Santa Rosa DFG Meting

Central Valley Returns were the worst ever recorded; ’09 – 39,500; ’08 – 46,500; ’07 – 87,900. Central Valley Delta pumps started to increase pumping water in 2004 and were court ordered to reduce pumping in 2007. If you match up the brood years with the pumping (3yrs per brood year) one can see that the problem was environmental NOT overfishing. Estimated results are worst possibilities NO FISHING for the Sacramento River. At best there could be a very small season like 2009. There are hopes of an Ocean Sport season for 2010.

Klamath River Basin spawning escapement goal for 2009 was 40,700, actual escapement return was 44,589. The Klamath side of the basin carried the majority of the return. Iron Gate Hatchery 12,263; Trinity River Hatchery 7,351; total hatchery returns 19,614. Natural Spawners: Klamath 27,743; Trinity 16,846. Recreational Harvest: Klamath 4,820; Trinity 755. Tribal Harvest: Klamath 24,234; Trinity 4,153.

PFMC meeting will be March 6 thru 11 at the Double Tree Inn, 2001Point West Way, Sacramento. Salmon Council briefings will start Saturday Mar. 6th, the first open comment period will be some time after 1PM. Salmon Management meetings will start 7am. Final Management decisions will be Thursday March 11.

Trinity River Hatchery Steelhead count for Feb. 25; 132, total of 4,094 for ‘09 vs. 2,327 for ’08. There are still fresh Steelhead coming into the river but we are now starting to see some down runners in the mix.

Trinity River Conditions have been blown out from top to bottom since Thursday night. The valley saw 4in of rain in less than 36hrs. Friday afternoon saw the river up by over 6ft. In fact by Saturday noon saw the river at my house over 8ft. The good news is that that most all tributaries have reached their peaks and the main stem is dropping fast, at this rate it could be fishable by next Saturday. The high water will help incoming steelhead reach the upper tributaries for spawning. When the main stem at Cedar Flat drops to 2,000cfs it will be ripe for fly fishers to hit the river from Del Loma and above. Bank fishers will be able to do well with fresh cured roe.

Klamath River is high and dirty and will not be fishable until flows get down to around 7,000cfs at Orleans. The Upper Klamath above I-5 should be back into fishable condition by the weekend if they do not receive any more major storms. Remember that the Upper Klamath and Upper Trinity clear fast because they have very little tributary influence near the dams.

 

River Flows and Water Levels

Trinity Lake is 100ft below the over flow (1ft decrease) and 47percent of capacity at 10:00am today.

Inflow to the lake is 4,542cfs and 437cfs is being released to Lewiston Lake with 128cfs to the Sacramento River.

Trinity River at Lewiston releases are 309cfs, water temperatures 46.4 degrees.

Limekiln Gulch is 5ft at 600cfs. Douglas City is 3.4ft at 1,150cfs, water temps are 43.8 degrees, air 43 degrees.

Helena/North Fork is 12.3ft at 2,190cfs, water temps 45, air 44. Cedar Flat is 8.5ft at 4,530cfs.

Willow Creek 10K cfs, water at 45.5, air 50. Hoopa is 21ft at 17K cfs, water 46.6. Mouth of Trinity 29.5K cfs.

Klamath River releases at Iron Gate Dam are 1,320 cfs. Seiad Valley is 4ft at 2.675cfs.

Happy Camp estimated at 4,075cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 9,700cfs. Orleans is 9.1ft at 12.5K cfs.

Klamath at 101 is 18ft at 39.8K cfs water temperatures at 46.4 degrees.