From Willow Creek, CA. By E. B. Duggan “D” Fishing, 707-599-2357 at yen2fish@yahoo.com
TO ALL A GOOD NEW YEAR
Happy Winter Solstice. Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year. I am hoping that we all have a great 2025 and that fishing will be much better than 2023 and 2024. The loss of Salmon fishing for two years in a row has been devastating economically to the North Coast Fishing Industry. I am not sure if California were to allow Salmon fishing this coming year if the industry could recover. The state needs to allow more hatchery production releases for three to five years to allow the Salmon to recover and increase returns for ocean and in-river sport harvests.
Water; we have had some serious rain in the last several weeks in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In talking to some of the old timers that are still around here I have heard that the rains over the Christmas holiday was very similar to those of the 1964 floods. The only difference was that in 1964 there was two feet of snow on the ground with much more in the upper elevations. Then on December 23, 1964 the “Pineapple Express”, straight from Hawaii, hit the west coast and “all H- -l” broke loose. The Klamath River at Klamath reached a record peak of 55.3 feet and flood stage is 38 feet, we have reached 34 feet with the rains we have had over the Holiday. Verry close! The Atmospheric River occurrences that have been happening lately on the west coast are almost like back in 1964 except we don’t have the snow nor the “Pineapple Express” type of rains (warm weather), thank goodness. We don’t have the snow at the lower elevations of 1964 nor the amounts of heavy snows in the upper elevations as we did back then. We have had almost the same amounts of rain though. If this we to keep up at the same rate I believe we could possibly pass the amounts of rain that occurred in 1964. I sure hope not!
There has been a lot of conversation going on about the “Winter Variable Flows”. As the Record of Decision states, the Trinity River is supposed to be managed by an “Adoptive Management Program”. As I have seen there has been very little “Adoptive Management” going on. The Winter Variable Flow releases reached 6,500cfs at 12:00 AM 12/25/24, during this same period of time the North Coast had an Atmospheric River hit the North Coast, this should have been reduced or stopped to allow the river to do its own thing in order to prevent such highwater flows. (Close to flood stage) I would think that would be some type of Adoptive Management. Management of water flows is part of the ROD and near flooding is not a thing to miss judge. With this type of
highwater flows and the predicted coming rains, I would expect many of the Fisheries Projects on the Upper Trinity River by TRRP would be destroyed. Why are there no reviews of that being planned? If I calculate correctly that would be somewhere of about $264 million lost. Should we ask Congress to investigate this dollar loss? I do understand that part of the releases is to prevent Trinity Lake from over filling later in the year but keeping a close eye on the flood stages of the rivers should be “Priority One” when it comes to “water releases”.
Klamath River summary: Note; all weir counting stations have been pulled due to “high-water”. Julian Week 49 Dec. 3 ending Dec. 9, 2024: Shasta River; season total 4,944-adult Chinook Salmon; 16-adult Coho Samon: Bogus Creek, November 19, 2024; 352-adult Chinook Salmon; 32-adult Coho Salmon; Scott River, Dec. 23, 2024: season total, 599-adult Chinook Salmon; 706-adult Coho Salmon; Jenny Creek Weir began operations: November 27, 2024; 332-adult Chinook Salmon; 0-adult Coho Salmon; Shovel Creek weir counts: Nov. 19 , 2024 through Nov. 25, 2024: 228-Adult Chinook Salmon; 0-Adult Coho Salmon. The Scott, Jenny Creek, and Shovel Creek weirs were pulled Nov. 20, 2024 and to be reinstalled when conditions allow.
Trinity River Hatchery summary: Julian Week 49 ending Dec. 9, 2024: 22-Jack Chinook Salmon; 602-adult Chinook Salmon, total 624, season total 4,768; 2-jacks, 267-adult Coho Salmon, season total 0674: 0-1/2- pounder; 39-Adult Steelhead; 13-hatchery Steelhead, season total 509.
Junction City Weir summary: weir pulled for the season, season total Chinook Salmon 323; Coho Salmon; season total 6; Steelhead; season total 220; 1- Brown Trout, season total 27.
Willow Creek weir summary: weir pulled for the season; Chinook Salmon, season total 694; Coho Salmon; season total 18; Steelhead; 1-1/2-pounders, 1-adults, total 37, season total 647. About 61% of the Steelhead this last count was hatchery clipped fish.
Fishing: Fishing the Trinity River is not fishable at this time due to the high waterflows. I would expect fishing to resume as soon as the rains stop and allow the river to drop back to fishable conditions soon. The weather prediction is for fair weather in the next week. At the present time the Trinity and Klamath Rivers are dropping and that is a good sign.
Lewiston Lake: For Lewiston Lake and Trinity Lake information you can call, Pine Cove Marina, Matt or Louise (530)778-3878, for the upper river you can call Indian Creek Lodge, Andy or Hannah, (530)623-6294), Junction City Store, Butch, (530)623-2803.
Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 83,093cfs. This is an increase of 63,055cfs. Iron Gate Dam/Bogus Creek area is flowing 2,080cfs a decrease of 5,635cfs from in December. The Upper Klamath is flowing good but is starting to drop from last week. I’ve noticed that the water flows are decreasing by volumes so the fishing would be difficult but if you were to pick your spot well you could possibly hook into some large adults. I suggest you call Marble Mountain Guest Ranch (800) 522-6284, or Scott Caldwell, SC Guide Service (530)905-0758 to get proper fishing information for the Upper Klamath.
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 93% of capacity (a decrease of 2%) with inflows of 1,140cfs with releases of 2,143cfs into Spring Creek. Shasta Lake is 77% of capacity (an increase of 5% and plu11ft) with inflows of 21,134cfs and releasing 13,081cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 86% of capacity (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 15,011cfs and releases of 14,933cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 69% of capacity (an increase of 5% and plus 17ft) with inflows of 13,418cfs with releases of 2,817cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 37% of capacity (an increase of 4% and plus 6ft) with inflows of 3,069cfs with releases of 1,606cfs into the American river. Trinity Lake storage is 1,852,855AF an increase of 87,025AF of storage.
Trinity Lake: The lake is 39ft below the overflow (a decrease of 6ft) and 76% of capacity (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 11,122cfs and releasing 1,376cfs into Lewiston Lake with 116cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to the Keswick Power Plant while releasing 14,981cfs into the Sacramento River.
Trinity River flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 76% of capacity (an increase of 4%) and 39ft below the overflow an increase of 6ft. Lewiston Dam is 97% of capacity (an increase of 1%) and water releases of 1,492cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 45.4 degrees, as of 12:00pm today Saturday January 4, 2025. Limekiln Gulch is 6.42ft at 1,961cfs. Douglas City is 9.06ft with flows of 2,654cfs with water temperatures of 45.2 degrees. Junction City is N/Aft at N/Acfs. Helena is 18.61ft at 9,586cfs with water temps of 46.6 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is N/Aft at 0.00cfs (Gauge is still out of order). South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 11.71 at 9,699cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 14,491cfs, air is 51 degrees and water at 47 degrees, Hoopa is 26.17ft at 35,541cfs with water at 48 degrees. Flood stage is 48 feet. The river is still dropping.
Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate/Bogus Creek area flows are 2,080cfs, an increase of 5,635cfs. Seiad Valley is 10.19ft at 14,210cfs. Indian Creek is 7.97ft at 2,492cfs. Happy Camp is estimated to be 16,702cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 26,688cfs, and the Salmon River is 10.94ft at 15,864cfs. Orleans is 17.85ft at 47,552cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 30.35ft at 134,352cfs and water temps are 47 degrees. Flood stage is 38 feet. Flows for the Smith River at Jediah Smith are 18.32ft with flows of 33,966cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 24.39ft at N/A.
Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 57 and a low of 33 degrees. Rain for the week was 4.46in with a water year total to date of 31.31 and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 67 and a low of 43. The weather predicted for the next week is looking like we could have a warming spell with no rain.
Good Fishin and Good Luck but remember; “keep your tip up with a tight line lands fish”
Websites: www.norcalfishreports.com/spots/1896/trinity-river—willow-creek-weir.php, info@willowcreekchamber.com
