Bead fishing for STEELHEAD on Klamath River | Catch & Release

We were able to land one wild steelhead on a orange bead from Western Fishing Operations (WFO) on the Klamath River just below Blue Creek in late August. Watch our other YouTube videos from the Klamath River: https://youtu.be/H9knPSfvgPQ

As soon as increased flows hit the lower Klamath last week, big schools of salmon and steelhead charged upriver. Fishing was excellent earlier in the week, and small pulses of fish should continue moving in over the next few weeks. Flows peaked at 4,172 cfs last Wednesday and are now dropping but will remain high through the holiday weekend, around 3,100 cfs Saturday morning. Angling pressure has been light so far, but expect that to change as the holiday crowd arrives. For a local fishing report, visit Fishing the North Coast.com at https://fishingthenorthcoast.com/

Anglers must have a CDFW Steelhead Fishing Report and Restoration Card in their possession while fishing for steelhead trout in anadromous waters. You can identify hatchery steelhead by their missing adipose fin. Wild steelhead with an intact adipose fin should not be kept and should be revived before release. The daily bag limit is two hatchery steelhead or hatchery trout per day on both the Klamath and Trinity rivers, with a possession limit of four.
CDFW 2025 Regulations: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=202686&inline

We spotted several bald eagles high up in the trees and several black bears along the river banks. Only a few professional guide boats were on the river along with a couple of local sport fishing boats. We took our lunch break up river at Blue Creek and two other boats joined us. Note: Fishing is prohibited from 500 feet upstream to one-half mile downstream from the upstream bedrock cliff at the mouth of Blue Creek.

The Klamath River has a good supply of native steelhead. They often follow the salmon runs as they migrate up river. Steelhead runs peak from the late summer months (August - September) through winter and into early spring. Four miles up from the Klamath mouth, both fly and traditional anglers can target large adult steelhead and smaller "half-pounder" juveniles from the bank.

Four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles can access the river at the Glen and Blake's Riffle off Cal State Route 169 via Klamath Glen Road to Trinity Way just past the Andy McBeth air strip runway. There's also the Roy Rook boat ramp just over the hill from the Terwer RV Park off Terwer Riffle Road. There is a Yurok Brewery taproom in Terwer called the Willow Line. It is located at 330 Terwer Riffle Rd, Klamath, CA 95548. It was once known as the famous Steelhead Lodge.

The lower Klamath River sits on the Yurok Reservation. The tribe can gill net fish on the river. Gill netting is limited to a personal subsistence quota set by the tribe and the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC). There is also a 300 elder quota or Elder's Fishery once the personal subsistence fishery quota has been reached. You can find the Yurok netting regulations on their website: https://www.yuroktribe.org.

The Klamath River Jet Boat Tours are owned and operated by the Yurok Tribe and go up river a couple of times a day. They offer 2-hour and 1-hour tours: https://www.visityurokcountry.com/jetboattours

The dam removal from Iron Gate Dam is expected to improve conditions and expand habitat, leading to a future salmon population recovery. Klamath River steelhead are supported by hatcheries like the new Fall Creek Hatchery, which aims to rebuild populations in the upper basin after the removal of the Iron Gate Dam.

Note: The Trinity River Hatchery primarily releases its steelhead into the Trinity River to support the local fishery. While steelhead migrate between the Klamath and Trinity rivers, the hatchery's purpose is to propagate fish for the Trinity River system, not to supply the Klamath River system with hatchery fish.

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