Klamath Report Oct 16-17

[Jeff F]

Fishing was very disappointing up on the Klamath last weekend. Four of us (myself, Jeff Ching, Eric Olson, and Marc Qvist), fished very hard for 2 full days and only a couple half-pounders were landed between all four guys. We fished a bunch of spots from Dillon Creek down to Aikens Creek looking for pods of fish, but they just weren't there. Even my "can't miss" spot was void of fish.

Water temps were fine, flows were fine, we're all decent fishermen, but when the fish aren't there, the fish aren't there. The smell of skunk was everywhere on the river, not just in the town of Orleans. :cool:

Friday, the river was fairly crowded at the obvious access points. So we stuck with the "hike-down" spots to find solitude. Green Riffle was a zoo as was Halverson and other access points in that area. Saturday, the threat of rain probably kept some people from coming up, so it was a little less crowded.

We were the only ones at our campground though. First time camping at the Oak Bottom campground on the Salmon River near Somes Bar. Cool campground if you're ever in the neighborhood.

So that's about it. Thought there'd be tons of fish in the area, but there wasn't. So it was kind of a bummer. But the inebriated campfire conversations helped ease the hurt of the skunk. So all was good.......

Time to start thinking about the winter season and the Eel.

~Jeff

[Ben J]

I was in the neighborhood as well and had the same results. Kinda strange to me that I had great results both august and September on the Klamath and trinity, but October has been slow. I did see a very nice adult landed on an indo setup.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

If you go every year, you never know when you will hit it big.

[Rmacneil656]

I know several guys that can attest to running into pods of fish very early this year, also I know of people seeing them on the Trinity really early this year too, makes me think that a lot of the fish that came in sprinted past. Great time a year to fish that area tho. Steelheading wouldn't be the same without goose eggs being thrown in now and again lol.

[TaylerW]

It is surely a much smaller run this year. The river is running about 500 cfs lower than it usually does this time of year, and with that the tribs are very low as well. It's all cyclical, but there are definately less fish this year....

[ycflyfisher]

When the spit closes for a prolonged period of time, ~2 weeks or more, fairly late in the run progression like it did this year, the fishing always sucks for a month or so after it opens back up by my account. I think what happens is that we lose the que of fish that are aclimating/reversing the osmoregulatory process in the salt wedge and it takes a few weeks for things to normalize. I also think the actual dynamics of the wedge can get jacked up when all the exfiltration is subsurface through the spit and not over it.

I think the smoke from the fires kept the river in a weird, smoke filtered half-light and created some days earlier in the run progression that definitely made it seem like the river was paved with steelhead.