• slideshow-01
    Klamath Beach Road is jammed with fishermen’s vehicles these days.
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    View from atop Klamath Beach Road looking down on the Klamath spit Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013.
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    Fishermen must walk past the Yurok Tribe’s ceremonial dance grounds to get to the south spit side of the Klamath River mouth.
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    The eroded, much-traveled trail to the south spit.
  • slideshow-05
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
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    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • slideshow-07
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • slideshow-08
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
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    It gets really tense down on those crowded spits of the Klamath mouth, but last Wednesday, Aug. 13, there were more scenes of fishermen and fisherwomen working politely together to untangled their fishing lines. Busier days, we hear, there were fistfights and shouting matches.
  • slideshow-10
    It gets really tense down on those crowded spits of the Klamath mouth, but last Wednesday, Aug. 13, there were more scenes of fishermen and fisherwomen working politely together to untangled their fishing lines. Busier days, we hear, there were fistfights and shouting matches.
  • slideshow-11
    Xu Chang of Crescent City retrieves his Uncle Siavu Chang’s fish.
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    This is the first time Siavu Chang has fished, and this is his first-ever caught fish.
  • slideshow-13
    Emina Lekovic of San Diego helps a stranger — Aaron Lujan of Santa Rosa — haul his fish, and then himself, back up the steep bank.
  • slideshow-14
    Aaron Lujan and his Chinook.
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    James Sandborn of Lake Tahoe says “there’s so many fish that people are friendly.” Well, that was his experience last Wednesday, anyway.
  • slideshow-16
    Al Robles of Fremont has fished at the mouth of the Klamath every year since 1974. He remembers other times the mouth ran parallel to the ocean. And, yes, he’s seen fights when the crowds get too elbow-to-elbow.
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    Bernie Reis from Brookings, Ore.
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    Ying Lor of Crescent City retrieves his friend Soua Vang’s fish.
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    Soua Vang of Fresno hoists his big Chinook high.
  • slideshow-20
    Cliff Amarantes of Sonoma has been fishing the Klamath mouth since 1998. Last Wednesday he roamed the south spit cheerfully urging people to chill out, to not keep the fish they snag (catch elsewhere on the body than the mouth), to enjoy themselves. “People get very uptight,” he says. “Everybody wants to land every fish, and it doesn’t work that way.”
  • slideshow-21
    The tall sand bank on the south spit can be treacherous. It collapses constantly as the river and feet whittle it away.
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    This fellow doesn’t have a big fish on his line — his line is trapped by a pile of gloppy, wet, collapsed sandbank that almost trapped his friend, too.
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    The banks of the Klamath mouth are littered with sandy fish guts and bright fish gills
  • slideshow-24
    Inexplicably and wastefully, the Klamath mouth sand spits are also littered with abandoned catches.
  • slideshow-25
    It’s heavy, heavy work hauling your catch the long way back to your car, especially without line, sack or bucket — as Andrew Rees of Washington state discovered last Wednesday, Aug. 13.
  • slideshow-26
    Will Yeager of Washington state drags his catch hooks and line.
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    Rod Widing of Washington state figures his catch weighs 70 pounds.
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    Rod Widing of Washington state rigged a handle for his catch-hauling get-up.
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    This fellow brought an onion sack to carry his salmon.
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    Others brought buckets on big-wheeled dollies to haul back their catch.
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    Sea lions and birds mob the entryway to the ocean where schools of big salmon dash in and out.
  • slideshow-32
    Sea lions and birds mob the entryway to the ocean where schools of big salmon dash in and out.
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    Some people stashed their fish under makeshift awnings to keep out the hot sun, then went back to the river to angle for more.
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    Some people left their catch out in the sun.
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    More sensible people put their fish in coolers — or at least buried them in wet sand until it was time to go
  • slideshow-36
    Back at the car, stowing all that Chinook in coolers.
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    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4a
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4c
    North spit, mouth of the Klamath, Aug. 13, 2013.
  • 4d
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4e
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4h
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4k
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4l
    Scene from the mouth of the Klamath River on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2013
  • 4m
    Even when the north spit’s swallowed by the incoming tide and encroaching river, one must fish.

Heidi Walters worked as a staff writer at the North Coast Journal from 2005 to 2015.