Klamath River, all about timing...

"You should have been here last weekend, or come back next weekend."

That's what everybody told me once I got there. Apparently sometime during the middle of last week the sand bar at the mouth of the river shifted and reduced the mouth of the river to a trickle where very few fish could get through. The fish that were already in the river were way upstream and the other fish were all piled up just outside of the mouth waiting for the river to punch out the channel again. 

I was pretty disappointed. Even when I stopped at the tackle shop in Eureka on my way up the guys in there told me I had perfect timing. The salmon should be there. Apparently their intel hadn't caught up with the recent changes. Nobody was catching fish locally. Not a single gill netter had his gear deployed and there was nobody "power netting". The fish that were being caught were from guys in jet boats that ran as far upriver as they could each day.

By Saturday afternoon I had enough of getting skunked. I put in about 12 hours of fishing between Friday and Saturday without so much as seeing a swirl on the surface, a mark on my finder, or a dark shape in the water. I did catch this though:


One last thing was that InSeine and I talked earlier in the week and he thought he might meet up with me. By Saturday at around 3:30 I thought he wasn't coming so I packed up and headed back south. About three hours into my drive a voicemail hits my phone and I hear InSeine tell me that he's on his way.  I had no way to call him back, and by then he was probably at Klamath without cell phone reception. Jim was cool about it, but I still feel really bad about leaving him there by himself. Sorry Jim!

I bet Klamath is a great place when the fish are there, but this trip was a bust for me.
More pictures:

The river at first light Saturday morning


The mouth of the Klamath


Beware of Bigfoot


The campground

Committed to the core, Jay. Wish the fish had been there to cooperate for you & Jim both.

still, for putting in the time & effort I gotta say.....you rock.

 

way to give it a try jay, sorry they werent there for you, cameron

DUDE! Even Sean was telling me that last weekend was going to be hot. Goes to show I guess.

 

 OK so what was that thing you caought?  Looks like a pruned fig.  Too bad about the fish being "Not there"  At least you got out and tried. 

Troy

Nice try - thanks for posting your trip.   

..........

Beware of Bigfoot

Thanks for the report and pictures, sorry no fish for you this trip.

Gotta keep an eye out for Randall at all times, he gets around! 

I love that place up there Jay. Sorry you did not get any salmon action bro. We
fished hard for a good two days also only to come home empty handed as well.

Jedmo

Bummer on the slow fishing Jay, way to get after them - John

you tried hard Jay, and that's what it takes(i really thought YOU were gonna get one)......thanks for the port&pics! 

Sorry you didn't get any fish, but glad you got out there and had a good time...

I love those pics!!!!

Thank you for sharing!

Sincerely,

Jim