The Chinook salmon quotas for the Upper Klamath and Upper Trinity have been met for adult Chinook salmon on Sunday October 24. As of October 25, 2021 you can only harvest jacks, (salmon under 23 inches, 2 per day, 6 in possession) on he Klamath above Weitchpec and above Cedar Flat Hwy 299 Bridge on…
From all of the reports I have received and what I have been able to see fishing is starting to pick up. It seems a little late but the fish are here! In the last four weeks the Willow Creek weir has counted 2,281 Chinook salmon and 142 steelhead. These are great numbers for this…
At the June 14-15th California Fish and Game Commission meeting listening to the dozen or so Tribal speakers and only one sports fisherman decided to list the Upper Klamath Spring Chinook salmon as a Threatened Species under the California Endangered Species Act (ESA). Note: Not the Federal Endangered Species Act! Most of the Tribal speakers that spoke for…
The Trinity River spring water releases have started. Today Sunday May 2, 2021 at 11:00am Lewiston Dam is releasing 1,406cfs into the Trinity River. The sad news is that the Klamath River Basin Harvest proposed total is 1,221 Fall Chinook Salmon. Broken down; Lower Klamath from Weitchpec Bridge to the mouth is 610 salmon; Kamath…
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) salmon advisory team has come out with some preliminary numbers for Pacific Coast Fall Chinook salmon harvest availability. The cause; there are many causes but everyone wants to point the finger at someone else or some other problem. Science says that the reason there are declining returns of…
What does the weather have to do with fish and fishing? Many people have asked that question. The weather had much to do with fishing. If we have had fair to good rain to get fish to come into the river to spawn, if the rivers get low amounts of rain then there is…
The Red/Salmon Fire complex fires continue to grow and are now almost 19,000 acres. A lot of the smoke blows west towards Redding but some it is in the Weaverville area, a lot of the smoke lays along the Upper Klamath in the Seiad Valley, Happy Camp, Orleans section of the Upper to Mid Klamath…
The Trinity River Fall Chinook salmon fishing season opened Sunday September 1st. You are allowed two salmon per day with one adult over 22 inches, Six salmon in possession with no more that three adults. Right now, the weather is cooling down a bit from the three-digit temperatures we have been having and some Fall…
Sorry not to make a report last week but I was down south in Fresno to meet with some old cronies I used to work with.The Trinity River summer flows are almost here. The summer flows are supposed to be reached by August 6th. This should be a sign at the mouth of the Klamath…
Trinity River water releases were supposed to be 1,050cfs but due to the problems at the Lewiston water gate, which is still under repair, the true releases are 2,524cfs as of Sunday May 12th. Reclamation hopes to have the repairs done by this week so that they can synchronize back into the TMC recommended…
Finally, we are seeing some of the rivers dropping to fishable conditions. As I write this column, I am watching the Trinity drop in front of my house. (I watch the river bar) This is good news! The mark we have to watch for is when the river levels at Douglas City drops below 1,000cfs…
At the Feb. 6th California Fish and Game Commission meeting, the Karuk Tribe and the Salmon River Restoration Council submitted a petition to the Commission suggesting that declining population trends and a low abundance of the Spring Run Chinook salmon makes vulnerable to extinction. Once a petition for listing a species is presented and accepted…
Yes, we have had some rain on the North Coast and some more inland. Saturday Sept. 29 it rained in Willow Creek and over on the coast in Eureka. We are still in the 2018 water year, the 2019/20 (water year starts Monday Oct. 1). It was not a hard rain but a nice wetting…