Trinity, Klamath Rivers, 9/21-26: They Ain't Comin' Easy!

As September rolled around, my mind began to wander towards anadromy.  Ya know, of the steelhead and salmon variety.  Last year, the Klamath and Trinity rivers were very, very kind to me in September.  Therefore, I was hoping to cash in on some similar action this year.  I took a few days off work as a sort of birthday gift to myself, and dedicated Friday (9/21) through Wednesday (9/26) entirely to fishing these two rivers.  On my drive to the coast along Highway 299, I made a few stops along the Trinity River to throw spinners.  It was mid-day, but there’s no way I can just drive on past this river without making a few casts.  I started just upstream of Del Loma.

In the bright sun, I was looking for pockets of shaded water among some flats.  It doesn’t look very steelhead-y, but trust me…this stuff holds steel.  The water’s running around 60 degrees, so it’s plenty warm enough for wet-wading in shorts and felt-soled boots.  Sure enough, I soon hooked up on a size 3 copper Mepps Aglia!  After a great fight where the fish ran underneath a tree and I had to scramble and break off a bunch of branches to get my line free, I landed a bright wild steelhead.  My first steel of the 2012-13 season, woohoo!


Hit up another spot a little ways downstream of Del Loma, a riffle that dumps into a very deep salmon hole.

First cast into the riffle, and fish on!  But this guy ain’t streaking all over the place like a steelhead.  Instead, he bulldogged on the opposite side of the river for several minutes.  Ah yeah, typical salmon fight.  With my lighter gear, there wasn’t much I could do except hold on and give him steady pressure.  They always tire eventually.  And that’s what he did, after about 15 minutes.  A nice 9-10 pound Chinook to the net, and in pretty nice condition to boot.  I’ll take a bycatch like that anyday!



That dang salmon had me running late, so I had to bail immediately after landing him even though there were a ton of salmon rolling in that pool.  Got to Eureka, met up with the crew, and off we went to the Klamath.

Lower Klamath River

My buddy has this deal with his landlord where he’ll make him a ton of Slinky weights in exchange for taking him and a few friends (including Yours Truly) on his jetboat for a weekend.  The guy used to be a guide, but now he just likes to fish the Klamath every year and take people out who want to fish.  So basically, it’s like a guided trip.  We launched at Terwer early Saturday morning.  Oodles upon oodles of boats were at the launch, as expected for this time of year.  Looks like a city doesn’t it?

We fished hard Saturday and Sunday.  It was tough!  Much tougher than anyone was expecting, particularly given the massive escapement estimate for this year.  On the first day, we only landed one adult coho.  Second day, we landed one adult and two jack Chinook.  For six people on a boat, that’s freakin’ terrible.  Other folks weren’t faring well either: most scores on the jet boats were 0 to 6 fish.  The guys scoring 4-6 fish were going waaaay upriver, upstream of Johnsons Riffle.  That’s a lot of gas for single-digit scores.  We picked up most of our fish around Starwein.




I got lucky on Sunday by landing a 11-12 pound adult ‘nookie.  Best fish of the trip, but man, she didn’t come easy!

Despite the slow bite, we still had a good time on the Klamath.  The thing that I find very funny though, is how many of the guide reports are so dang overblown.  Get this: this one particular guide (I won’t name names, but his boat looks like it should belong in NASCAR) pulled up to the launch next to us Saturday afternoon with about 6 clients.  We asked him how they did. “Oh we got about 10-12,” he replied.  An impressive score!  The guy walks up the ramp to get his truck while his clients remained in the boat, and then the DFG fish counter came down and asked the clients how they did. “Just this one hatchery steelhead,” one of them replied as they pulled a 6-7 pounder out of the fish box.  That was the only fish they’d caught.  So the guide lied to us RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS CLIENTS.  Then you go on websites like USAFishing, and read reports about guys sticking 8-12 fish a day.  It’s a bunch of bullsh**.  The best score we heard of was six fish, and we were camped in the RV campground where most of the guides camp.  I understand these guys want to make money and attract clients to come fish with them, but to outright LIE about how many fish you caught is ridiculous.  My advice: stay away from the lower Klamath for a while.  The fishing is too slow to make the trip worthwhile, trust me!  Things may perk up in another week, but be very leery of those online guide reports that are claiming double-digit days.

Trinity River

The Klamath Zoo ain’t my scene.  Too many people.  It almost makes you despise salmon.  The Trinity, however, is my babe.  I love that river.  Tons of elbow room and (usually) lots of fish.  After crashing in Eureka Sunday night, I bombed out Monday morning towards the Del Loma section of river.  I fished the Trinity kinda hard on Monday, real hard Tuesday, and most of Wednesday morning.



There were oodles of salmon in the river.  You could get up on some rocks overlooking the river and see a half-dozen here, a dozen there.  All over the place.  But getting them to bite was a whole other story.  These were some of the most lock-jawed salmon I’ve ever seen!  I threw roe, spinners, and spoons at them only to land one kinda-bright jack and a bronzey adult.

I also landed this crayfish on a spinner.  It was a legitimate cast-and-retrieve…guess I had that spinner right near the bottom eh?  Haha!

As for steelhead…there were a few scattered around, but I couldn’t find any concentrations of them.  I fished hard from the North Fork confluence all the way to Cedar Flat for two steelhead hookups: one threw the lure, the other busted me off when I got lax and didn’t loosen my drag in time.  All the fish I hooked came on spinners; I got a whole lotta nothin’ but smolts on roe.  I’ve never worked so hard for my fish on this river!  Despite the slow fishing, it was great to be able to turn off my cell phone for a few days and just immerse myself in steelhead-hunting mode.  My summer had been extremely busy dealing with all the forest fires burning on the Lassen National Forest, so this was an excellent getaway for me.  I’ll probably wait a few more weeks before I venture back, in the hopes that more steelhead will arrive.  In the meantime, I’ve made a decent start on my supply of salmon.

Tight lines all!

Drooling!
Easy come, easy go.

Bad ass Clayman! I hope to hook up with you at Almanor sometime! Thanks for the report.

Right on Clayman! Thanks for the heads up and great report. Congrats on your hook-ups.
I know what you you mean about the Lower Klamath. You definitly need to sike yourself up for that crowd and all that shit that comes with salmon fever.
I'll be up along 299 in 2weeks for 4days chasing steel myself. Your post is driving me crazy just thinking about it.. 

Hell Yes the REAL DEAL from you brother!!!  Always love your read!!!   Way to bring it to us with no Holds barred!!!  Great Report/pics!!!

PS Happy B Day...

Love your reports! 

Way to work it for a few fish, Chris. The politics up there is a trip. Good for you for getting some good therapy time on more peaceful water. 

Love the photos. Makes me want to grab my gear and head west.

Great report Chris. I'm jealous of your photography skilz! I haven't hit the T in several years, but I think I'm going to be hitting it soon. I hear you on the lack of hookups on the river. Most guys I talked to had few if any fish, even tho there are fish showing. Most of the ones I saw landed were near or around jack sized too. Not near as many large fish rolling either... Maybe most of the bigger fish are being strained out via nets... Maybe we can hit the T together this season.

You don't put up reports that often but when you do they are some of the best on the site,  Thanks for sharing your beautiful trip and congrats on what you did harvest and Good Luck on your next trip.

Awesome stuff as always Chris, love your reports.  We fished the same weekend, eliminating the skunk with one nice nookie and a few disconnects.  Tough by all accounts, also tried all the usual suspects (roe, spinners, roe/tuna balls, etc.)   Maybe the quick drop in flows put the fish off the chew for a week or so.  With the smolt release it'll be a week or two until I head back over, until then, tight lines!
beenfishin

Nice job! Some good looking fish. Got the freezer packed!