Here is some feed-back from bank fly fishermen lodging at Marble Mountain Ranch. “SLOW” This report is from Tom Foster and Lamar and John Lund. These are some veteran fly fishermen who have invested a lot of time in learning to Fly-Fish the mid -Klamath with bank wading as the tactic of choice.
WHY THE “SLOW” REPORT AFTER MY ENCOURAGING NEWS? My thoughts are that the main run of fish in this stretch of the river still are on the way. I also think the recent dramatic rise in river flow from upstream releases and rain showers may have slowed the bite for fish that are currently here. These men also were limited to covering a couple of riffles in the course of the day while our drift-boat access puts us over 6-8 river miles in a day as we probe for the pockets of fish. I did’nt fish for the last two days, so I cannot offer a comparison of experiences for bank/boat based fishing.
The montra for steelheading is often to watch for a clearing and droping (improving) river. Coming from a long period of hot algae filled river conditions, I can’t help but hope that this “freshet” of cool fresh water is going to improve fishing in the big picture for this season, even if it has had a role in a temporary “turn-off” of the bite.
Yesterday the “Allen” party arrived on the ranch to start this year’s series of their fly fishing excursions on the Klamath. These are also some of the most knowledgable steelheading fishermen that we have visit the ranch, so I will forward on to you any good information they glean from today’s outing.
So, I will try to always call the shots for my readers exactly as I see it. I hope that when I shout “fish-on” in this blog, that you will trust that I am not just trying to pump business. That’s all for now…except to thank my wife and Justin Miller at the Fly Shop for teaming up on the surprise Echo 2 spey rod combo that they put together for me!
Till Later, Doug