Fishing Great Loss

On August 13^th, Ed Trujillo passed away. Ed fished the Trinity River for over 35 years. The group of Trinity River fishermen lost another of their Trinity fishermen. Many of the older fishermen that have fished the Trinity for years knew Ed. He knew every fishing area on the Trinity from the dam to Weitchpec and if you were fishing from the bank and Ed passed you by he would ask how you were doing and tell you a better place to fish and what to use to land a nice Steelhead. Ed just loved to fish the Trinity River for steelhead. He was always ready to help a fellow fisherman catch a steelhead.

Smoke in the valley this past week has been fair to terrible from the Hoopa fire. I did hear that the Hoopa fire should be totally under control or out by Sept 5^th or 6^th give a few days one way or another. In this steep terrain it is very difficult to judge how the fire is going to go and the heavy smoke makes it difficult for the helicopter pilots to see the fire for their water drops.

A new person has replaced Sara Borok for the fishing data on the Lower Klamath. Dan Troxel will be the new CDFW fisheries scientist. The Spit has landed 99 out of 524 quotas; the Lower Klamath has landed 199 out of 1,745 quotas to date.

Junction City weir trapping: week of Aug 13 jacks 4, adults 4, total 8, season total 846. Coho, 0,total 0 season to date 0; Steelhead,1/2lbs 0, adults 6, total 6, season to date 36; Brown Trout 0 total 0, season to date 20

Willow Creek weir trapping: The Willow Creek weir was installed last week and should be operational by the time you read this report hopefully. CDFW has also added a new camera to help count the fish going through the weir when it is open for fish passage. They also added a new type of boat gate for rafters and drift boats. Hwy 96 has been closed to controlled traffic so you might want to call ahead before planning to fish the Willow Creek – Hoopa area of the Trinity. From what I have been able to gather the mouth of the Trinity is clear and fishable with fresh fish coming in.

Fishing: Lewiston Dam is now releasing flows of 713cfs. and because of the Carr Fire and the power plant reduction there has been extra water releases into the Trinity. This has brought in some early salmon and steelhead so fishing has been good lately. Todd LeBoeuf of Tiger T fishing service has been fishing the Upper Trinity for the last two weeks and has been get limits of steelhead for his customers. Aug 25 he took newlyweds Randy and Lauren out and was able to get them into some extent steelhead fishing. Yes it was a little smoky but not real bad. Hwy 299 is open to controlled traffic and is passable. The fires in Hoopa have closed Hwy 96 to controlled traffic. The Tish Tang area of Hoopa is open and fishing is good but I don’t know how bad the smoke is down there. Willow Creek to Hawkins bar is smoky but tolerable.

Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate Dam is releasing flows of 1,684cfs. The increase in water flows is for the Boat Dance. There are some problems with smoke from the Carr fire and the fires up in Oregon but when the wind changes it becomes tolerable for those without breathing problems and fishing is also possible. If you are wanting or thinking about fishing the Upper Klamath then you should call ahead to see what the conditions are. The Mid –Klamath from Happy Camp to Orleans is doing good it just need more fish which should be coming soon as the new water releases hit the mouth of the Klamath. Slate Creel, Bluff Creek and Hopkins Creek are still flowing cold water into the river so I would suggest those areas would be a good place to fish for ½-poundes. Don’t forget there are still have some river closures for Native American Ceremonies.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is N/A% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows of N/A cfs and releasing 640cfs into Clear Creek and on to Keswick. Shasta is 61% of capacity (a decrease of 2% and 9ft) with inflows of 2,962 cfs and releasing 7,844cfs, Keswick is 90% of capacity (an increase of 1%) with inflows of 8,841cfs and releasing 9,037cfs; Oroville Lake is 47%  capacity (a decrease of 1% & minus 3ft), inflow is 2,59587cfs and releases are 7,798cfs; Folsom Lake is 52% of capacity (minus 2% & minus 3ft.) inflows are 2,108cfs and releases are 2,374cfs.

Trinity Lake: the Lake is 60ft below the over flow (a decrease of 1ft) and 65% of capacity (1% decrease) Inflow to Trinity Lake is 87cfs and Trinity Dam is releasing 1,317cfs to Lewiston Lake with 640Acfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 9,037cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 713cfs with water temps of 53.8 degrees and air at 87 at 4:00pm today Sunday. Limekiln Gulch is 5.3ft at 7492fs, with water temps of 56.6 degrees.  Douglas City is 6.8ft at 708cfs, water temps of 57.1 degrees and air is 95 Junction City is 2.3ft at 700cfs.  Helena is 9.5ft at 716fs with water temps of 61.9; Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 3.3ft at 761cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 811cfs and air is 90 with water at 66. Hoopa is 11.7ft at 820cfs with water temps of 68.5.
Flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at Klamath River are estimated to be 3,091cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 1,684cfs.  Seiad Valley is 2.5ft at 1,777cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,817cfs, Salmon River is 1.6ft at 213cfs, Somes Bar is estimated at 2,058cfs and Orleans is 3.3ft. at 2,271cfs and the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.5ft at 3,573cfs, with water temperatures of 69.5 degrees. Flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 4.6ft at 253cfs.

The temperatures in the Valley last week were in the low 50s and the highs were in the low 90s with 0.00in of rain and a season total of 68.45in of rain and a total of 4.15in of snow. Temperatures in the valley next week are expected to run in 90/51 degrees with sunshine during the first part of the week and then some clouds with sunshine the week after.