Fishcounts now and then...

[tcorfey]

We have lost so much...

For year 2021 fish counts

Junction City weir on the Trinity river

Coho 372
Steelhead 222.

Trinity River Hatchery

Spring Run Chinook 2,005
Fall Run Chinook 5,968.

Klamath River Project:

Shasta River Chinook 6,908, Coho 45.
Scott River Chinook 1,324, Coho 823.
Bogus Creek Chinook 2,871, Coho 299.

Averages from early 60's (Can you imagine.. we averaged 150,000 steelhead on the Klamath and it's tributaries.)

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[Carl Blackledge]

Exactly, why I quite fishing in California-It just sucks....cheaper to fish in Mexico where you catch fish all day long-Screw California

Carl Blackledge

[WLREDBAND]

I prefer to not dwell in the past, and live for the future. Like my next fishing trip. I only wish more people thought that fishing in CAL "sucks" and didn't go out so I could have the water all to myself. Caught this big 'un the other day and had so much fun I'm going out again tomorrow. It's a trout not a steelhead and if that sucks, well.......................
Good fishing still exists in CAL if you know where to look and you can't catch them from your keyboard.
http://i.imgur.com/8SUkrzw.jpg (https://imgur.com/8SUkrzw)

[Jcolin]

Can't imagine how good you guys must have had it...Klamath in the fall, Pit, McCloud, Truckee, lower Sac, Yuba, smallmouth and especially largemouth pretty much everywhere in the state, various eastside stillwaters and rivers, Pyramid even though that's NV.

There are so many fisheries that I am pretty content with today. The Russian, Gualala etc another story... I don't have the same context that older fly fisherman have being 30 yo, but if it sucks today man I wish I could’ve fished it 30-50 years ago.

Nice fish wlredband.

[Rossflyguy]

Well with only 1.5 million people that have fishing licenses in a stat of 40 million people the culture of the great outdoors is fading away. Only 275,000 people in this state buy hunting licenses. People are too worried about social media and words. They want more houses and people to live in a severely stressed resource state. The wildlife is gonna go first.

[Carl Blackledge]

I am not going to dwell on the past either...I fished most of the glory days in my life, And now the fishing is so poor, It's just not worth it to waste my time, By the way that old spawned out fish your holding isn't worth a picture, in my opinion :)

Carl Blackledge

[WLREDBAND]

You'd be wrong about that fish Carl. The spawn is about a month away. Every big male up here looks like that right now.

[Carl Blackledge]

Sorry man, I shouldn't have said anything about your fish, When I fished the Russian most of the wild fish were chrome plated and only traveled a few miles to spawn, even the spawned out ones put up a decent fight.

Carl

[Troutsource]

Fishing in California is great if you know what you're doing and go to the right places at the right time.

PS Awesome fish, Wildebrand.

[fishing&beyond]

Exactly, why I quite fishing in California-It just sucks....cheaper to fish in Mexico where you catch fish all day long-Screw California

Carl Blackledge

cheaper? maybe if you live in Mexico...

not everyone needs to be catching fish all day to enjoy their time on the water, hence why we switched to fly fishing - to give ourselves more of a challenge.

also, it sounds like you don't know where to fish in CA...

[Lucas Dement]

Right Ill just hop on a jet and fly down to Mexico right now. Being able to go to destination fisheries is great, but its not the norm for ~95% of sportsmen. You get what you want out of fishing, I go just to get away from the toils of everyday life, and the time I spend outdoors is good regardless of how many fish I catch. If numbers and looking down on people is all your concerned about I heard that golf is really fun

[Mark Kranhold]

Well with only 1.5 million people that have fishing licenses in a stat of 40 million people the culture of the great outdoors is fading away. Only 275,000 people in this state buy hunting licenses. People are too worried about social media and words. They want more houses and people to live in a severely stressed resource state. The wildlife is gonna go first.

Ain’t that the truth!!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Can't imagine how good you guys must have had it...Klamath in the fall, Pit, McCloud, Truckee, lower Sac, Yuba, smallmouth and especially largemouth pretty much everywhere in the state, various eastside stillwaters and rivers, Pyramid even though that's NV.

There are so many fisheries that I am pretty content with today. The Russian, Gualala etc another story... I don't have the same context that older fly fisherman have being 30 yo, but if it sucks today man I wish I could’ve fished it 30-50 years ago.

Nice fish wlredband.



Your right JC......great attitude.

Things are not as good as they were "back in the day" but there are still plenty of good fishing left in Nor Cal.

[Bwag]

In my limited experience, since I got back into the outdoors 12 years ago, numbers guys are never happy. Always comparing now to back then. When I first started swinging flies, I didn’t touch a fish for 3 years, still had a blast, formed some of my best memories with my dad during that time. He had it good growing up in Santa Cruz fishing the San Lorenzo yet today he’s still just as happy floating the Rogue. If I make it to the coast before the winter season closes, it’ll have been 4 years since I’ve touched a fish on the river I fish, I’m stubborn though, I like to waddle from camp to fish a run less than a 1/4 mile from the ocean.

Whether it’s steelhead, ducks or upland birds, I’ve taken far more from where I was at than any fish or bird could give me. At this point in my life, unless I’m fishing with my dad I go alone, meeting up with those in the same places I’ve connected with over the years. One of which is a numbers guy, he hasn’t fished the coast or Klamath in a few years opting instead to chase birds. When he did fish, he was always on the go. It all seemed too hectic to me, fish a run get back in the truck and drive, over and over day after day. On the Klamath, I’ll set up camp, anchor my boat, get up, go fish a few runs come back to camp, sit in my chair and just stare at the river for hours, maybe hit a run in the evening maybe not. My last trip to the Klamath last season was for 4 days, landed a nice adult in the first run I fished and nothing else the rest of the trip, matter of fact between two separate trips that was the only adult fish I caught, it was great none the less. That fur ball riding the bow of my sled has brought more joy to my world in the outdoors than anything else!

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[Darian]

Bwag,.... That Steelhead is a beautiful fish!! I like your "fur ball" buddy, Also.