Googoo
Thanks for the shout out. Glad to help. There's another recent thread on just this, take a look at Top 10 Flies thread on stuff for steelhead, so take a look at that too.
On the Salmon River in NY, expect to lose a lot of flies. You want to be on or very close to the bottom, and between rocks and fish you'll lose quite a few. If you're not losing flies, you're not deep enough.
A lot of folks will be using egg flies there, and you might want to stock up on a bunch. Mostly orange (apricot or cheese colored, not blaze orange), chartreuse and a few pinks. Mix it up a bit with some yarn, estaz etc versions in size 8 and 10. They're inexpensive compared to other flies (and easy to whip up if you tie) so get/tie a bunch.
But like tie1on, I like to throw a bunch of different things, depending on water depth, clarity and flow rate.
some other good stuff to have:
hair wing salmon flies- most of them should be dark. Exact pattern probably doesn't matter so much, but something that looks like a Green Butt Skunk, Black Bear Green Butt, Undertaker etc and a few bright ones (Comet, Polar Shrimp, Thor etc) in 6 and 4 would be good to have for very fast heavy flow conditions to swing in current.
nymphs tied on heavy hooks like a hares ear or stonefly nymph on anything from a 10, 8 or 6 hook. These often work very well in clear low water conditions if fish aren't responding to eggs.
Big stuff that breathes in slower currents and good for swinging through deeper pools. Some examples might be flies tied with rabbit strips or marabou like a white zonker, spey flies, woolly buggers, egg sucking leeches. Again exact pattern probably not as important, but most should be dark: black, black/purple, blue/purple and a few bright: white, hot pink/hot orange, etc. in size 4-6
Don't feel you have to go crazy, just plan on plenty of eggs and a couple of from each of the other categories and add from there based on what's working. There's plenty of places to buy stuff up there.
Good luck
peregrines