However, the fishing is tougher this year, since the salmon appear to be less aggressive than they usually are. By most standards, the fishing on a trip that Richard Alves, Fish Sniffer Webmaster, and I made with Al Kutzkey, fishing guide, was good. We hooked over eight king salmon, landing three to 20 pounds, as well as releasing a half dozen beautiful wild and hatchery rainbows to 15 inches, but the fishing was still slower than it has been on previous trips we've made with Kutzkey.

We started off back bouncing salmon roe in the first hole below the hatchery. I hooked and released a 15 pound salmon in the first 5 minutes, but didn't land another salmon for several more hours. Meanwhile, Richard hooked several fish that came unbuttoned, but he finally landed a hard-fighting 20 pounder after the sun came out downriver.

The guides and anglers were definitely working for their fish. We saw one woman land five fish, but she was the high rod that day. We saw anglers fishing with Billy Jesperson, Ron Denardi, and Mick Thomas hooking fish also.

"The fish aren't taking the bait as aggressively as they normally do and I'm not sure why," said Kutzkey. "We are hooking 6 to 12 salmon a trip, but landing them some days is tough."

We caught all of our fish while back bouncing or side drifting bait with salmon eggs. "The bite has been slow in the early morning, but has been coming on as the sun gets on the water and is slowing around noon," he noted.

Most of the salmon have been averaging about 10 to 13 pounds, but Kutzkey reported nailing a couple of 30 pounders and a lot in the twenties over the past few weeks. The biggest he's heard caught to date is a 37 pounder.

The numbers of fish the hatchery is seeing are 2449 less than received those of last year at this time. For example, the hatchery had received 6,747 salmon by Friday, October 15. In comparison, the hatchery had received 9,196 fish by the same date last year, according to Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery.

The hatchery received 32,000 king salmon last year. This is well above the average hatchery return, 17,000 fish, over the last 20 years. The hatchery took 37,000 fish in 2002 and 72,000 in 2001, the record for the hatchery.

After we finished salmon fishing, I decided to try Iron Gate Reservoir for yellow perch from the bank. Albert and his dad, Tim, love to eat the perch out of the lake, so they fish the lake frequently in the spring. After stopping to get worms and hooks at the Hornbrook Chevron, I drove up Copco Lake Road to the reservoir, going all of the way to the end to the Klamath River inlet.

Only two anglers were fishing in the inlet, the father son angling team of Gary Phillips Sr. and Jr., who were on a combo perch fishing/deer hunting trip. Although they didn't bag any deer, Gary Jr. was pulling out a big yellow perch about 12 inches long just after I had parked the car.

The lake was down about 10 feet, with a layer of mud along the shoreline, and I slogged through the mud, meanwhile catching several perch.

"There's some space over here, so feel free to join us," said Gary Sr. "Tie a loop on the line about 2 feet above the line and put on a Kahle snelled hook."

I did just that and soon began catching one fish after another, all perch in the 8 to 11 inch class, while using a threaded nightcrawler. The Kahle hook really made the difference in getting a good hook set.

For the next two hours, I had total blast fishing with them and lost count as I put a bunch of tasty perch into the ice chest. I finally disciplined myself to get out of there to make the five-hour drive back to Sacramento. Between salmon, trout and perch, I had a lot of fun hooking fish, even though the salmon fishing wasn't as good as it normally is.

The steelhead run has rebounded over the past four years on the Klamath River. The steelhead are expected to follow the spawning salmon into the river within the next few weeks.

For more information about fishing the Klamath River and Iron Gate Lake, contact: Kutzkey's Guide Service, 710 Lane Street, Yreka, CA 96097, Phone: 530-842-2229, KutzkeyFishing.com.

Note: The river is still really low at this time, with releases of only 900 cfs from Iron Gate Dam.