Sorry but I have been out of the area down south and got caught in the floods below Sacramento. I have traveled Hwy 99 many, many times and have NEVER seen it covered in water like it was last week. All of the farms in the area were covered in water so I stayed below on dry ground in Turlock! All the rain that has been coming down has really made a mess of northern California. I am glad to be home again though. I hope all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It seems as that is all we have for us is more rain. On the Trinity it has not been much better. Highway 299 has seen its share of slides also during the storms. The good part, with all these storms, is that some of the reservoirs have started to recover. The Trinity has recovered some but it can use a lot more water. It did recover up to the cold-water pool mark. (680,833AF vs 600,000AF) Most of the rivers and some creeks have reached their peak and started to decline getting ready for the next storm coming. The Trinity in front of my house has covered the gravel bar and bushes. That is rise of 14ft to 18ft of water. On my way coming from Redding, I saw the Trinity River bank to bank most all the way home to Willow Creek. If only we could capture some of that water for future use! Not all but some.
Bureau of Reclamation stopped winter releases January 8th. With all the storms coming I don’t understand their reasoning but who does any more.
Lewiston Lake. Pine Cove Marina: I have not contacted Louise or Matt of Pine Cove Marina and Park (530-778-3878) since I got back, sorry.
Trinity River Hatchery summary: Julian Week 48 ending Dec. 2, 2022; Fall Run Chinook Salmon, 94-adult, 16-jacks, total 110, season total 3,835; Coho salmon, 24-jack, 177-adult, total 201, season total 1,539; 10-steelhead, season total 59. I see we are starting to get enough salmon for the hatchery to reach their egg quota. This is great!
Junction City weir summary: Julian week 51 ending Dec. 23, 2022; Chinook salmon, 0 -jack, 0-adult, total 0, season total 3,195; Coho salmon, 0-jack, 0-adult, total 0, season total 252; steelhead, 0-adult, 0-1/2lbs, total 0, season total 221, Brown Trout, 0, season total 22. The weirs have been removed prior to the storms. The data will be reviewed for a final report and presented later for public review.
Fishing: No fishing has been going on since the storms so there will be nothing to report. Hopefully there will be some fishing after the storms cease. Some of the guides are fishing he Sacramento River and others are fishing other rivers.
Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing cfs. This is an increase of 304cfs. Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,011cfs. Due to the Holiday week, I have not been able to get fishing reports from the Klamath River area. I hope to do better next week.
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 102% of capacity (an increase of 16%) with inflows of 4,471cfs and releasing 4,733cfs into Spring Creek and Keswick. Shasta Lake is 47% of capacity (an increase of 15% plus 44ft) with inflows of 35,107cfs and releasing 1,075cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 93% (an increase of 7%) with inflows of 4,695cfs and releasing 4,305cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 52% of capacity (an increase of 23% plus 97ft) with inflows of 27,707cfs with releases of 239cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 43% of capacity (an increase of 14% plus 21ft) with inflows of 16,747cfs with releases of 12,863cfs into the American river. Trinity Lake is 650,833AF plus 156,011AF, the storms have been good to the reservoir, lets hope that it will continue to improver the conditions of the lake. The good part is that the 600,000AF has been reached and passed. I haven’t seen any snow reports from the Trinity Alps area yet but I am sure there has been some. The Trinity Alps is a major water source for Trinity Lake.
Trinity Lake: The lake is 56ft below the overflow (a decrease of 29ft) and 28% of capacity (an increase of 7%) with inflows of 8,759cfs and releasing 58cfs into Lewiston Lake with 267cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to Keswick Power Plant, leaving 680,833AF in lake storage (an increase of 156,011AF), and releasing 4,305cfs into the Sacramento River.
Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 98% of capacity (an increase of 2%) and water releases of 307cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 45.2 degrees, as of 11:30am today January 14, 2023. Limekiln Gulch is 6.25ft at 1,759cfs. Douglas City is 98.73ft with flows of 5,170cfs with water temperatures of 44.9 degrees. Junction City is 7.04ft at 3,848cfs. Helena is 16.57ft at 6,717cfs with water temps of 46.7 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 12.31ft at 12,810cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 15.63ft at 17,227cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 30,037cfs and air is 48 degrees and water at 47.4 degrees, Hoopa is 27.83ft at 43,520cfs with water at 48.1 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath in Weitchpec are estimated to be 69,211cfs an increase of 15,353cfs.
Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing960. Seiad Valley is 5.63ft at 4,891cfs. Indian Creek is 8.44ft at 3,169cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 8,060cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 19,600fs, and the Salmon River is 6.11ft at 6,085cfs. Orleans is 13.04ft at 25,691cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is25.48ft at 90,676cfs and water temps are 48.2 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jed Smith are 15.47ft with flows of 21,711cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 21.58at N/A cfs.
Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 60 and a low of 42 degrees. Rain for the week was 17.1in with a water year total to date of 44.15 inches and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 60 and lows of 37. The rain has hit the valley hard. It comes one wave after other. So far, we have not had much snow in the valley but up in the mountains it is starting to pack up how much we will have to wait until the measurements come out. Let’s hope it is a good snow pack this year.
