Riley Rennick of Wild Waters Fly Fishing Reports on December 13th, 2024

Winter Steelhead Tips and Klamath Update

Wild Water’s founder and guide John Rickard always says, you want to be the one writing the fishing report, not reading it. This advice rings the truest in the wintertime, when conditions change quickly. If you spend too much time waiting for a good report, you’ll find yourself out on the river on a lot of “should have been here yesterday”, kind of days. Keep an eye on weather trends and flow predictions – but most of all just get out there and have a look. A big storm is shaping up for this weekend, once the rivers start to drop its game on for the winter steelhead season.

Klamath Update

On the last report, I said I was hopeful that I would catch a 2024 Klamath fish, unfortunately that is looking unlikely at the moment. After seeing the clarity improve significantly, we decided to go try to catch one up by the former Iron Gate dam site. Chuck Volckhausen reports: We fished at the site formerly known as Iron Gate, yesterday. We did not get a single bite. Water color looked much better, which prompted our mission. The side of the river is still very muddy, difficult to get in and out of the boat almost everywhere, up to your knees in mud and hard to take 3 steps.  From my perspective, the first storm did help the river in overall turbidity, but it didn’t grab much sediment from the side or the river or eddies. I don’t think the fishing will improve and it was obvious that part of the river still needs to do some serious healing. Reports say conditions look great down river.  6’ of vis in Orleans. That’s a good sign for our early season down river fishing next year. 

Riley Renick

Wild Waters Fly Fishing

info@wildwatersflyfishing.com

877-934-7466

www.wildwatersflyfishing.com

Riley Rennick of Wildwaters Flyfishing reports on Nov 12th, 2024

Klamath 

The Klamath continues to move sediment that was trapped behind Iron Gate dam. Turbidity is improving and beginning to approach what I would consider fishable. The banks and boat launches have significant amounts of mud, which will limit access. It’s hard to say when exactly the Klamath will be fishable again, but I am still hopefully that I will catch a 2024 Klamath steelhead. Though water clarity has limited our ability to fish this river, the fish are moving through with no problem. Salmon numbers in Klamath tribs are decent this year, and fish have already made it past the former dam site.

McCloud

It’s no secret that the McCloud is having a strong year. There have been plenty of October Caddis around, and the tail end of October and into November is when the fish really key into them. The river has been fairly crowded, but as per usual if you are willing to hike you can find some solitude. The usual Mccloud setups are still producing: dry dropper and indicator rigs with chubbys, rubber legs, and size 14 or 16 mayfly and caddis nymphs. The Nature conservancy shuts down on November 15^th, though the rest of the river is now open to fishing year-round. During the winter, the road is not plowed past the reservoir boat launch. A storm is predicted to drop 3-7 inches of snow at 4,000 feet on 11/13; with more precip in the 10-day forecast. 

Rogue

With the Klamath out thus far this season, we have been venturing north more often than usual. The Rogue is having a fairly thin year, but both indicator fishing and swinging has produced some quality fish. For the indicator – just your typical fall time setup: stonefly and a 8mm or 10mm bead. For swinging, light sink tips with classic flys or small intruder style flys. The coming storm could stir things up and get fish going again.

The Coast

Rumor has it the salmon guys have been getting into them out on the coast. With last years nonstop rain and high water, we are even more excited than usual to get out and start chasing winter steelhead. We will start poking around in about a month – and be full steam ahead by the new year, check back for more.