Rain and Snow Pack

Rain has been scarce for the last couple of weeks although we had a little bit of rain Sunday afternoon. The sun was nice but not good for the plants as it started them to bloom. This morning (Sunday) when I got up everything was white with frost and ice not good as the plants will now lose the flowers and the fruit trees will lose some of their fruit. Snow Pack! The first snowpack reading for the Trinity Alps Basin was held February 1^st and the results showed that the Alps were only 22% for this time of year. The statewide results were not much better as it only averaged 24% of normal for this time of year. For those of you that don’t know the snowpack is our water source for the summer. Unless something changes very soon we could be in another drought year. Again “Where would the water come from” if Secretary Zink were to require more water deliveries to the south?
For those who want to know if we are going to have an In- River sport salmon fishing season there is going to be a meeting on March 1^st in Santa Rosa to go over the data for this year’s salmon harvest and returns to see if there was enough return and natural escapement for any kind of salmon fishing season. The numbers I have is 54,000 Chinook salmon return for the overall Klamath River Basin and 18,500 natural escapements. On March 8^th through 14^th the PFMC will meet in Rohnert Park CA to determine the options for any type of Chinook salmon harvest this fishing year. A proposal of three (3) Chinook salmon per day; one (1) adult and two (2) jacks per day has been requested as a place holder with CDFW for some type of salmon fishing season but that is only a place holder not  a given.
Trinity River Hatchery: For the week ending Feb. 4; Fall Run Chinook salmon , jacks 0, adults 0, total 0, season total 5,632, Coho salmon, jacks 0, adults 0, total 0, season total 422; steelhead 76, season total 1,842.
Klamath Iron Gate: For the week ending Jan. 9; Bogus Creek, Chinook season total 2,247, Coho 0, season total 68; Scott River, Chinook salmon 0, season total 2,279, Coho 382; Shasta River, Chinook salmon season total 9,935, Coho season total 38. There was no report from the Klamath counting station this week.
Fishing: This last week the Trinity was very steelhead green but slightly high. Fishing on the lower section of the river was good for half-pounders but slim for hooking adults. Last weekend Alan Borges and Tom W both fished the Willow Creek run and said the same thing, good for fly fishing for ½-pounders but very few adults.  Up river it was a different thing. Drift boats were doing fair to good fishing for adults but slim on ½-pounders. Todd LeBoeuf of Tiger Guide service was able to get 9 adults to the boat, with Al Austin landing an 8lb and Herb Wolff landing a nice adult. It appears that right now most of the adults are up river and the half pounders are in the lower river. A good rain would change that but at the present there is no rain in the near future.
Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate Dam is releasing 952cfs. This is about the same as last week and it didn’t seem to change fishing on the Klamath above I-5very much, which is good.  The Happy Camp area has been steady the last couple of weeks as Seiad Valley is flowing 1,936cfs a slight decrease over last week. Above I-5 fishing has been fairly steady for the Drift boaters. Bank anglers will see better fishing as they go down river as the Klamath is dropping fairly fast now with no rain. Orleans is flowing 5,840cfs and Wetechpec is flowing 8,620cfs.
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 86% of capacity (an increase of 1%) with inflows of 415cfs and releasing 233cfs into Clear Creek and on to Keswick. Shasta is 74% (an increase of 0% and 1ft) with inflows of 6,069cfs and releasing 3,299cfs, Keswick is 81% of capacity (a decrease of 5%) with inflows of 3,452cfs and releasing 3,844cfs; Oroville Lake is 41%  capacity (an increase of 1% & plus 4ft), inflow is 2,381cfs and releases are 1,652 cfs; Folsom Lake is 58% of capacity (minus 1% & minus 1ft.) inflows are 2,113cfs and releases are 3,054cfs.
Trinity Lake: The Lake is 45ft below the overflow (decrease of 1ft) and 73% of capacity (0% increase) Inflow to Trinity Lake is8027cfs and Trinity Dam is releasing 662cfs to Lewiston Lake with 341cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and on to the Keswick Power Plant and it is releasing  3,844cfs to the Sacramento River.
Trinity River Flows and Conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 321cfs with water temps of N/A and air is N/A degrees at 1:00pm today. Limekiln Gulch is 4.7ft at 35560cfs, water temps of N/A degrees.  Douglas City is 6.2ft at 382cfs, water temps of N/A, air is N/A. Junction City is 1.7ft at 432cfs.  Helena is 9ft at 530cfs with water temps of N/A. Cedar Flat is 3.7ft at 980cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 2,610cfs air is 42 and water at N/A. Hoopa is 14ft at24,780cfs with water temps of N/A.  Flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at Klamath River are estimated to be 8,620cfs.
Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 958cfs.  Seiad Valley is 3ft at 1,930cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 2,365fs, Salmon River is 3.6ft at 1,540cfs, Somes Bar is estimated at 4,310cfs and Orleans is 5.6ft. at 5,840cfs and the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 11.7ft at 13.1Kcfs, with water temperatures of N/A degrees. Flows at Smith River, Dr. Fine Bridge are 7.3ft at 2,100cfs.
Average temperatures in the Valley last week were high 61 low 38 degrees with 0.00in of rain with a season total of 31.25in of rain and no snow. The temperatures for next week are expected to be 63/32 degrees with sun and some clouds, a few scattered showers with little sunshine for the weekend and partial sun the following week.