We’re in Klamath this week and not too far from the beach where the mouth of the Klamath River empties into the ocean.  We drove to a beach where there were lots of cars parked along the road and walked out to the waters edge (over 1/2 mile in the sand, that was a workout!) and were astounded to see that people were not swimming or surfing…they were all salmon fishing.  Probably a hundred people lined up along the shore of the river – every few minutes one would get a bite and pull in a 20-30 pound salmon!  They were HUGE!  The best part was the sea lions, seals, pelicans and seagulls right at the mouth in the surf – the seals, pelicans and sea lions were also fishing for salmon and steelhead trout and the seagulls were fighting over the guts whenever someone caught a fish.  Many of the fishermen were from the local Yurok tribe and they would gut the fish right on the beach and toss the guts to the birds and bury the fish in the sand to keep it from spoiling in the sun.  We learned that the salmon were heading upstream but the river is too warm this time of year so they would head back.  There were also two Fish and Game people at the entrance to where people were parked, and they would measure the fish (many were 35-40 inches long!) and scrape some scales and write down the person’s zip code that caught it.  No checking of licenses.  I asked what the scales were for and was told salmon scales have age rings just like trees, so they are able to determine the age of the salmon that are caught.

Interesting!