I fished the Klamath in the 1960s and on with local legend Joe Shirshac when the campgrounds were full of old folks in travel trailers

who spent a month to three months up there. The Half-pound runs and some medium size fish were plentiful.

In the 1950s when Joe first fly fished the Klamath he said the fish were larger, around 6 pounds on average.

Back in the 1960s we were first fishing with 9' #9 line 2-piece fiberglass Fenwick fly rods, large Pflueger Medalist or Hardy fly feels,

Dacron backing, 100' of mono shooting line, and 30' factory shooting head in type 2 and type 3 sink rates.

We used mostly size 6 Silver Hilton and Brindle Bug wet flies. Not much variety back then.

We used seamless rubber Seal-Dri stocking foot waders with canvas felt sole wading shoes.


Joe liked to fish from Johnson's Bar up to Happy Camp, depending on where the fish were.

We usually ate dinner at the Orleans Hotel where we met other anglers and exchanged our day's fishing reports.

Joe knew all the places to park at the trail heads to hike down into the canyons where the good riffles were.

We never ate breakfast because Joe liked to be on the runs as we could just barely see so we drove with headlights on

and hiked down into the runs with flashlights. A 10-pound Steelhead in the Fall was extremely rare and might not be landed by most.

Adult fish were 4 to 8 pounds and were extremely violent fish. We rarely saw any drift boats on the water in the 1960s.

One morning at Ice Cream riffle we landed a dozen fish that were all 22 1/2 inches and screamers. Close to 4 pounds we guessed.

Back then I thought that when I retired I would have a trail trailer up on the Klamath River in September, October, and part of

November, but sadly, it never happened.


At 79 and living in Florida it is most likely I will not be doing any of my favorite fly fishing, Fall Steelheading, but am excited to see

dam removals, Worldwide, and the prospects of wild Steelhead and salmon running freely up cold, clear rivers.





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