I hope this doesn’t upset you, my readers. I do appreciate your continued support and readership. The New Year brings with it, new changes. My Outdoor Buddy has merged with NorCal Fishing Reports and my Fishing Report newsletter will now be carried on the NorCal Fishing Reports page. The new location will be at: Archive reports, www.norcalfishreports.com/news/archive.php?author_id=945 ; later or new reports will now be at www.norcalfishreports.com/spots/1896/trinity-river—willow-creek-weir,php . For all of you that do follow my reports, please bookmark your computers so that you can keep up with the Trinity River Fishing Reports. I thank you all for your loyalty.
Weather, I am sure I don’t have to tell you that it is raining up here in the Trinity Valley. We need the rain but the area has yet to receive a real good flushing. The rains we have been getting are good for the river and the land but it only raises the river a few inches or a foot per storm. The area is supposed to receive a good snow by the middle of the week and then a possible storm that could flush out the Trinity and hopefully the Klamath too. The weather forecast shows a storm that could drop up to 6 inches or so, but we will have to wait and see what it really brings. If it does bring a really good flushing that should send the message out to the ocean for the winter run to really make their return to their spawning areas up the rivers. I know the Trinity River upper sections have been pretty boney waters for drift boats which makes for hard fishing. In the mean time the lower sections of the river have been muddy, each time a new storm comes in. When it starts to clear just a little bit, we get some small runs but not the main push of the winter steelhead run. I hope I have better news next week.
Trinity River Hatchery: No report this week. Julian week 52 ending Dec. 31; Fall Chinook, 1-jacks, 8-adults, total 9, season total 6,064; Coho, 1-jacks, 24-adults, total 25, season total 607; steelhead, 27, total 27 ,season total 43.
Trinity River Redds survey: Looks like we might be all through for Redd counts. Julia week 49 week ending Dec. 9; survey sections 01- 05 Lewiston through Douglas City; sections 09 and 10 Big Bar, total 17 total Redds counted 44, total season Redds surveyed to date 1,525.
Fishing: The Trinity River has been hard to fish lately due to the small rain storms. The upper sections have been shallow and clear while the bottom sections have been muddy. This pas week Junction City down to Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) has been dirty due to the different slides on the main stem and then the South Fork has been fairly dirty due to a possible new slide. The old slides are still pumping is mud as usual whenever the drainage gets a hard rain. It depends if it is the slide up in Hyampom or Coon Creek slide as to what color the rive will be. On my way over to Redding this last week the upper sections of the Trinity look great and I saw some rafts and drift boats on the river. How they did I am not sure because I didn’t see anyone with a hookup.
Upper Klamath fish video counts: Julian week 52 ending Dec.30, Bogus Creek, Chinook salmon 0, total 974; Coho 0, total 53; Scott River, Chinook salmon 0, total 1,505, Coho 0, total 334; Shasta River, Chinook salmon 1, total 5,867, Coho 1, total 61.
Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 7,431cfs. The Klamath is going up and down as each storm comes in and subsides. I didn’t get a chance to talk to my contacts on the upper sections of the Klamath this week so I am not sure what the fishing conditions were. Sorry!
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 85% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) with inflows of 388cfs and releasing 326cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 73% of capacity (an increase of 0% plus 0ft) with inflows of 4,830cfs and releasing 4,442cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 82% (a decrease of 10%) with inflows of 4,826cfs and releasing 5,045cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 60% of capacity (an increase of 3% plus 2ft) with inflows of 3,176cfs with releases of 2,5661cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 50% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 2ft) with inflows of 1,605cfs with releases of 2,349cfs into the American river.
Trinity Lake: The lake is 32ft below the overflow (an increase of 1ft) and 80% of capacity (an increase of 0%) and inflows of 548cfs and releasing 540cfs into Lewiston Lake with 247cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,099cfs into the Sacramento River.
Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 96% of capacity (an increase of 2%) and water releases are 293cfs with water temperatures of 43.4 degrees, as of :00pm today Sunday January 12,2020. Limekiln Gulch is 4.73ft at 332cfs. Douglas City is 6.38ft and flows of 376cfs. with air temps of 48 water temperatures of 42.8 degrees. Junction City is 1.90ft at 424cfs. Helena is 8.58ft at 522cfs with water temps of 42.3 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 3.53ft at 851cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 3.29ft at 452cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 1,303cfs and air is 48 degrees and water at 43.4 degrees. Hoopa is 14.11ft at 2,999cfs and water is 44.1 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 7,431cfs.
Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,009cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.50ft at 1,470cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,734cfs, the Salmon River is 3.06ft at 883cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 3,549cfs. Orleans is 4.46ft at 4,432cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.31ft at 13,353cfs and water temps are 45.3 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith are 11.55ft with flows of 9,579cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 17.40ft at N/A cfs.
Temperatures in the Valley last week had a high of 58 and a low of 34. Rain for the week was 2.78in with a water year to date of 25.32 inches, with only a trace of snow in willow Creek, snow of 0.0in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures in the highs of 57 and lows of 34 with some rain and scattered showers during the first part of the week and by Wednesday there should be snow on all of the passes. The weather forecast is snow down to 3,000ft and possibly lower in some areas. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of next week could possibly be some fair fishing if the rivers are not blown out. If you plan to try and come up you might want to check for road conditions before you travel.
