We were the first boat on the river that morning, getting on the river at 6:45 a.m. It was cold, about 32 degrees, which made it difficult to move your fingers. The fall colors had arrived in the aspens and other trees along the river; this is probably the most beautiful time to hit the upper Klamath, located in the high desert country below Iron Gate. Kutzkey said we would be back bouncing with roe first in the holes, then switch over to side drifting roe in the riffles and runs for trout and steelhead.

We stopped in the first hole below the hatchery and in a couple of bounces I was hooked up with a 16 pound buck chinook that we released. Meanwhile, Alves hooked a couple of fish and lost them. I then had another hit and hooked and landed a jack salmon, which was the only one we hooked that day.

For the next three hours we experienced wide-open salmon fishing. In every hole, we caught salmon, mostly females in the 15 to 18 pound class. By 11 a.m. we had landed around 15 salmon in the boat, in addition to a 3 pound steelhead that Alves caught and a big rainbow that I landed. "I hope the fishing picks up this afternoon," I quipped to Alves and Kutzkey.

All of the other drift boats we saw on the river were catching and releasing fish right and left also. I have never had a slow trip on the upper Klamath, catching salmon limits every time, but this was definitely the hottest I had ever experienced! The chinooks were all clean and in good shape, but had the distinct copper color that fish get after traveling through rapid after rapid 190 miles from the Klamath River mouth to the hatchery.

When we switched over to back bouncing roe, Alves hooked up four fish right in a row as we drifted through the riffles, including a big salmon, an adult steelhead and two native rainbows. Just when I was thinking my "hot rod" was going cold, I hooked up two half pounder steelhead, followed by a hard-fighting adult steelie.

Richard caught another adult steelhead and king salmon before he had to get dropped off at his car so he could go to a dentist appointment. Meanwhile, Kutzkey and I continued fishing down to the Klamathon Bridge. I landed another beautiful steelhead, three chinooks and several trout, while Kutzkey took a break for rowing and landed a big salmon.

We ended up landing around 18 adult salmon, 1 jack, 6 adult steelhead, two half pounders and six trout, over 30 fish, plus getting numerous bites and losing loads of fish. Every trout and steelhead was wild. It was a great salmon, steelhead and native trout trip all in one. We even "landed" two lampreys - attached to a couple of my salmon! We kept a total of four adult chinooks, releasing the rest.

The salmon fishing on the upper Klamath only lasts for 3 weeks to a month every season, but the early showing of steelhead indicates that this will probably be another banner steelhead year on the Klamath.

"When the salmon start spawning, the Glo Bug bite for trout and steelhead will start," said Kutzkey. "As good as the steelhead fishing was today, it will only get better this fall and winter."

Kutzkey was born into one of the most legendary fishing families in California, the Kutzkeys. Kutzkey's grandfather, Al, virtually invented drift boat fishing for steelhead, pioneering back trolling plugs, such as Wee Warts and Hot Shots, and other methods. The family sold their lodge when the fishing slowed down in the late 1980's, but now the steelhead and salmon are back in big numbers.

"Last year we received 72,000 adult chinook and 1,323 jacks in the hatchery," said Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery. "So far this season, we've taken in over 14,000 fish, and we believe that the run is a couple of weeks late. The fish are averaging 18 to 20 pounds, so most are four year old fish. We've seen several fish over 30 pounds, with the largest measuring 47 inches long."

Wild steelhead make up the vast majority of the steelhead catches on the Klamath. However, hatchery numbers are looking upward. "Our steelhead returns are starting out better than last year, with already 85 steelhead," Rushton added. "Last year we spawned a total of 529 steelhead."

For more information on steelhead fishing on the Klamath River, call Albert Kutzkey at (530) 842-2229 or visit him on the web at kutzkeyfishing.com.