This is a two pound steelhead typical of some that we are catching lately. As pretty as this fish is, it lacks in size compared to the adult fish that we expect to see in October and November. I have a concern over the seeming reduction in numbers of 7 – 10+ pound steelhead that the Klamath should be producing. Are they just late this year? Are they waiting for higher flows? Is the slow start to Winter precipitation a factor? Are they being taken prior to arrival in the mid Klamath? I just don’t know. We have recently seen a nice push of half pounders come through, and I had been hoping to see more of the 4 – 6 pound steelies and some of the bigger fish as well, but I don’t see them in good numbers yet.
On a positive note, the river is in amazingly good shape for fishing. We are now seeing the cycle of storms followed by dry weeks. Here is the effect of some recent storms as it shows in Klamath River flows at Orleans:
I fished yesterday with Bruce and Bryan Krogstad. Bruce is a past Marble Mountain Ranch client and his son Bryan is an Alaska fly fishing guide now doing graduate studies in social work at Portland. The weather was timed at the tail end of the recent storm. We had great water clarity, water temps at 48 degrees, there was snow on the higher peaks, and the fishing was average as fas as numbers. We took 4 half pounders, one small adult shown above, and we broke off one un-seen larger fish. Yea, Bruce…lets talk again about “horsing” a steelie even with a 2-X tippet!…It was a great day, and frankly, I quite enjoyed hearing about Bryan’s adventures fishing with the Alaska cruise ship guests and guiding with a shotgun slung over the shoulder to drive off the bear. I guess that’s the ultimate of “un-concealed carry”. Here is another shot of a fish from yesterday:
The current weather forecast shows the next 10 days with clear skies or partly cloudy, but with no anticipated precipitation. If you can make the drive up during the Thanksgiving week, this might be a good guess at lining up the weather, river flows, and possible fresh fish arrivals.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!…My Hoopa Indian neighbor invited us over to be his “Token Pilgrim” at the Thanksgiving table, but we have guests here this week…Sorry Joseph!
Doug