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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1963)
KLAMATH FALLS, OKKGON, Sl'NDAY, APRIL M. 13 Edamath Anglers Brave Opening Pay 'Snows' To Catch Wily Trout & I' h : . "I A FOUR BEAUTIFUL FISH These four beauties, all over 15 Inches, were only a small samplinq of the fine catch corning out of Howard Prairie on opening weekend of trout season. Thousands of fishermen brought their fam ilies and trailers and made a three-day stay out of the 9 -" Mk ... . I ' M j YOUNGSTERS IN THE ACT Even youngsters got into ths act at Howard Prairie. Thii cute freckled girl took these 16 inehers from the bank while her father went fiihleis. I wonder what he'll tell the fellows back at the lodge? Several kids with spinning gear reached produc tive waters with ease and hauled them in with facility that embarrassed their luckless dads. opener. Both boat and bank fishermen were successful using worms and salmon eggs. The brightest colored salmon eggs were most appealing to the fish it seemed. The dark colored trout on the right is a typical Howard Prairie spawner. t w r. i tin. u c. t ..;vl i ' sit' 1 4 V.V ONE IN HUNDREDS Loroy Pemberton, 3 2 7 North Ninth Street, w the only angler out of hundreds that Herald and News reporter, George Alotrico, interviewed April 20 that had fish. Leroy displays his catch, the larger rainbow was IS inches, at Spring Creek. The an. gler said he caught the fish earlier at Crooked Creek. Most anglers who took fish in Klamath County streams made their catches quite early in the morning. By GEORGE, ALOTRICO After a hard winter of 40 and sometimes 5n degree weather spring finally broke, with IB inch es of snowfall in the Klamath Basin, and brought with it opening day of trout season. Opening day this year looked more like one would expect it to look in Cortina, Italy, during the opening ot the winter skiing sea son or at Lake Winnebago, Wis.. when the anglers first start to drag their ice shanties out on the ice for sturgeon spearing. And how did this affect the spir its of the local opening day trout angler? That's right ... it didn't in the least. Opening day has that magnetic kind of pull that makes Joe Uoaks get up at 2 a.m., put chains on all four snow tires on his four wheel drive, arrive at his favorite fishing hole behind 250 other in trepids, and be as happy as any half frozen man could be he- cause he's glad he's "at least beaten the crowd." So it was with opening dav in Klamath County, April 20, la, as man and his pickup cut sw aths through the virgin snows to l,akc of the Woods, Fish Iike, Hyatt Reservoir, Thompson Valley. Crescent. Odell and the fish only know where else. Fishing was good on the open ing weekend, by and large, with the lakes winning handily over the streams in fishing success. Streams were, for the most part, very cold, with Seven Mile, Fort and Crooked creeks at about 3fi degrees, Spring Creek at its usual 41 and some of the Williamson tributaries as high as 44. Fish feed very little when water tem peratures dip much lower than 4(1. Another thing that hurt stream fishing was that the rivers were only lightly slocked before the opening, the major ones getting between 500 and 1.000 land prob- aoly closer to the lower figure! The major rivers were to be stocked again with legal fish this past week. The county's alloea lion is 00,000 fish. Art Gerlach district state biologist, indicated. Some areas that will still be hard to stock due to the bad weather include the Sycan and upper Sprague and tributaries. rew fish were caudit on Spring Creek during the opener, b u t there was a report that some browns, one as big as five pounds, were taken. Plenty of hatcherv rainbows should be available this weekend. only a nanoiul of lish was taken on the upper stretches of Seven Mile, but again, some big browns were caught trolling the Seven Mile canal. Success at Crooked Creek was the best with quite a few rain bows, both big and small, com ing out of the stream below the hatchery. A few fish were taken out of Fort Creek, sizable browns again, and some rainbows were reported taken from the lower Sprague. Iikc fishing was better, and Howard Prairie, with the Dead Hyatt and Thompson Valley ing in Klamath and Agency Indian Road free of snow, drew re the next best producers, but lakes. Crescent Lake was slow, throngs. Fishing success was ter- access wasn't quite as, easy. but the boys who knew how to rific there and almost everyone A few big fish between four fish Lake of the Woods and Fish caught several. and six pounds were taken troll- Lake took limits of rainbows. 3 THE OVERNIGHT TROUPE These were just a few of the campers at Howard Prairie during the opening weekend of trout season. The fishing was so good that many stayed several days. Several of the camping parties pitched tents on the 10 inches of snow around the lakeshore. The park's facilities are quite adequate and a lot of fishermen brought their families. ' 43$ 5t t if: v5i"f 'Willi St 4 1" 4m-Jm-H v.- iZS .v.-v;- vs-J"t ,' V " i--tf 11 "fJSr.rVNV 1 JTTS -VI. SPRING CREEK HARDLY FISHED Only a sprinklina of anglers van tured to Spring Creek for the opener and not many of those stayed very long. The creek wasn't stocked before the opener and very few fish were caught, but the state planned to stock the stream during the past 1 1 V i. . jr ' - - ;4 ;. week and angler success should soar in the cominq weeks. Some of the most successful of the Spring Creek anglers fly fish using nymphs almost exclusively. If there are any California anglers still in the area, stay a while, and try Spring Creek again this weekend. Bring a big creel, ttl ,'i;V'' . .-:fldr A v l-:2T?E?' ACTION FROM THE BANK Bank fishermen at Howard Prairie had plenty of ac tion although most of the anglers were out in boats. Here a youngster watches his father land a fat 15-incher. These fishermen were usinq bobbers to keep their worms off the bottom, which is full of snags. Many boat anglers who were having slim luek trolling beached their craft and took fish from the shore. TWENTY TROUT IS PLENTY A group of bank agnlers were hauling them in fast and furiously from a productive hole in Howard Prairie not 100 yards from the ramp where anglers were launching their bouts to speed a mile down the lake to less pro. ductive haunts. Most bank fishermen hid huqe bonfires roarinq in the 10 inches of snow that fell durinq the week end when the sun came peeping out from behind thst clouds it was plenty warm. LAUNCHING SITE CRAMMED The launehinq si et Howard Prairie Reservoir was jammed with boats of all descriptions as anqlers sought the wary trout on opon inq day of fishing season. There were 1,700 cars checked in at the Jackson County park last Saturday, April 20, and good portion of them were pullinq b o 1 1 end campers. Some of the cruisers with duel 50 horse outboards looked capable of en At. lantie crossing while some of the other ereft appeered better suited for bathtub.
