I worked in the retail fishing tackle business within a few miles of the lower America river for 50 years so it was our number one

fishing destination. After a couple of decades we started looking for the Half-ponders around 'late August /early September'.

We kept our waders and tackle in our cars so we could fish before and after work, during the week, for Half-pounders in the Fall.

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I almost hate to think or talk about how good the lower America river was in the 1970s.


We had Fall and Spring Half-ponder runs with them feeling on top on big insect hatches.

December through February we had Winter Run Eel river Steelhead 8# to 20#+.

We had big runs of Shad in the Spring where people actually came from all over the World to fish.

Locals used Hair Razor jigs and Rebel plugs to catch lots of Stripers in the American.


The reality was, you did not have to drive anywhere because "we had the fish" right here in Sacramento.


Back then there were no indicators but actually they were not needed, yet.

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Back in the 1960s and 1970s we used 9'#9 line tubular fiberglass fly rods with braided backing, 100' of 20 to 30# mono shooting line

and 30' shooting heads in different sink-rates depending on the flows and depth of the Shad, winter Steelhead, Stripers and Salmon.

For Half-pounders most used 8' to 8'6" tubular fiberglass fly rods in #6 or #7 line size. Most used weight forward floating lines with a

tapered mono leader and #8 to #12 size wet and dry flies. This was before integrated sink-tip lines were developed.

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50 years ago flies were much bigger, on average, I think because there were more fish and less anglers.

The average dry fly was a #12 and #14 was considered smallish.

The average fiberglass fly rod was 8' to 8'6" in #6 line size.

A 7' to 8' #5 line rod was for small streams and small fish.

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I my grandparents generation the roads, car and even tires were no where are good as today.

There were less roads and less people so the impact on fisheries was far less.



I use to talk to all these old timers who said before World War II it took 4-6 days to drive to the Klamath river.

They had to go backwards uphill with their Ford Model A cars, up the steep mountain grades because the gravity feed gas tanks were

right on top in front of the wind shield. They would take a half-dozen spare tires along because the mountain roads were bad and the

tires were not very durable. Cars back then had a canvas bag full of water for the radiator.