Klamath Springers, Summer Steelies and HUGE Fall Run Kings
Fishery managers expect one of the largest runs of salmon in over two decades to return to the Klamath river this fall. Preseason ocean abundance estimates WAG (wild ass guess) are that 1.6 million fall run (Klamath origin) adult salmon are milling off our coast.
Sport anglers have been given a quota of 67,000 (unreachable) adult fish while tribal gillnetters will have a quota of 160,000. Both of these quotas are roughly 10X that of the 2011 quotas. Sport regulations for fall run fish (after August 14th) are an extremely liberal 4 adults per day with a possession limit of 8 fish.
If fishery managers are right (and they frequently are NOT) we can expect is excellent fishing this fall. Our primary concern is that if the run comes in weaker than expected if could be easily over exploited. There are still no sonar counters on the Klamath and relying on preseason estimates to manage this fishery is of grave concern to this writer.  Gill nets are just too effective and with 100s of nets in the estuary escapement is minimal during the commercial fishing periods.
Why California fishery managers have not adopted SUCCESSFUL tools like sonar counters used in Alaska is unbelievable. Opening the fishery to 160,000 tribal and 67,600 sport quota is reckless.
In Alaska, they also do preseason estimates but nearly all rivers have sonar counters. They begin seasons with set escapement goals and then slowly allow for greater commercial harvest / and higher sport limits AFTER it becomes apparent that escapement goals will be met. It's this sliding scale of harvest that allows fishery biologists in Alaska to successfully manage return so that escapement goals are met.
In California we just set seasons in advance and let the cards fall where they may. Why not start the season with sport limits set at two, commercial harvest at 50,000 and allow higher limits or harvest AFTER escapement goals are met?? It's like sound investing. Limit your risk / reward and ensure a good return (escapement in the case of salmon) for those leaner years. Unfortunately in California we don't manage our fisheries with an outlook longer than the next harvest and forget all those wrong calls in the past.
We do expect above average fishing pressure as anglers converge on the Klamath in August and September but it's the Spring salmon run that will happen next. We will have regular reports here throughout the season beginning around mid May.
Our Sponsors Wally Johnson, Steve Huber and Kim Hagen all are taking reservations for the fall season. With the huge 4 fish limits spots will be booking up quickly so you will want to get your reservations in soon!
 Please remember to take what you can eat or share and you don't have to come off the river with limits every day. All user groups (sport and tribal commercial) need to keep a close eye on the actual return and adjust their harvest accordingly. We obviously can't depend on DFG to do any real time fishery management when quotas are set months before the first fish returns.


Spring Kings
The springers start to return in May and their numbers build with peak fishing on tap in June. This is an anchor fishery where boats anchor in the travel lanes on the edges or seams of the river and drop back spinners to intercept salmon. These are tough fighting an arguably the best tasting fish with most running in the 10 to 18 pound class.  The best fishing is usually in the early morning hours and will last through about noon. Springers tend to move through very quickly and a couple of hours of dead action can often be followed by 15 or 20 minutes of fast and furious action where boats in one stretch get several take downs apiece. A typical set up is pictured right.
 
Summer Steelies
Mid July is when the summer steelhead run gets under way. Summer steelies come in two runs. The larger fish start to show in mid July with most running 5 to 8 and often to 12 pounds. The half pounder run follows in mid August and peaks on the lower river in early September. It's the early steelie run that is often overlooked by anglers due to the lack of salmon in the lower river at that time.
The past few years have been very productive for July steelie anglers with catches running from 5 to over 20 fish per boat and bankies seeing lots of five plus fish days. On light tackle these five to ten pound fish are a challenge and readily gobble roe with a fish pill, glow-bugs, flies and both spinners and spoons. Most guides side drift with roe and some offer fly trips as well. Best areas are the riffles and holes from Klamath Glen to Blue Creek.
In mid August the half pounders ( 1 to 5LBs) arrive by the 1000s. The best action is in the early morning hours before the sun is on the water and the boat traffic picks up. From the bank glow bugs in pink (best), orange and red are top producers but some anglers do very well on flies, spoons and spinners. I'm more of a bait and glow bug swinger myself but some locals are very proficient hardware pounders. One of the best is Tommy  at Little Rays Tackle in Klamath Glen. You will often find Tommy on his favorite riffle Blake's early in the morning and if the shop is closed it's an excellent sign that the fishing is good. If you have any questions or need gear stop by the shop. Tom is always more than happy to give you tips and the how, whys and wheres of the lower river fishery.

Fall Kings
In late August, guides start to run their combo salmon and steelie trips. Nearly all boondoggle or side drift the deeper slots and faster riffles with roe and Fish Pills catching a combination of salmon and steelies.  Some also troll spinners down at the mouth early in the run in August but the best counts are found during September and early October.
In September guides switch their primary focus to salmon. The lower river fishery is a boondoggle affair with most dragging roe with the Fish pill in the deeper slots and holes. Over the past few years counts of 10 to 20 fish landed per boat were common and in the high returns years counts can go to as high as 40 to 60 fish hooked per boat in a single day.
Bank anglers in late August and September will find great action at the mouth tossing yarn and beads or bouncing roe or hardware upriver. The numbers of fish moving through the mouth on a given day can be in the 1000s in a single tide.
There are lots of good reasons to fish the Klamath this summer and fall and with the best fishing in decades predicted you should start planning your trips or trips now!

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Humboldt, Hoopa ask for more water to avoid possible fish kill
Donna Tam/The Times-Standard

Humboldt County officials and the Hoopa Valley Tribe are saying a fish kill on the Klamath is possible this year if the government doesn't release more water from the Trinity River.
The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the governor's office last week asking for action from the Bureau of Reclamation to establish the county's right to no less than 50,000 acre-feet of the Trinity's water.
In 2002, federal officials overrode the recommendations of their own scientists and decided to divert more water to farmers and residents of Southern California, which led to an unprecedented fish kill in the Klamath River.
Although tribal and county governments have been asking for the right for years, this year's abundance of returning chinook salmon and what the tribe says are historically low water levels may bolster the discussion.
”The combination of low water leaves and high fish populations could produce conditions similar to those that led to the devastating fish kill in the Lower Klamath River that occurred in October 2002. We urge you to take immediate action to prevent that kind of outcome in the fall of 2012,” the tribe's letter said.
Brian Person, the area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California Area Office, acknowledged that this year has been a subpar year for rainfall, but it's still too soon to tell if a fish kill will happen.
”The hydrology has been abysmal,
but we still have some precipitation months left,” he said Friday. “A large part of what drives this system and drives the run-off is snow melt.”
Humboldt County 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg said the county is working on its own letter urging action while continuing to monitor the weather. The board expects to review a draft in a couple of weeks, he said.
”There's a huge, huge rush of fish this year with not a lot of rain so far and not a lot of snow pack,” Sundberg said. “We want to make sure the Bureau of Reclamation will release water.”
According to the Hoopa Valley Tribe's letter, fisheries scientists developed criteria for the release of water from the Trinity, including a forecasted fish run in excess of the historic average run of 110,000 adult fall chinook salmon from 1981 to 2003.Full story here
 

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