Klamath Report

[Pupa]

Hit the Klamath from Willow Creek to Iron Gate, walk and wade, this past Saturday. Water was turbid with decent flows and 12-18" visibility. My setup was pretty ridiculous: 3wt 10'6" Shadow X with euro set up/bobbicator. Caught a few 10" and managed to pull out a couple of nice chromers. A saw 2 drift boats and 1 other wading fisherman the entire day. Both were caught on a Blowtorch.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Amazing......can you post a picture of that Blowtorch?


During the drought of the late 1970s in super low water conditions they had some good winter fishing on the Klamath river.



A dentist from Eureka who was a serious angler landed a 20# Steelhead on a 7weight fly rod.

He fished the river in this small wooden, hand made, one man outboard jet boat.

Top Klamath river guide and owner of the Eureka Fly Shop Mike Kuczynski pointed him out as he shot by us one day.



Great "Outdoorsman" Henry Star had a good friend up on the North Coast with a jet boat.

Henry would run up there in the winter when the water was right and they, at times, had great success.

.

[DPLee]

"A dentist from Eureka who was a serious angler landed a 20# Steelhead on a 7weight fly rod.
He fished the river in this small wooden, hand made, one man outboard jet boat."

Bill, the dentist you are referring to was Dr. Gary Tucker who had a practice in Arcata. The Eureka Times Standard reported in December 1976 that he caught an 18 3/4 pound steelhead from the Klamath River. The actual date of the catch was not reported. No sure about the size of the rod he used to catch the 18 3/4 pound fish. I do know he sometimes used a 6 ft one piece 5 weight fly rod for half-pounders, similar to something Lee Wulff described for Atlantic salmon. He stored his blue painted wooden jet boat at the Terwer RV Park allowing easy access to the nearby public boat ramp.

Tucker often fly fished the lower river with Dr. Roger Barnhart in the late summer and fall. Barnhart taught graduate level courses in Fisheries at Humboldt State University as well as heading the Fisheries Research Unit for the US Fish and Wildlife Service at HSU. I had a couple of class from Dr. Barnhart while at HSU. Roger retired in 1996 and passed away in 2016. Unfortunately, I do not have any information on Gary. It was several years ago and the last time I spoke to both Gary and Roger at the boat ramp. They had been fly fishing the lower Klamath using the blue jet boat to fish the lower river.

Dennis
www.dennisplee.com

[Steve S]

Would love to see the one man wooden jet boat.

[cutthroat22]

I'd love to see an 18 pound steelhead from the lower Klamath. Thanks for chiming in Dennis. I miss Roger. He was a very nice man, dedicated teacher and excellent fisherman.

Tom W.

[Jeff F]

I'd love to see an 18 pound steelhead from the lower Klamath. Thanks for chiming in Dennis. I miss Roger. He was a very nice man, dedicated teacher and excellent fisherman.

Tom W.

Ya, large fish like that are pretty rare on the Klamath. But once in a while they do show up. When I lived in Eureka around 2010, I used to fish the Klamath all the time during the 1/2 pounder run in September. One day I was fishing in the Orleans area and I hooked what I initially thought was a salmon. It was a helluva fight. Got it close and saw the pink lateral and low and behold it was a huge steelhead. I did land it and it measured at just over 34". I'd say 12lbs maybe?.

Mike and I became friends during the time I lived there and the next day I went into the fly shop and asked him what was the biggest steelhead he's ever seen on the Klamath, then told him my story of the previous day. He said he saw one caught at the Cleveland Riffle that was pushing 40" and probably close to 20lbs. But he did confirm that fish of that size are rare. So I feel blessed to have gotten that incredible fish. Never forget it. Already looking forward to heading up there in September.....

~Jeff

[Pupa]

The "Blowtorch" is a killer fly for trout on euro rig. Thought I would give it a try for steelhead. Friendly guide passing by said the fly to use was a purple Hare's Ear, or purple Prince (forgot which, but didn't matter much because I don't have any purple flies).

[PV_Premier]

The Psycho Prince is the purple nymph. I personally like yellow more than purple but both can be lethal.

[grnwtrs]

Why September, the fish are up to the I-5 highway bridge, great camping/RVing below .

You have that section down to Rainbow & back. Scott river should be producing great now. Great fishing below the confluence of Shasta river and Klamath. Unfortunately there are a lot of down streamers. Turn them back. I don't know what the mining camp has done to the fishing. If anything BAD.

I was also fortunate to be graced with one of the Klamath's Kings (not salmon) a week after Xmas. I was then fishing the Klamath-
Shasta confluence. I was just plain lucky.

Now, I stay on the coast, it's warmer, fish are bigger, store bought food is better, guess you know I am not a good cook!!


Regards, Gene

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

This is an interesting group of posts..........



I did not know anyone who fished or guided the I-5 area until the last 20 years?

Some or most of those could be resident Rainbow trout?

Some local guides out of Dunsmuir guide that stretch now.



On any "long" Steelhead drainage you could have some Steelhead almost year round.




I think fly fishing the lower Rogue and lower Klamath rivers in September with a jet boat guide is something we all need to

experience. Although you can "drive, walk and wade" the lower Rogue river. I highly recommend it......

[Bob Smith]

Bill, there are definitely a lot of large resident rainbows in the Klamath River below Iron Gate though it's not the classic tailwater type fishery. Over the years, it was found through scale sampling that many of the "steelhead" that returned to the hatchery never went to the ocean. This contributed the the termination of the steelhead hatchery program at Iron Gate.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

An old friend who works in fisheries for years added that when they get the 4 dams off the Klamath river we can drive 5 hours up

Interstate 5 and start fishing, I guess up or down stream?

[timmosazz]

Great story. Love the history.