Fishing the North Coast

Kings Starting to Show on the Klamath

By Kenny Priest

fi shing@northcoastjournal.com

The fall-run of adult king salmon are now making their way through the lower Klamath in pretty decent numbers. Despite the water still being o -color, catch rates improved dramatically upriver of the U.S. Highway 101 bridge last week and over the weekend. Boats fi shing from the Glen to Blue Creek are catching a mixed bag of adult kings, jacks and steelhead. With the water color being what it is, the boats drifting roe or soft beads are having a little tougher time while the bank anglers at the Glen tossing beads with long leaders are catching the majority of the quota to date. If the river clears, look for that trend to reverse. All the fi sh being caught are dime-bright and fresh out of the ocean.

According to Dan Troxel, an environmental scientist on the Klamath River Project, 226 adult salmon have been harvested from the State Route 96 bridge at Weitchpec to the Klamath mouth toward the quota of 1,060 for the week ending Aug. 26. Of those, 49 adults were caught at the spit area of the mouth. As of last Friday, 269 adults remained of the 318-adult sub-quota for the mouth.

Trinity River quotas begin on Sept. 1

Fall regulations for Chinook salmon fi shing on the Trinity River will go into e ect on Sept. 1 and run through Dec. 31, with a sport quota of 699 adults. The quota will be split almost evenly: 350 adults for the main stem Trinity downstream of the Old Lewiston Bridge to the State Route 299 West bridge at Cedar Flat, and 349 adults for the main stem Trinity downstream of the Denny Road bridge at Hawkins Bar to the confl uence with the Klamath. The main stem downstream of the State Route 299 Bridge at Cedar Flat to the Denny Road Bridge in Hawkins Bar is closed to all fi shing Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.

Anglers may keep track of the Klamath and Trinity river quotas by calling 800564-6479. For Klamath and Trinity fi shing Caption.

Credit

Mark Aviles, of Arcata, landed a nice king salmon on a recent trip to the

Klamath River. Photo courtesy of Micah Woolworth/Lost Coast Sport Fishing

regulations, visit nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=169262&inline.

Saturday is statewide Free Fishing Day

The last chance of the year to fi sh for free arrives over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Free Fishing Day is o ered by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Saturday, Sept. 3. While no fi shing license is required on free fi shing days, all fi shing regulations, such as bag and size limits, gear restrictions, report card requirements, fi shing hours and stream closures remain in e ect. Every angler must have an appropriate report card if they are fi shing for steelhead or sturgeon anywhere in the state or salmon in the Smith and Klamath-Trinity river systems. For more information, visit wildlife.ca.gov/ Licensing/Fishing/Free-Fishing-Days.

The oceans:

Eureka

This past week was quiet out of Eureka due to rough ocean conditions, but that all changed Tuesday. Boats headed in all directions chasing rockfi sh, salmon and tuna. According to Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing, there’s warm tuna water both north and south. “The water to the north is starting to break up a little, but the water to our south is looking good, and about 34 miles from the entrance. We’ll have a good idea after Tuesday where the fi sh are. There hasn’t been much e ort on the salmon due to the conditions, but there were some caught last week on the 44-line.” Sept. 5 is the last day of the recreational salmon season from the California/Oregon border to Point Arena.

Shelter Cove

“The salmon fi nally showed up last Tuesday,” reports Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing. He said, “Fishing was pretty good all week, and the fi sh were a good grade. Most fi sh were in the 15-to25-pound class. The best fi shing was right at the Coast Guard buoy. Rock fi shing was pretty good last week, too, but the lingcod fi shing slowed down. It looks like we’ll get a shot at tuna Tuesday.”

Crescent City

As of Tuesday, the tuna water was sitting about 30 miles o Crescent City reports Britt Carson of Crescent City’s Englund Marine. He said, “We’ve heard some good reports coming in Tuesday morning, sounded like the fi shing was good. The rockfi sh bite is still excellent, but the salmon fi shing hasn’t been good at all. The California halibut bite remains slow.”

Read the complete fi shing roundup at northcoastjournal.com. ● Kenny Priest (he/him) operates

Fishing the North Coast, a fi shing guide service out of Humboldt specializing in salmon and steelhead. Find it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and fi shingthenorthcoast.com. For upto-date fi shing reports and North

Coast river information, email kenny@ fi shingthenorthcoast.com

341 West Harris St., Eureka 707 445-3138 poletskis.com

• Servicing Humboldt County for over 40 years • Largest in stock new & used inventory • Competitive price guarantee • Delivery and Service after the sale