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

The classic fishing yarn almost always starts with a line like this:  "Me and Bubba was a fishing up yonder on swillup crick....."  

This tale, however, is deserving of a little more,   hmmmm,   editorial class:  "It was a mystical morning, that first clearing day after the storms, as this Father/Son fishing duo strung their rods in anticipation of their continued search for the legendary Klamath River Steelhead."


The previous day had been stacked full of the powerful silver demon bullets, but the steady rain had pushed the intrepid duo to the limits of their physical prowess.  (How's it sounding so far?)


But as the sun breached the limits of the ridge tops, burning the chilling cloud banks from the dark abyss of the canyon recess, the mighty Dave and Monty father-son team began their orchestrated and finely honed precision casting barrage that would taunt the helpless steelhead for the balance of the day.  Take this you nasty steelhead!



and take this!



First one came to hand, then another came to net, and another, till double and triple digit numbers were racked up,



until finally the fatal karmic prideful comment was uttered by the younger of the Holst team.  As the previously solitary fishermen drifted into range of the only other boat on the river, young David commented:  "Look there!   Those boys are pulling plugs and tossin spinners!    Lets hook up to a big-un and holler up and down the canyon as we fish a big boy!!!"

Not much can destroy an otherwise perfect fishing day quicker the the soul searing flaws of vain and arrogant prideful fishing....It's that darned Y chromosome rearing it's macho head again and laying the groundwork for fishing wars and generalized,  river dischord.

No sooner had Dave, this otherwise fine and upstanding general practitioner and good father from Mt. Shasta, uttered these fatal words, than the two elderly plug pullers connected with some form of un-godly hybrid between Orca, flipper, and Jaws.  They beat us to the prescribed hoots, hollers, and echoing laughter of fishing Nirvana.  Our spirits were destroyed, and the 30-plus half pounders suddenly meant nothing in comparison to that beast caught in the trebles.

"OK, lets pull up and move on" was my comment, as I continued to role play the spiritual advisor and began my sermon on prideful fishing....but first, if you are humble and repentant, we can quarter cast off of the starboard mid-ship and we will fish this seam as we pass....
FISH ON!! AND FISH ON!!   IT'S A DOUBLE HOOK UP!!!

Farewell - humility,     so long - compassion,    Drop anchor and grab a net!!!

The day ended with over 40 half pounders, three adult fish hook-ups, perfectly clear skys, and only one other boat for competition.   The hot-shotters did have a nice come-back in the end though:   "Hey, we got a double too!   it's a fish and a beer!!!" as the bow man held up his can with a wide grin.

Heck,  I don't drink anyway!   That don't mean nothin....  Here's number 41.



And so ended the day.   Just another excellent adventure, with fish, bubba, beer, religion and testosterone.

Till later, Doug

A fair portion of the client base for our Klamath River fly fishing guide service is a more elderly sportsman who no longer wishes to risk wading in the river.  I enjoy the company of these gentleman sportsmen and I cherish the friendships they often develop into.  The poignant and sometimes emotional point to the relationship is when the long term client/friend realizes that they have now aged beyond the capacity to manage a boat assisted fishing trip.  I have had the pleasure and honor of witnessing these swan-song fish outings for several friends who know that the ends have come for their fishing careers. 

Hugh now lives on the East coast in assisted care, and was able to manage a final  flight out to the Klamath for his swan song trip to the Klamath River this last week.  The days were glorious, filled with good memories, laughter, plenty of  steelhead, and long farewell hugs.  Thank you Dick, from the Oakmont, for helping Hugh to manage the travel and for sharing his last adventure.  We'll see you on the river, Hugh:



Here is a shot of one of the fish from Hugh's trip:



And here is the CRAZY gull that attacked our fish all afternoon....what a wild day that was:



So, how is the fishing now?   Classic.   We have 49 degree water, flows in Orleans of about 2500 cfs.  Sprinkles or showers nearly daily, and fresh fish showing up.   I am seeing more salmon redds in November than I remember from previous years, so we are targeting a lot of the steelhead residing behind the redds.  Oh, and the fishing pressure is typically light.  I have not seen another boat on the river in days, and my son Peter saw just one other guide boat (pulling plugs) on the Ti Bar  run today.    If you want a private fishing day....great conditions...fresh fish.....and aggressive sea-gulls...give us a call!   See you on the Rio, Doug



 

The Klamath River has finally entered it's Winter pattern of repeated rains followed by short periods of clearing.  The flows have been up accordingly, and the river has been at times full of floating debris and suspended sediment.  However, the last week has not given us any blown out days, just more challenging days in wet weather with lunatic fringe fishing compatriots.  Here is the flow graph from USGS as reported at Orleans.
 

If I am fishing in water with large amounts of floating detritus, or in water that is off color, I fish with fly patterns that are easily distinguishable from the suspended trash.   Why should I tie on a brown/green small fly when there are billions of other small brown/green pieces of trash zipping by a steelhead and competing for it's attention?   Why not go with RED as the predominant fly color in this scenario?   Here is my proof:


A babine special, glow bug, polar shrimp or some form of contrasting and attention grabbing fly is my go-to pattern in these conditions.  

Pete and I have fished most of the week with guests from all over the globe.  We have had a couple from Germany, a steelheader from Colorado, an ex-fishing guide from Washington state, a hotelier from Eureka, a west coast beer distributer, and my long term returning father/son friends Bruce Sr. and Bruce Jr. (Bruce to the second power in mathematical terms)  from the Sacramento and San Francisco area.   The daily creel count has been consistent at about 8-9 half pounders and one adult in the mix.    The adults however, are seldom pushing past that 4-5 pound class and it makes me wonder where the big bruisers are this year.   There is a lot of press lately about sand berms at the mouth of the Klamath, Low Klamath River flows, and recently about possible abuses of gill nets by the Hoopa and the Yurok indians.  I don't have any desire to point fingers in this forum, so I am going to contrast this discussion with a cyber HIGH FIVE and thank you to my neighbors the Karuk tribe for limiting their ceremonial and subsistence fishing to the practice of dip netting at Ishi Pishi Falls.  This tactic is selective to the species desired, is more authentic in tradition than monofilament gill nets strung out with jet boats, and is nearly impossible to over-fish with.   You cannot leave a dip net out over night and drown a hundred salmon and steelhead by the time you decide to come back in a day or so.

Here is how the Karuk do it, and in my opinion do it right.  This is Ron Reed, a neighbor of mine, who's son I taught math to at Happy Camp High.



My ancestral stock is viking stock from Denmark.  This was a rather tough, brutal bunch of boaters that most of Europe built hundred foot castle walls to defend against, and frankly I am glad for the loss of this part of my personal cultural tradition.  I carry on my viking fishing and boating tradition by catch and release fishing with a barbless hook fly while carrying a tasty deli sandwich in the cooler!  No need to maraud, pillage, and plunder these days, thank goodness.   As for the Karuk tradition of Dip Netting, my thought is "go get-em" and please try to stay on the top of that slippery rock and out of the falls.

Here is a parting shot from this weeks released harvest of chrome:


Later, Doug

Now that I have your attention, I would like to spill the beans about the last several years I have spent fishing the Klamath River with Paris Hilton (the fly).   Nope, no videos are to follow, but it does smell a lot like fish here....lets start at the beginning:

One of my good friends and clients is Mike McGuire from the Peninsula Fly Fishers.   Each year prior to his arrival, he sends an e-mail and asks if he can tie me some flies, and if so, what would I like.  Being the rather demented and twisted sort that I am, I have a tough time with simple honest and straightforward answers.  Three or four years ago I responded to him with a request that I really didn't expect Mike to follow through with. 

"Mike, I want you to tie me a dozen herniators with an added set of wings from a Silver Hilton, and tie me a dozen in the bead head version.....please.....and can you do them in both green and copper?"

Since Mike is the accommodating type, he gladly tied them and carried them up for that season's steelhead club outing here at the Marble Mountain Ranch.  Of course, I put them to work on the first day I fished with Mike.   Obviously, since I am writing the story, the flies must have had some value.  In fact, they were so effective, that I continued fishing the flies for the next year as my current secret "boat fly."  I then began the search for a name for this new creation.  

The first thing that came to mind was simply "Herniated Hilton."  With each new visiting client, I continued to tie on my new secret boat fly and explain that it is flashy, skinny, sexy, often floats by on it's back, and is lightly dressed.  (please forgive me here)...so, finally one guest responded..."Oh, you mean you fished with Paris Hilton?".....and that was the end of the name search.

Now, all you minions of loyal readers of this blog.   Here is your payback.   Allow me to introduce, Paris Hilton - the fly



and yes, the copper version was named the BFF (best friends forever).   I claim ignorance of what the BFF actually stands for, since I threw out the family TV 15 years ago when we moved to Marble Mountain Ranch....you see, a friend of mine told me what a BFF is and how the Nicole girl was ....never mind.

So, now the secret is out.   I have been fishing with Paris Hilton for 4 years, and I smell like fish.  Her partner, a BFF has also been fishing with me, and she too smells like fish.  I ask for forgiveness from my supporting wife and family and promise to not let this unfortunate event deter me from my continued service in the public sector.  (excuse me while I wipe a tear from the corner of my right eye with the conveniently placed handkerchief in my breast pocket)

The following image of a bead head Paris Hilton stuck in the teeth of this poor, innocent, and hapless salmon is recommended for viewing by mature audiences only:



Well, I hope this blog entry doesn't get me sued.   Have a good night and get to work tying those new flies, courtesy of Doug and Mike.

When we target steelhead on the fly, we sometimes also get salmon to bite the fly.   The does not often happen, but it does occasionally.   When it does, and when the fish is fresh, you can imagine the river battle that erupts.   Imagine,  a strong 25-30 pound salmon on a 6 wt fly rod.   Mike Pinelli (from the Peninsula Fly Fishers) was fishing with his son Andy in my boat when we targeted steelhead at a tail-out and amazingly connected with this King Salmon.  The fight lasted 27 minutes, the salmon pulled my boat through a downstream rapid, and Mike took the biggest fish of his life.  We had just moments earlier upgraded his leader, and put a fresh knot at his fly to enable getting this fish in the net.  There is seldom a dull day in this business.


Here is another shot:

We have also continued to find steelhead in what is turning out to be a remarkable October.  This Fall has been stellar for weather, good company and shared adventures, and great fishing conditions on the Klamath.  Here  is one of this week's steelhead. 

Peter, my son is also a great addition to our guiding staff this year.   Can it get any better than fishing for steelhead with family and friends?   Sometimes life just seems too good to be true.   OK< wipe that tear from your eyes!   I'll post a picture of Peter for you all to see sometime next week.   Doug

I often have guests that are world traveling fishermen.   While I get a lot of fishing days under my belt, they are all concentrated on the streams that are within reach of our lodge/ranch.   I fish the Klamath, Trinity, Cal Salmon and that is about as far as I get to go due to my life constraints and guiding logistics.   As well traveled fishing guests spend the day with me, the conversation sometimes goes to the topic of that incredibly great guide on the SUCH and SUCH river, or that horrendous guide on the So and So river.   The obvious questions I have are:   "Why was one a great guide and the other a poor guide?" 

It seems that once you get past competence to put a client on to the fish, the most common responses relate to poor public relations and non-professional aspects of the service.  Other issues some mentioned included poor lunches and dodging the game wardens after confessing that the guide was not licensed.  The poor guides often have a sense of arrogance and intolerance of the guest's fishing weaknesses, they may provide only limited service in the day, or cut the day short, and might actually fish in competition to the guests who have paid to be there.   These things are all amazing thoughts to me and somewhat hard to understand.   It seems only fair to assume that if a client has paid to have me guide them, that they demand every conceivable talent and asset I might posess to assist in the success of the day, and that we darn well better have an enjoyable day.....regardless of the weather or if we have fish in the stream. 

I've been in one form of the guiding business or another since I was 14 years old (1968) and it is my career choice as well as my passion.  I love my job and I have a clear vision of what I think my guiding priorities ought to be.   So for the record, here we go:

Prime directive:   SAFETY - I require all of our fishing guests to wear a life vest in the boat, and it is a comfortable fishing vest that is easy to fish while wearing.  All of my guides have CPR, First Aid, and are fully licensed and bonded.

Second directive:  Put the guests on fish without being overbearing, arrogant, or demanding.   In other words - Just relax and have fun.    Have LOTS of fun mixing up the day with varied fishing tactics and good conversation.

Third directive:  Professional courtesy to all neighboring fishermen, local residents, and any people encountered in the trip.   I give a hearty smile and thumbs-up to that wade fisherman who happened to be in my favorite fishing hole with a fish on the line.   No fishing spot or different fishing tactic or divergent politic is worth losing the good karma of a perfect fishing day.   It's fishing and it's supposed to be enjoyed rather than argued about.
OK<   so how has the fishing been?   GREAT!   During the last two days we picked up around half pounders/boat and connected with 1 - 2 adult fish in the 5 pound range.   Wind has been somewhat nasty, but we have managed.

Here are some pictures of the days:





Later, Doug

I have just finished guiding a week with some very proficient fly casters.  The spey rod was their tool of choice, and frankly I was a bit concerned about how the days would go as I choreographed casts to target waters that required being in my drift boat.  It took short minutes to figure out how to efficiently spey cast from the decks of my drift boat.  I don't think I have ever covered so much water in as thorough a fashion as by combining strategic boat placement with precise spey casting.  I thoroughly enjoyed the days being on the water with two steelheaders that are on top of the game.  Did I say that the casting was devine?   Check this out.  I have actual photographic evidence of the source of the cast.


On a side note, the competition for the best fly box collection was ramped up to a new level this week.  We couldn't even fit all of Dwayne's boxes on the log to stage this photo.


The fishing over the last few days has been tough.  Weather conditions were ideal, but the bite was a bit off.  To make it even tougher, our largest fish always seemed to be one shake of the head, one jump to the sky and one charge to the boat ahead of us.  The biggest fish we had on the hook, were never put in the net.   Oh well,  the day's were filled with classic steelhead adrenaline adventure and Fall magic. 

The Klamath is stable at 2100cfs in Orleans, river temps are 56 degrees, skys are filled with partial clouds, and the leaves are brilliant yellow, orange, and reds.   Our typical days over the week have produced 6-15 half pounders and 0 - 3 adults.  Till later, Doug 

The last week has been note worthy on several regards.  The first things coming to mind are the perfect steelheading conditions, the numbers of very hot fish that we could not hang on to, and on the variety of fly rods that my guests have brought to the game.

P.J. is a new client from the Bay Area electronics industry and is passionate about connecting to the traditional roots of steelheading.   His rod of choice was a 7 foot 3 inch bamboo restoration.
 

Joe fished with a 10 wt. graphite cannon, P.J.'s friend brought a 2 Wt. (which I denied!), and Dwayne and Ron brought an armory of spey guns and switch rods in the 5 to 7 weight range.  While the rode divergence is extreme, each fisherman was passionate about his favorite rod and  was successful in taking steelhead!   Here is one of Dwayne's fish from today:

I think the foundation to this successful rod diversity lies in the heterogeneous nature of the middle Klamath.  We are not fishing the same kind of water from dusk till dawn.  That 10 wt. of Joe's did just fine in the deeper pools and runs, the bamboo rod worked best while casting from the boat, the spey rods of course did well on the waded riffles and the switch rod worked well from the boat and the waded runs.  The side-line to this story is that it illustrates the typical fishing day for us.  We do not need to spend 8-9 hours on the fishing dark-side, eyes glued to an indicator, and fending off fishing induced mental decay. Yes, I too use an indicator under dire circumstances of extreme cold winter conditions and tight fishing quarters, but the capacity to cast with impunity, in a constantly changing mix of riffles, plunge pools, tail-outs, boulder gardens, pocket water, and cut-banks makes our day varied, interesting, and simply great fun.

So, how has the fishing been?   In a word: PERFECT.  The fish have been hot, hot, hot.   Check out this half pounder reaching to 5 feet out of the water before re-entering the atmosphere.

The frequent lost adult fish from the last week speak to the high-octane level of the current Klamath fishery.  River temps are consistent at 58 degrees, the flows are stable near 2200 cfs, the clarity is good, the weather is ideal with broken skies and periodic light showers.  And the guide is knowledgeable, sincere, effervescent, remarkable good looking, and quite humb......ble.   That was HUMbbbble.  On this note I'll say good day.  The river is calling and the breakfast bacon must first get fried!~   Doug

Most fishing guides have some sort of web presence and many post a fishing report or blog.  The savvy fishing client has the ability to cruise through these blogs and glean information about fishing conditions on their rivers of choice.   However, a river guide with a need to fill empty guide days, can feel pressure to bias the reports to encourage prospective bookings.  I feel that a good report should be brutally honest and post both quantifiable and objective information as well as subjective and anecdotal observations.

One of my favorite places to start in evaluating the Klamath River is the river flow, measured in cubic feet per second (cfs) at Orleans.  I choose Orleans only because it is the closest guage stations to our home base in Somes Bar.  I prefer to fish in water that is under 5000cfs and ideally between 2000 and 3000 cfs for the swung fly presentation. 

We have recently had our first significant storm come through the North State and it  has pushed much of the Summer algae and early Fall leaf litter downstream.  The water temperatures are perfect for steelheading (mid 50s), and the river is in a clearing, dropping flow, and generally improving condition.  Here is how the graph looks as taken from USGS:

In an ideal world, I would have a graph that had a blue line for cfs, a red line for river temperature, a green line for clarity, and a black line for steelhead density.  Yeah right!   The reality is that I get a USGS map showing stream flow rate, I take my thermometer down to the river and get a reading, I take a step into the river and check if I can see my feet, and then count fish taken during a guide day.   Oh yea, I also get a pretty good idea of the river clarity by watching our canal diversion from Stanshaw creek.   This diversion brings us water for our hydroelectric plant, and it gives me a good idea of main stream Klamath river quality.  If my penstock diversion line is muddy, and full of leaves, I can count on the river being off color and full of debris.

Well, the bottom line to all of this is that for the next 10 days we appear to have an improving river, that is cleaner and cooler than the previous weeks.  My anecdotal fishing creel count indicates more bright, aggressive steelhead are waiting to wrestle with my fishing guests.  So,  lets go get em!

Doug