Having fun with the Klamath Country Fly Casters

A nice Williamson River rainbow
October found me down in Klamath Falls, Oregon for a few days with the Klamath Country Fly Casters. This long-established fishing group invited me to talk about kayak fly fishing and offered a few incentives to get me to drive 5 hours for a couple days of fishing.

The invitation came from the group's president Dale Zemke. Dale is a kayak fly angler who has roots south of the Oregon border and has fished with the great Jim Sammons, a pioneer in kayak fishing.

Dale contacted me in February and plans were made for a three-day trip that included a presentation to the group and some fishing on the Williamson River. The Williamson is a storied river and since I had never fished it, I jumped at the offer.

I looked forward to the trip for more than a month and found myself researching flies and fine-tuning my presentation. The day finally arrived and I left Portland in the first rainstorm of the season. On the way down, I stopped in at Odell Lake to fish for Kokanee. The wind and rain cut my efforts short and I was off the water in a couple hours. As it turned out, I should have launched at Princess Creek on the east side of the lake since the wind and waves were much calmer.

I arrived in time for dinner with members of the fly casters including Dale, Jack and John and Lois Krueger of Time Flies Outfitters. The company, food and wine was fabulous.

The next morning I enjoyed a productive day on the Williamson with John and Jack, landing four rainbow trout over 20 inches long, including one approaching 8 pounds. As I was casting from John's Clackacraft drift boat, I kept thinking this would be great water to fish with the Hobie Pro Angler.

We fished until about 2 p.m. and then headed back to Dale's house. As the featured speaker, I needed to clean up.

My presentation included a slide show and my Hobie Revolution kayak fully outfitted and on display. I ended up with an audience of about 50 members plus 8 to 10 guests interested in kayak fly fishing. I talked about 45 minutes and was pleased they applauded at the end. I was more excited that several attendees asking me more about the sport.

The next day my goal was fishing the Williamson's famed blue hole in the Revo. After about an hour in the skinny kayak, I was missing the stability of the Pro Angler.

I decided it was safer to back troll through the hole since it was full of downed logs and car-sized boulders. It took me about an hour to settle in and I was rewarded with a single bite. Time was running out and with wet weather forecast for my drive home I packed up feeling a little disappointed.

The disappointment was short and I am already trying to figure out when to go back. I think a spring trip may be in order so I can get into some of those Kokanee and catch a Williamson rainbow from the kayak.

I better contact Dale soon.

Go Farther. Catch More.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem,
Read more

A Productive Salmon Season in a Year of Low Returns

Image
This year has proven one of my best yet for putting salmon in the kayak. After a slow start in March and April, I hooked eight and landed six spring Chinook "Springers" on the Willamette River. All were hatchery fish and most were 30-plus inches. They were all caught with my red and orange hand-tied spinners and Pro-Troll 360 flashers. The Springers were caught in May and June, typically the end of the season. These two months seem to be my most productive. Two years ago, I landed six, and had two, two-fish days. This year, I never hooked two fish on the same day, although I had more days catching fish. Most days were spent focusing on the tide changes, and I was usually off the water by noon. I was fortunate because the run was about 25 percent lower than expected and many anglers had a rough season. I spent July fishing for smallmouth bass in the Willamette and Columbia, and spent a few days in August anchored in the Columbia fishing for fall kings. The fall season p
Read more

The 2021 Fishing Season Recap

Image
Welcome to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap. Last season was exceptional with lots of salmon on the kayak, a few trout on the fly rod, and a nice halibut on the boat.  I spent most of my time fishing the Willamette and Columbia rivers with my friend Mark. Fishing less than 30 minutes from home in a kayak also reduced my carbon footprint, especially when transporting the kayak on my 16-year-old Ford Escape hybrid.  Fishing close to home also allowed fishing trips before and after work, which were key to my success in 2021. The season highlights included fishing in five different Hobie kayaks and catching salmon in four of them and hooking salmon in all five. This season also included two friends and my brother catching their first salmon in the kayak, fishing a new area with new techniques, and earning a limit of a king and a coho before noon.  Although I would hook more than 30 fish this season, I only landed 24 and tagged 19, falling just one short of filling my salmon tag. Most
Read more