Prior to the removal of the four dams on the Klamath River in 2024 I would take a couple of multi day trips every winter to fish for steelhead in the stretch below Iron Gate down to Happy Camp. These were fun, productive excursions and it’s fun to fish from a boat. It’s the third winter since dam removal so I thought it was time to get back on the river and see it for myself. We are all familiar with the positive stories of salmon making their way past the dams and up into the Upper Klamath Basin, but this trip illustrated how damaged the river below the dams remains.

My first experience on the Klamath River was a multi day float and camping trip with my family in 2002. We were on the river when the Bush administration ordered, during a drought, that water be diverted away from the river and delivered to local farmers resulting in the largest fish kill in western US history. It was shocking to see schools of chinook perish. The river was the temperature of a warm bath, fun for the kids, not so much for the fish.

The Klamath has a history of fish kills due to water management, sediment runoff from large fires, including a massive fire in 2022, and most recently sediment flows from the removal of the dam. Large sediment flows deoxygenate the river, causing immediate die-offs, and fill spawning beds further reducing the ability of fish to naturally repopulate the river. Advocates for dam removal understood this would happen but forecast that impacts would be temporary and argued the benefits of providing fish passage outweighed temporary adverse impacts on the river below the dams.

I just returned from two days fishing in stretches between Iron Gate and Happy Camp. I had contacted guides I previously used but they said that it was not worth the trip and no one is guiding the river now. I insisted that they take me, however, and they agreed. I did catch two small steelhead over two days, far below totals I was used to prior to dam removal, but I expected as much and the real benefit was talking to them.

These guides were always in favor of dam removal but also deeply skeptical of claims that the Klamath would quickly recover from the anticipated sediment release. They appear vindicated. The river remains a brown mess with very limited visibility. They believe that the river below the dams will eventually recover, but that it will take many years, and believe that the focus on reports of anadromous fish making their way past the dam sites is not telling the complete story.

Prior to dam removal anadromous fish would spawn in both the mainstem of the Klamath as well as in numerous tributaries. Now, all the fish are quickly moving out of the mainstem and up into tributaries. As long as we do not have a severe drought and those tributaries remain watered their survival should be ensured. A recovery of fishing and rafting, and the economic benefits they provide, looks to be many years away.

The outlook for mainstem resident fish like trout, however, is troubling. The guides said trout populations have crashed. Resident fish took a major hit from the sediment flows and their spawning beds have been silted in. The amount of silt on the river bottom I encountered when wading and the very limited visibility from silt suspended in the water was more than concerning. Trout are going to struggle for a long time.

There is no doubt in my mind that over the long term removal of the Klamath Dams will be beneficial for the entire Klamath River watershed, it is already a good thing for fish heading up the system past the old dam sites, but the benefits are not evenly distributed and it looks like parts of the river will be degraded for many years to come.

UPDATE: I sent this post to Mark Hereford, an ODFW biologist in Klamath Falls with the title Project Leader, Klamath Fisheries Reintroduction Project. Mark is going to present to Central Oregon Flyfishers on March 18th if you would like to hear his perspective. Below is his response to my post.

“Interesting. I am getting conflicting reports about steelhead in mid Klamath. Also, I work very closely with the lower river tribes and I recently was down at the mouth myself. The observations and the data would suggest a different river than when the dams were in, more natural temperature regime, more natural flows, healthier fish. Fish are no longer congregating at the tributary confluences for refuge spreading diseases, tribal fishery nets are no longer being clogged with algae. The Klamath River is a naturally turbid river due its source (Upper Klamath Lake) especially in the mid region before larger tributaries such as the Scott, Salmon, and Trinity enter. Its unfortunate that you had a bad day of fishing. A guide who fishes the Upper Klamath River in Oregon just sent me a photo of a beautiful O. mykiss that was about 20 inches. It’s likely there were some temporary negative impacts due to the removals, but as you say those impacts are likely to be short lived. With 120 years of damage caused by the dams, the response we are seeing from fish just 16 months after dam removal is incredible to say the least.”

And here is the response to my post and Mark’s comment from the guide I fished with on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Very well written, and I would say each guide that I have spoken with would back the depiction you have given 100%. And that covers well over 100 miles of river this past fall and current winter. I am confident the river is in a healthier place overall. No doubt. Two things can be true at once, and I believe your story has depicted that. In total both in the fall and in the winter season thus far I know of 11 guides that have fished the Klamath River on 35+ occasions. Total number adult steelhead caught under 60. I could show you the logbook that I have in the past 15 years of guiding, and the average adult caught per day ranged from 6 to 30. I have had 5 to 7 days in my career where we have landed over 20 adults in one day for perspective. The river is in no way shape or form near the productive, steelhead fishery it was just a few years ago. That said, I am extremely hopeful in the long-term prospects of the river. To minimize where we are at right now in the process is not truthful nor genuine. I appreciate the conversation and you bringing additional perspective to the conversation that has been in my opinion very one-sided up to this point. Here’s to the Klamath recovering and becoming stronger than ever!”

My guess is that the sediment in the 100 miles or so below Iron Gate has settled out before it reaches the lower river.