Drifting Lower Klamath Terwar to to Requa

[TahoeJoe]

I've never fished in the Lower Klamath estuary. I'm looking for some hints on how to fish it and whether or not a driftboat is useful. My boat is human powered only, no motor. I'd be happy to fish for half pounders or even salmon.

Is it worth trying to drift from Klamath Glen/or Terwar riffle down to the boat ramp by Requa?

Or, can I just put in somewhere and row around and take out at the same place?

Or, am I better off just fishing off the bank and saving the gas by not towing a trailer up there?

Thanks,
Joe

[TaylerW]

Fish the bank. Soooo much flat water you’ll just waste time. Start at Orleans and fish upriver. Fish are at the top already. By mid October the river has fish everywhere.

[TahoeJoe]

Thanks Tayler. Seems like the lower river is better suited to a jetboat. The driftboat works pretty well up by Orleans too.

[TaylerW]

I find boats, in general, to waste time if your swinging. Klamath fish seem to run in pods, primarily. You might hit a pod on a float or you might not. Pull-out hopping allows you to cover so much more water and fish effectively.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I find boats, in general, to waste time if your swinging. Klamath fish seem to run in pods, primarily. You might hit a pod on a float or you might not. Pull-out hopping allows you to cover so much more water and fish effectively.


Tayler, this is how we fished when local legend Joe Shirshac introduced us to the Klamath river in the 1970s.

Lucky, Joe had fished it every Fall sense the early 1950s and knew all the pull-outs and trails down the good runs.

I think October was Joe's favorite time on the middle Klamath river. Weitchpec to Green Riffle.



In the Fall when ever we had two young healthy guys come into the shop, many from the Bay Area, who were gregarious and

looking for a destination I would send them to the Pit, Upper Sac or Klamath river because I knew they could do it. I gave them all the

instructions I could and sometime if they hit it right and became fans of one of those great rivers. Weitchpec to Green Riffle.

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Funny thing that people from the Bay Area thought nothing of going to southern Oregon for the Weekend?

Local Sacramento folks who ask if we had a place to catch wild 16 inch trout that was an hour from the shop?

.

[Bob Smith]

If you do drift from Terwer to Requa, time the float to hit upper tidewater on the lower end of an outgoing tide (lower the better). It's a short ride to tidewater from the Glen and you'll have some riffles appear in the upper tidewater which can be productive. I agree with TaylerW that pulling out to fish is the way to go - at least in this section.