Tribal fishing on the Klamath River

Yurok tribal member James Genshaw waits for a glimpse of a lamprey in the mouth of the Klamath River. Lamprey enter the Klamath to spawn in late winter and spring. As they do so, waves sweep them over the wide sandbars at the river’s mouth, giving fishermen a fleeting opportunity to hook them from the surf and toss them onto dry sand. A single fisherman might catch a half dozen or more in an evening, but the pursuit can be risky. Fishermen are occasionally surprised by waves and swept out to sea.

James Genshaw grasps a writhing lamprey after hooking it from the mouth of the Klamath River on the Northern California coast. Lamprey meat is rich and oily, highly regarded by many who live along the river. On any given evening during the spawning season, a handful of fishermen may be found where the river pours into the ocean.

Louis Myers, a member of the Yurok Tribe, tosses a gill net into the Klamath River below Wauteck Village while fishing for sturgeon on the Yurok Reservation in Northern California. Both green and white sturgeon spawn in the Klamath.

A dog licks its chops as Louis Myers cleans a green sturgeon beside the Klamath River. Myers smokes much of the fish he catches—not just sturgeon, but salmon and steelhead as well. Preserved meat is an important source of food for Myers and his family. There is no public electricity supply in Wauteck, making refrigeration costly, and the nearest grocery store is 30 miles away beyond a long, winding section of single-lane road.

Karuk fisheries workers Jerry Brink, left, and Ken Brink use a dip net to fish for king salmon in Ishi Pishi Falls on the Klamath River. Fishing access at the falls is restricted to tribal members, and dip netting is the only method of take permitted.

Lonnie Risling Jr., a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, whose reservation spans the Trinity River, the Klamath’s largest tributary, fishes for lamprey near the mouth of the Klamath.

From left, Yurok Tribe member Trevor Avery, Anthony Henry, and Lonnie Risling Jr., of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, soak up the warmth of a driftwood campfire before picking up their lamprey hooks and walking back to the surf line. Lamprey fishing is often done after dark. It can be easier to spot a lamprey by the light of a flashlight than by the light of the sun.

A cooler full of steelhead rests in a boat owned by a Yurok tribal member. Steelhead are just one of several anadromous species in the Klamath. But as with salmon and sturgeon, their numbers have dwindled in the face of habitat loss and other pressures.