Operation Salmonid Slam-Down: Klamath + Trinity Rivers, 9/16 to 9/19

I dedicated the last four days exclusively to salmon and steelhead fishing within the Klamath-Trinity River systems.  Call it a birthday present to myself if you will .  I bank-fished the Trinity while driving between Lake Almanor and Eureka, and fished from a friend's jetboat on the Klamath.  Here's what's up:

Friday: Trinity River
I wanted to do some morning fishing on the Trinity while en route to Eureka, so I did what you have to do when you live 3 hours away from that section of river: woke up at 3am, packed up the Ranger, and bailed Chester by 4am.  Fueled by a RockStar and Swedish death metal, I arrived on the river around 7:30am armed only with hardware.  Fishing from 7:30am to 1pm, I hit probably 9-10 different roadside spots.  When you don't know where the fish are, you need to keep yourself mobile until you find them.  No more than 20-30 minutes at a spot if you don't see any fish rolling or haven't hooked up.  I found some fish real fast early on, in the form of two Chinook jacks.  Caught them within my first three casts, haha.  Both released.  They were both around the typical size for a jack.


Ten minutes later and a short distance downstream, I followed up the jacks with a 26 inch buck steelhead.  Kept.

After those three fish, I had to move around a lot to scratch up more.  Picked up a bronzey 'nook in a deep pool a little before 10am.  I had a few larger adult Chinook follow my spinner in this pool, but they refused to hit.  Large salmon on the Trinity are very challenging to tempt to bite anything.


Here's one of those funky halfpounder/small adult/resident rainbow "steelhead" that you'll sometimes catch in the Trinity.  The ones that are a little big to be a halfpounder, a little small to be an adult, and have the look of just a large trout.

Finished things off with another hatchery buck steelhead around 1pm.

Lure of choice for the morning was a size 3 copper Mepps Aglia spinner, and I tried many different lures with little success.  Spinners are pretty easy to fish: just quarter-cast upstream of your target, let it sink near the bottom, then let the current swing it past and below you, only reeling when you have to keep that blade thumping.

Another cool note about this day was that I went 6 for 6, without any lost fish.  That's rare for me with spinners, especially with barbless treble hooks.  Guess all that practicing fishing barbless spinners on the Feather River for rainbows this past month paid off .

Saturday, Sunday: Klamath River
I'd been invited by a friend to fish on his neighbor's jetboat for two mornings on the lower Klamath River this weekend.  Chinook salmon were the target.  Now I've had some good times on the Klamath...but those were back in 2005.  Ever since then, this river has been nothing but harsh to me.  I'd given it many tries, and I'd caught fish, but in general my results were typically garbage for a full day's fishing.  But I had hope for this trip: I'd be fishing from a jetboat with a former guide, a guy with years of experience on this river and its fisheries.  Surely this would be my best shot at doing well on the Klamath, right?



Yeah, our group caught quite a few fish all right!  Out of the five of us, we brought 12 chrome salmon to the boat on Saturday.  Mostly jacks, but we did pick up a couple adults to 12 pounds.  The boat did great, but I sucked!  I was the only one to completely blank on the boat.  I know I missed a couple good bites, but that was all the action I got that day.  I'd be banned if I posted any of the smack-talk that was handed to me that day, haha.  I was to the point where I was wondering if I remembered what a salmon bite on roe even felt like, since it'd been a year since I had done any salmon fishing.  Just one of those funky days I guess.

Sunday was a lot slower, with our group only bringing 4 Chinook and 1 halfpounder to the boat.  But my luck turned around on this day, as I landed 2 of the jacks and the halfpounder .  Not awesome fishing, but hey, these little guys will be good eats!

Pretty much everyone fishes the same when on boats on the lower Klamath: boondogging roe.  And when I say everyone, I mean all of your neighbors floating nearby.

I was amazed to see so many boats crowded around.  There's a lot of activity on this river, and solitude is all but impossible.  Even still, most folks got along and it seemed like everyone was catching at least a few fish.  The vast majority of salmon landed in our area were jacks and small adults.  It was pretty rare to see a salmon over 12 pounds, but at least a lot of the jacks were of the jumbo variety, 5 to 8 pounders.  The scene on the Klamath is definitely NOT my style of fishing.  I'm used to fishing alone and I normally target steelhead because I hate fishing around the crowds that you see when targeting salmon.  I still had a lot of fun fishing with friends and listening to the James Bond soundtrack on the jet boat's sound system while boondogging through 40 foot deep pools, but it's a very different feeling from fishing in the solitude you can find on a river like the Trin.

Monday: Trinity River, Round 2
Of course I wanted to fish the Trinity on the drive back to Almanor.  Its miles of bank-accessible, people-less river were looking extremely appealing after fishing with a gajillion people on the Klamath.  I left Eureka a little after 5am this morning, and was fishing by 7am.  I tried a couple spots I knew and a new spot.  The first riffle produced a halfpounder on roe.  The new spot was a big pool beneath a set of rapids, and I picked up a dark male Chinook and a bright little jack here.  The darky hit roe, the jack hit the copper Mepps.



The third and final spot for this morning was where I ended my fishing, because I didn't have to move anywhere else.  It's a riffle-run that I've done well on in the past fishing for steelhead.  From 8:30 to 10:30am, I experienced some of the best fishing I've ever had on this river.  At one point, I must've landed 4 fish on 4 casts.  Then it was a bite every few casts.  Mostly bronze salmon, but there were a few brighter ones in the mix that I harvested.





Also tied into some adult hatchery steelhead in the 25-27 inch range.



So just how good was it?  It was the "11 Chinook, 2 steelhead, and 1 halfpounder" type of good .  Seriously, it was nuts!  And I had the whole place to myself.  None of the fish were very big, but their numbers more than made up for it.




I also had one jack shake the hook and one strong fish bust my line.  Got a couple fish on the copper Mepps, but the rest fell to dime-sized pieces of roe drifted along the bottom.  Hell, I even caught a few just on egg skein with a Corkie.

The fish were all about the sweet stuff today.  I bailed by 11am because I had fish in the cooler and I honestly had PLENTY of fish to take home.  Definitely looking forward to another slam-down soon!

Slam Down Indeed...Excellent report with LOTS of pics...I loved your blow by blow...pretty water!!!  any of it yakable??? everytime I've driven that road was in a hurry don't know why...shame not to stop and fish sweet waters when u see them...

Great Present to YourSelf WTFGS...thanks for it...

      

Chris - You are the kind of fisherman, writer, and outdoorsman that many of us would like to be.  Your efforts on the water and your experience and abilities with tackle are always impressive, as is your knowledge of the species and their habitats and prey.  I see a contrast between you and I - mostly because I'm sneaking in banzai runs for a fish or two hear and there, while you're schooling creels full of hard to catch salmonids on all day runs - but I think we're similar too.  Appreciation for fishing as a discipline and a pastime as well as a passion for sharing it all with media that obviously required diligence and dedication to acquire - I see that we both really get off on that.  Thank you for sharing your stuff here.   

Slam Down Indeed...Excellent report with LOTS of pics...I loved your blow by blow...pretty water!!!  any of it yakable??? everytime I've driven that road was in a hurry don't know why...shame not to stop and fish sweet waters when u see them...

Great Present to YourSelf WTFGS...thanks for it...

Thanks!  Yeah, there's some very kayak-able sections on the Trinity.  Junction City, Del Loma, Hawkins Bar, Willow Creek, and others.  I avoid anything with rapids above class 2, and there's no way in hell I'd try going through the Gorge (class 5 and 6 rapids...ahh!).  Last year I kayaked the Del Loma and Hawkins Bar floats, caught fish in both of them and had a great time.

Thanks for the Intel just added a bookmark... I read "bailed chester early" my dad was born in westwood...I love that whole area... would be great to fish with ya sometime... I'm pretty much Salty but I've wanted to hit eagle lake up on a yak... fished it from float tubes, pram boats, banked it... and all the choices that are in that whole area...nice place to be bailing from...

Chris, thanks again for another fantastic report!! I always get excited whenever I see a report posted by you I love the various salmon and steelhead ya caught on this epic trip. Like you, I am not fond of crowds; but rather enjoy more of the serene solitude with mother nature and maybe couple friends Thanks for sharing this great outing with us all Chris 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, every time I see a Clayman post I get a smile on my face knowing that I'm in for a treat.  This has to be my favorite post of yours, and I'll echo the sentiments posted by AK.  The fact that I can be fishing that same stretch in just an hours drive has me re-thinking my weekend plans...awesome post amigo!
-beenfishin

Awesome report and pics. Chris, you make it look to easy, hell I bet you could catch fish in my toilet bowl and I'm not talking about brown trout 
Congrats on your road trip and thanks for sharing.

Sweet Report man.

Fished it today for no bites. Plus they closed the take of Adults only Jacks from now on.

Thanks for the great report full of details and fish porns Chris.

Dude that's a great wknd of fishin! Thanks for the report & info.

Great report. The river is close and I never attempt it... seems like you just got to jump in somewhere. WTG

Dude, you have no idea how jealous I am. I don't think I can ever have such a great fishing trip in my life time, and yet, this is just one of those weekend trips for you. I really enjoy reading your reports. One of these days I'll just have to make a trip up north, trace back your footsteps 

ernest

Chris, I gotta say your reports are rivaled by none!! Ever think of writing a book? You have a talent with writing and photos. Not to mention with a rod and reel.... My biggest problem is I always bring a camera and hardly ever bring it out..........  Mostly, "here's my fish"  Those are some nice looking brown trout there! You know you can keep 10 a day.  I just got back from the Big K and found sum chrome. It is a scene, but there are ways around it too. You just went into the gauntlet is all. My biggest problem is all those jet boats running up and down past me... Most are curtious, but there are a few that treat you like your not there. Or worse, don't seem to think your a serious fisherman in that toy boat.... Bait is a always a LAST RESORT for me. Like you, I prefer to dupe em with something artificial when I can. I love the trinity too. Recognize a couple of those runs you pictured. The last fish with the hook outside the mouth is a classic example of a perfectly flossed fish you know.  I think this steelhead season is going to be off the hook up there too. As always, enjoyed your report.