Terry Thomas & friends headed to lower Klamath River

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Traditionally Terry's group goes several times to the lower Klamath River to fish with jet boat guide Mike Kuczynski (owner of the Eureka Fly Shop) and local jet boat guide Alan Borges.

Once around mid-August for an 'early fix' and then later in late September for the serious prime time trip.


Some times they stay about 20 miles up river in the remote canyon at the "Rivers West Lodge", only accessible by jet boat.

http://www.jetboattours.com/lodging.htm


They are all using mostly light two-handed rods now with Scandi lines and Poly/Versi leaders.

Early and late in the day in low light conditions they can use floating lines with flies swung up in the surface.


http://www.eurekaflyshop.com/

http://www.alansguideservice.com/


**Luckily I have been on these trips a few times and the Lower Klamath River is a wonderful place to fly fish for small, medium and occasionally large smoken' hot Steelhead.

.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

They are up there now and on their second day of fishing, Sunday, August 21, 2011.

We should get some reports soon.



Best time for jet boating the Lower Klamath River is ~Sept 15 to Oct 15.

Middle river (Orleans to Happy Camp) is best in October.

[Frank Pipgras]

A couple of weeks ago I was driving up to the Smith River and when we got to the Hwy 101 bridge over the Klamath there were a lot of people on the bridge. There was a grey whale and her pup in the Klamath by the bridge. We actually saw a whale blow on the Klamath while we were driving across. Unfortunately the mom beached herself a few days later and died. It is thought the pup went back to the ocean.

[Rick J]

Hit the river this weekend with Bruce - we camped out on the river overnight - things were pretty slow - caught a number of half pounders and a couple of small adults - fish are concentrated at Blue Creek but not very grabby - Mike was on the river with Terry's group and we all fished together at Blue Creek - Bruce and I went up beyond Pecwan looking but really tough fishing with a strong wind all day. Some fish further down river also

The boats are really hammering the fish - run up and drift back through Blue Creek throwing bait

Heading back up over Labor Day with Don and Victor and the following weekend our TU board member group are going up - hopefully it should improve as more fish move in - river still pretty high for this time of year

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Rick.....

[Bruce Slightom]

It was nice to meet Terry and be able to put a face to a voice and all of his post. It was also a pleasure to watch him cast.

[Terry Thomas]

Bruce. Great to get a chance to fish with Rick and yourself. Wish the fishing had been better. We had to work pretty hard to get the few half pounders that we landed. Didn't find fish above Johnson's. Lots of jacks in the system again this year.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

If anyone wants to fish the lower Klamath you can go with the Eureka Fly Shop or with Alan Borges.

They both have nice Jet Boats and really know the river well.

We can help you plan a trip somewhere between now through October.

As far as hooking something on a fly, this is the river.....lots of hot Half-pounders (12"-18") at times and some adult fish too.

You can fish the middle Klamath and the lower Trinity in October.

Rick Jorgesen, Bruce Slightom and Terry Thomas are all very good fly fishers, using mostly two-handed rods for Steelhead now.

For single handed fly fishing on the Klamth people use 9' to 10' #6 and 7 weight rods.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

On the recent Klamath River trip Terry Thomas caught a fresh run King Salmon on his new Sage TCX 11'9" #5 Switch rod.

He said at first he thought he had a nice adult Steelhead.