2006).]