Today is Nov. 7th,2022. On Nov 7, 1941 the United States of America was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As President Roosevelt stated “a day of infamy”. I was a young boy listening to that speech on the radio in our living room in Los Angeles. My Dad had called us in from playing football in the front yard to hear the sad news. It was devastating! Thus, the starting of World War II. Not many of us left that can say that.
The good news for this Nov. 7th is that the rain last night, Sunday Nov. 6th, it poured last night (2.33in of rain), the Willow Creek Weir had a great push of steelhead. The weir counted 100 steelhead going through. November 1st the South Fork opened to fishing for steelhead, artificial lures or flies, catch and release only. It is also expected to be another good run today. What does this mean? Look out SF and upper river because the Real Winter Steelhead are going to hit the Trinity River!
Sorry but the heavy rain last night must have disrupted the different river gauges so I could not get a reading on what happened to Trinity Lake in the amount of water storage that was left in the lake for today.
Lewiston Lake, Pine Creek Marina: From Louise and Matt of the Pine Cove Marina and Park (530-778-3878);Fishing is still hot but the size of the fish being landed are bit smaller closer to the 12in range. Fly fishers are still able to do very well with midges and nymphs. “The big trick is to find the fish, best results is to use light gear, 6lb test or lighter”. Matt and Louise fished the upper river fishing with Daren from the Redding Fly Shop and had a blast with lots of hook ups with Louise landing a nice native steelie.
Trinity River Hatchery summary: Julian Week 43 ending Oct. 22, 2022; Fall Run Chinook Salmon, 288-adult, 285-jacks, total 571, season total 571; Coho salmon, 0-jack, 3-adult, season total 3; 10-steelhead, season total 31.
Junction City weir summary: Julian week 44 ending Nov. 4; Chinook salmon, 10-jack, 31-adult, total 41, season total 3,141; Coho salmon, 1-jack, 25-adult, total 26, season total 87; steelhead, 10-adult, 0-1/2lbs, total 10, season total 184, Brown trout, 0, season total 22.
Willow Creek weir summary: Julian week 44 ending Nov. 4, 2022; Fall Run Chinook salmon, 21-jacks, 38-adults, total 59, season total 1,190; Coho salmon, 3-jacks, 13-adults,total 16, season total 807; steelhead, 4-1/2lbs, 44-adults, total 48, season total 247. Plus, the other 100 steelhead that were counted Sunday makes for a very good showing of winter fishing.
Fishing: Sunday night the sky opened up and drenched the Willow Creek area with 2.33 inches of rain. It brought up the South Fork and main stem some but not enough to make fishing bad. In fact, it helped to move the fish up the river from Weitchpec. Fly fishing should really pick up in the next week. As for the plunkers, I would say get out there and hit your favorite fishing hole and get some good hook ups.
As for my concerns about the fires and their residue I may have been over concerned about he effects to the river because I have not seen any ash or heavy burn residue in the river as of yet. In fact, we may have missed the bullet on that. To end this, I would say that the rain brought up the river just enough to make fishing great!
Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 4,007cfs. This is an increase of 1,994cfs. Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,042cfs. Fishing around Weitchpec above the bridge and up to Orleans has been good because of the change in the weather. Fish are moving!
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 93% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) with inflows of N/Acfs and releasing N/Acfs in to Spring Creek. Shasta Lake is N/A% of capacity (a decrease of 0% minus 0ft) with inflows of N/Acfs and releasing N/Acfs into Keswick. Keswick is N/A% (an increase of 0%) with inflows of N/Acfs and releasing N/Acfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 30% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 12ft) with inflows of 3,818cfs with releases of 7,797cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is N/A% of capacity (a decrease of 0% minus 0ft) with inflows of N/Acfs with releases of N/Acfs into the American river.
Trinity Lake: The lake is 178ft below the overflow (an increase of 0ft) and 22% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) with inflows of N/Acfs and releasing N/Acfs into Lewiston Lake with N/Acfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to Keswick Power Plant, leaving N/AAF in lake storage (a decrease of N/AAF), and releasing N/Acfs into the Sacramento River.
Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is N/A% of capacity (an increase of 0%) and water releases of 306cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 49.5 degrees, as of 10:00am today Monday November 7, 2022. Limekiln Gulch is 4.67ft at 315cfs. Douglas City is 6.31ft with flows of 332cfs with water temperatures of 47.8 degrees. Junction City is 1.79ft at 382cfs. Helena is 8.31ft at 439cfs with water temps of 49.4 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.79ft at 568cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.17ft at 154cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 722cfs and air is 43 degrees and water at 49.8 degrees, Hoopa is 12.00ft at 1,109cfs with water at 50.4 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath in Weitchpec are estimated to be 4,007cfs an increase of 1,994cfs.
Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,042cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.35ft at 1,361cfs. Indian Creek is 3.77ft at 156cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,517cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 2,403fs, and the Salmon River is 2.15ft at 495cfs. Orleans is 3.27ft at 2,898cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 9.61ft at 5,510cfs and water temps are 51.6 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jed Smith are 7.58ft with flows of 2,496cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 14.41ft at N/A cfs.
Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 66 and a low of 38 degrees. Rain for the week was 2.33in with a water year total to date of 3.40 inches and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 69 and lows of 42. We ae into the rainy season for now so let’s hope that it will keep up through the New Year. We can use the cooler temperatures and we need more rain to help to fill Trinity Lake and the other reservoirs.
