I was mesmerized by the mist-shrouded mountains, the pulsing sound of rushing water entering from tributaries, and the primeval beauty of the temperate rainforest when my lazily swinging fly was suddenly grabbed hard 30 yards away and at the bottom of the run by a large steelhead. The flash of its side when it struck appeared pale yellow through the greenish hue of the river, but as it shook its head underwater, I saw the telltale iridescent scarlet of its gills. After a hard pull and shake, the steelhead bolted into the chill morning air and performed an aerial tail dance before shaking its head and casting my fly to fall impotently to the water.
Such an adrenaline-charged moment was the exquisite reward for driving four hundred miles from the Bay Area and logging eight hours behind the wheel to arrive at this remote and pristine home of sea-run steelhead on the middle reach of the Klamath River near Somes Bar. This far northwestern area of the state provides a wilderness setting and usually uncrowded fishing for hard-fighting fall steelhead half-pounders and a smattering of adults that run into the low to mid-20inch range and sometimes larger.
Half-Pounder Characteristics
Steelhead half-pounders exist only in a limited number of rivers in Northern California and Southern Oregon and typically range in length from 12 to 16 inches. These fish leave the river in early winter or spring to feast on the more abundant food sources in the ocean, but they remain closer to shore than adult steelhead and reenter the river again in August or September for another stay of four to six months. The half-pounders are sexually immature and do not spawn, which means that they are more likely to feed than adults and thus more susceptible to a well-presented fly.
September and October are the prime months to pursue half-pounders, although the season can extend to Thanksgiving or whenever winter storms start to make fishing less predictable and more challenging. The middle section of the river, roughly from the town of Weitchpec to Happy Camp, is a productive stretch to target.
Fishing Techniques and Options
I spent three days on the middle Klamath River near Somes Bar in mid-October last year. Although it was already autumn, the weather was unseasonably warm the first two days of my stay, and the higher temperatures made the fish lethargic and less inclined to bite. There were also fewer fish in the river, which was apparently due to lower flows and the temporary presence of a large sandbar near the river’s mouth, blocking access from the ocean.
The first day, I floated the river with Doug Cole, the owner of the Marble Mountain Guest Ranch. Doug eased the drift boat into the water at dawn, when there was just enough light to begin making my first casts. As Doug expected, the warm weather made the fishing tough, and we picked up only one nice adult steelhead and a few smaller fish before the midday temperatures in the low 80s completely shut down the action.
The next day, my fishing partner and I spent the day on our own, wading some of the runs close to the ranch: Ice Cream Riffle, Green Riffle, and Rock Creek, all of which have clearly marked USFS or Siskiyou County signposts along Highway 96. Although the tailouts and long pools at Ice Cream Riffle looked very promising, we didn’t connect with any fish. We drove a couple miles downriver to Green Riffle around midday and knew that our window for catching fish was only about two hours before the heat would end angling for the day.
I waded out to thigh-deep water and went through the standard ritual: quarter cast downstream, make one or two upstream mends, let the fly swing, twitch and retrieve the fly, take a few steps downstream — rinse and repeat. Even when there wasn’t any fishing action, the repetitive motion had an almost Zen-like calming effect on my mind, albeit with the occasional sense of frustration at not catching fish disturbing this state of bliss. After an hour, I had only a slightly sore shoulder to show for my efforts. I decided to wade another five feet into deeper water, where the river reached up to my waist, in an effort to tempt any fish farther out in the river. On the very first cast, a fish rewarded my experimentation by slamming my size 10 Steelie Bug nymph, and the fight was on. After a spirited battle, I had landed and released my first decent half-pounder, about 14 inches.
What I had accomplished merely validated the most obvious objective of steelhead fishing: first and foremost, find the fish. I continued to cast in this long run, stepping down a few feet after each cast to cover new water. After an hour, I had caught and released three feisty halfpounders, with the largest measuring about 17 inches. The larger fish had my 7-weight rod doubled over and made several hard runs and leaps before succumbing.
The Perfect Day
Saturday morning dawned with cooler weather and a light rain, just as predicted, which boded well for our day of drifting a different run of the river. The hope was that the chilly weather and moisture would shake the steelhead out of their doldrums and provide us with more action. Sure enough, about an hour into our drift, we started finding willing fish. My weight-forward floating line with an integrated 15-foot Type 6 sink tip seemed the perfect match for the river’s depth and speed.
It was in one wide run with walking-pace flows and relatively flat water that we found our largest pod of fish. I pulled four fish out of this one ordinary-looking section and fought a long battle with a very large adult steelhead that ended in the fish’s favor when it managed to use a rock as a lever to dislodge the fly. I suggested tongue-in-cheek to Adam Cole, our guide for the day and Doug’s son, that we stay in this run for the rest of the day and then jam down the river to the take-out at day’s end. But this run eventually cooled off, and we moved on to the next promising stretch.
Our next stop was a spot where a braided section of the river emptied in a long series of small cascades into the main channel, which created several deeper pools and well-oxygenated water that looked like ideal holding water. Adam said this hole had not been fishing well thus far this season, but because of the lower flows, it now looked worth a try. We anchored the boat at the head of the pool, and I proceeded to prove his theory correct by catching two beautiful half-pounders, the last one nailing my fly as I stripped it through the deeper water.
Fishing from a Drift Boat
Klamath River fly-fishing guides need to be adept at using drift boats to swing flies and cover nearly every square inch of promising water. Experienced guides know which water to bypass and which holes to probe more exhaustively. One of the techniques consists of quarter casting downstream and mending while the guide rows side to side across the river to generate optimal swings and line speed. The guide will also row backward at times (back-trolling) to entice hits or cover promising water a second or third time.
Purists might scoff that this form of fly fishing is inferior to single-handed or Spey casting while wading, but the results from a drift boat speak for themselves. I landed 10 steelhead that day, 7 half-pounders and 3 adults. I also lost two larger adults after fierce battles and had many other grabs and hooked fish. Another boat that day landed 10 adults (the lack of half-pounders being a very rare, but welcome occurrence). Two Spey fishermen in our group had a fish or two each to show for their day’s efforts, and I imagine the results for someone casting a single-handed rod while wading would have been in that same range. Personally, I’ll take the heart-pounding rush of hooking into turbocharged steelhead no matter how my fly reaches them. I can always assuage any guilt about this lesser form of fly fishing by wading or Spey casting the next day and leaving more fish unscathed. My recommendation to anyone fishing this area for the first time is to hire a guide to accelerate your ascent up the learning curve and increase your odds of catching fish on your own if you head off to wade the river on subsequent days.
Swinging Flies versus Indicator Nymphing
Another interesting point of comparison is the relative effectiveness of indicator nymph fishing versus swinging flies. According to Ryan Allred, the owner of Jefferson Flywater, “indicator nymph fishing with a big bug, small bug combination is extremely effective at times.” A typical nymphing rig for Ryan is a weighted stonefly as the top fly for fast sinking, followed by a smaller Prince or Pheasant Tail Nymph or Copper John as the bottom fly. “We have a lot of success using size 12 and 14 nymphs,” said Ryan. In Doug Cole’s opinion, “some runs are better fished with indicators, and others have more swing-friendly water. The tactic needs to be matched to the water fished.”
The key advantage when either swinging flies or indicator nymphing from a drift boat is that you keep moving until you encounter fish. With wading, you have to wait for the fish to move into the hole you are fishing or move on to a new spot and hope that you guessed right. No matter how expert the caster, there will be times when the wading angler might feel like a character in Waiting for Godot, while those in a boat are more likely to discover the mother lode.
Middle Klamath Tackle
Whatever your technique and location on the river, the formula for success begins with locating the temporary holding water of the migrating fish. The second most important factor is sinking your fly to the correct depth, which generally means putting your fly at or near the bottom. Next in importance is fly selection, and from my own experience and the opinions of more experienced steelhead anglers, the fly pattern is generally a less critical success factor. A case in point: I caught and released approximately 12 half-pounders and 3 adults and had many more strikes and some lost fish on one fly, the previously mentioned Steelhead Bug, which has a brown-and-olive body, bead head, and brown rubber legs. I had no reason to switch flies.
For attaching swinging flies, make sure that you tie them on with a Nonslip Mono Loop Knot. This knot has the dual advantages of being very strong and also allowing the fly to move more naturally on the swing. The leader should be relatively short (about 7 feet long) and stout (2X, or 10-pound test). The fish are not leader shy, and more importantly, a longer leader runs the risk of allowing the fly to rise after you have gone to all the trouble getting the fly on the bottom.
Of course, other factors and variables can affect the fishing outlook. For example, fishing will slow down and the steelhead will become more vulnerable to catch-and-release mortality when water temperatures creep above 65 degrees as a result of warmer weather and lower flows. As I experienced, a sudden change to cooler and more typical fall weather can dramatically improve the fishing. Doug Cole notes that “some of the best fishing occurs on drizzly days with cool air, stable flows, and moderate water temperatures.” Another factor is how many chinook salmon are spawning in the river, because the steelhead will stack up behind the redds and feed voraciously on drifting eggs. Ryan Allred told me “there is an egg bite in October that usually lasts a week or two, and thus you want to make sure that you have an egg pattern in your arsenal.”
In terms of equipment, there are some general guidelines to keep in mind. Although some people might be tempted to use a lighter-weight rod to make catching 12-to-16-inch steelhead half-pounders more sporting, I was pleasantly surprised by how much a fish in the upper end of the half-pounder range challenged my 7-weight rod. And when you get an adult in the 20-plus-inch range, especially one that gets out into the current, you’ll definitely be glad that you are using a 7-weight. I’m convinced that I would have been able to land some of the larger fish I lost after prolonged battles if I had been using an 8-weight rod.
Even with the river running low (around 2,000 cubic feet per second) during my stay, we floated through some Class III rapids and needed heavy sinking tips to get down to the fish. Empirical evidence showed that a heavy Type 6 sink tip outfished a Type 3 intermediate sink tip. Although I did experience occasional snags on the bottom with the heavier sink tip, the upside of catching many more fish makes the choice a no-brainer.
In the fly department, popular patterns for swinging flies include Assassins, Burlaps, Herniators, Muddler Minnows, Silver Hiltons, Woolly Buggers, Brindle Bugs, Skunks, Mossbacks, Purple Perils, and Freight Trains, all in size 8 to 10. For nymphs, good patterns include Pheasant Tails (size 12 to 16), Princes (size 12 to 14), Copper Johns (size 12 to 16), Bird’s Nests (size 12), and weighted stoneflies (size 4 to 6).
Access for Wading Anglers
For the wading angler, there are numerous highway access points leading to a dirt road or a trail to productive sections of the river. Some of the roads require four-wheel drive, while other runs are accessed from a pull-out and a hike down a well-maintained trail. Most of the runs that you reach from the road have a long stretch of water that can be easily fished by two to six anglers and will take several hours to fish thoroughly. As an example, the Ice Cream Riffle mentioned earlier is located at Siskiyou County Highway roadside marker 5.7, which is immediately downstream from Halverson Bridge and has a pull-out with space for several cars. The hike down to the river takes about ten minutes and offers three distinct runs that can accommodate six or more anglers. (One word of caution: car break-ins do occur in this area. Remove any valuables from your car or put them out of sight before heading down to the river.)
There’s a good chance you’ll encounter few other anglers and experience the delights of solitude while pursuing fish. On the Saturday float, we saw no other anglers until we met two Spey casters at the very end of the day. We saw bear scat in many places and shared the river with blue herons and many other varieties of bird life. When the bite is not on, you have incredibly interesting flora, fauna, and geology to rivet your attention and soothe your soul. Ryan Allred extols the solitude that the middle Klamath offers anglers. “I’ve gone a week guiding on a section of river and not seen another soul while experiencing great fishing.”
Lodging, Camping, and Exploring
Lodging in the area includes the Marble Mountain Guest Ranch, Jefferson Flywater’s tent camp, Klamath River Lodge, and Klamath River Resort Inn. All have Web sites. For fly fishers willing to rough it, Ryan Allred has this advice:
“There are a lot of Forest Service campgrounds in the area. It’s a great river for getting off the beaten track and developing an intimate knowledge of the river. A person can come up every year, camp out, and explore a different 10-mile section of the river.” On the last run on Saturday before reaching the boat take-out, we stopped at a deep run just below the H. Lyle Davis Bridge and swung our flies through the transition water, where the main flow merged with deeper holding water. I felt a sudden and violent grab and immediately was fighting what I knew was a large steelhead, perhaps the biggest one of the day. This fish stayed deep for a long time and didn’t show itself, and when I finally muscled it closer to the boat, the fish made powerful runs and stripped out more line. After what must have been a 10-minute battle, the big bruiser shot into the air, shook its head vigorously, and tossed the fly. I’ll remember that fish more than almost any of the others I caught, and the opportunity to hook and land a similar fish will bring me back again.
