Favorite PNW September Water

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In Jim Freeman's little Steelhead guide books for Nor Cal, he says to keep driving until you find people and boats.

It works on rivers like the Klamath and Trinity rivers......

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One Fall I started driving down stream from Interstate 5 on the Klamath river....drove down stream until I saw vehicles, boat trailers

and drift boats in the water around the Green Riffle.

[mannamedstan]

That’s how I have fished at a lot of our stops along the way in years past, or go to the same spot as years prior. We have some go to accesses on the Roaring Fork, Blue, and Yampa in Colorado from getting the car beta on the weekend and then coming back midweek when no one is parked there anymore. Works well.

I think we have put our stops together for the first part of the trip: Bismarck, ND (Walmart), McLeod, MT (dry), Butte, MT (KOA), Hamilton, MT (friend’s ranch), Leavenworth, WA (KOA, fishing is closed downstream of icicle creek). We will assess whether we run over to the OP or down to the Klickitat from Leavenworth. We have a family stop near Eugene, and then the Klamath.

Really looking forward to the drive, we might leave as early as Wednesday, and skip the Lake Superior steelheaders bbq with Ed Ward on the Brule. He might give us some info though, so it might be worth it to stick around. It got cold up here now (42 at the river Friday morning) and early teal season started on the 1st- sporty little shoot. Browns, Coho, Kings and Steelhead all in the system now too. Got tight on a nice king swinging on Friday but came loose on after getting within 20’ of the fish.

Thanks for the info everyone

[mannamedstan]

We just pulled the plug on the campground reservations we had in WA, OR and at Tree of Heaven. I’m pretty bummed, but I don’t think it’s the right time to be on the road in these areas. Also probably not good for the baby’s lungs to be in the smokey air. Fished the Yellowstone near Livingston the other day, ended up with a double digit day of all mini rainbows (10-12”) on the elk hair. We had to get an oil change yesterday morning and then we hit the Gallatin near Four Corners. A few whitefish and a nice brown (~18”) on a rubber legs.

Thanks again for all the good info on places to go, but I’ll have to save it for another trip.