Changes to Trinity River Fishing Report

I hope this doesn’t upset you, my readers. I do appreciate your continued support and readership. The New Year brings with it, new changes. My Outdoor Buddy has merged with NorCal Fishing Reports and my Fishing Report newsletter will now be carried on the NorCal Fishing Reports page. The new location will be at: Archive reports, www.norcalfishreports.com/news/archive.php?author_id=945 ; later or new reports will now be at www.norcalfishreports.com/spots/1896/trinity-river—willow-creek-weir,php . For all of you that do follow my reports, please bookmark your computers so that you can keep up with the Trinity River Fishing Reports. I thank you all for your loyalty.

Weather, I am sure I don’t have to tell you that it is raining up here in the Trinity Valley. We need the rain but the area has yet to receive a real good flushing. The rains we have been getting are good for the river and the land but it only raises the river a few inches or a foot per storm. The area is supposed to receive a good snow by the middle of the week and then a possible storm that could flush out the Trinity and hopefully the Klamath too. The weather forecast shows a storm that could drop up to 6 inches or so, but we will have to wait and see what it really brings. If it does bring a really good flushing that should send the message out to the ocean for the winter run to really make their return to their spawning areas up the rivers. I know the Trinity River upper sections have been pretty boney waters for drift boats which makes for hard fishing. In the mean time the lower sections of the river have been muddy, each time a new storm comes in. When it starts to clear just a little bit, we get some small runs but not the main push of the winter steelhead run. I hope I have better news next week.

Trinity River Hatchery: No report this week. Julian week 52 ending Dec. 31; Fall Chinook, 1-jacks, 8-adults, total 9, season total 6,064; Coho, 1-jacks, 24-adults, total 25, season total 607; steelhead, 27, total 27 ,season total 43.

Trinity River Redds survey: Looks like we might be all through for Redd counts. Julia week 49 week ending Dec. 9; survey sections 01- 05 Lewiston through Douglas City; sections 09 and 10 Big Bar, total 17 total Redds counted 44, total season Redds surveyed to date 1,525.

Fishing: The Trinity River has been hard to fish lately due to the small rain storms. The upper sections have been shallow and clear while the bottom sections have been muddy. This pas week Junction City down to Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) has been dirty due to the different slides on the main stem and then the South Fork has been fairly dirty due to a possible new slide. The old slides are still pumping is mud as usual whenever the drainage gets a hard rain. It depends if it is the slide up in Hyampom or Coon Creek slide as to what color the rive will be. On my way over to Redding this last week the upper sections of the Trinity look great and I saw some rafts and drift boats on the river. How they did I am not sure because I didn’t see anyone with a hookup.

Upper Klamath fish video counts: Julian week 52 ending Dec.30, Bogus Creek, Chinook salmon 0, total 974; Coho 0, total 53; Scott River, Chinook salmon 0, total 1,505, Coho 0, total 334; Shasta River, Chinook salmon 1, total 5,867, Coho 1, total 61.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 7,431cfs. The Klamath is going up and down as each storm comes in and subsides. I didn’t get a chance to talk to my contacts on the upper sections of the Klamath this week so I am not sure what the fishing conditions were. Sorry!

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 85% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) with inflows of 388cfs and releasing 326cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 73% of capacity (an increase of 0% plus 0ft) with inflows of 4,830cfs and releasing 4,442cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 82% (a decrease of 10%) with inflows of 4,826cfs and releasing 5,045cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 60% of capacity (an increase of 3% plus 2ft) with inflows of 3,176cfs with releases of 2,5661cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 50% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 2ft) with inflows of 1,605cfs with releases of 2,349cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 32ft below the overflow (an increase of 1ft) and 80% of capacity (an increase of 0%) and inflows of 548cfs and releasing 540cfs into Lewiston Lake with 247cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,099cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 96% of capacity (an increase of 2%) and water releases are 293cfs with water temperatures of 43.4 degrees, as of :00pm today Sunday January 12,2020. Limekiln Gulch is 4.73ft at 332cfs. Douglas City is 6.38ft and flows of 376cfs. with air temps of 48 water temperatures of 42.8 degrees. Junction City is 1.90ft at 424cfs. Helena is 8.58ft at 522cfs with water temps of 42.3 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 3.53ft at 851cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 3.29ft at 452cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 1,303cfs and air is 48 degrees and water at 43.4 degrees. Hoopa is 14.11ft at 2,999cfs and water is 44.1 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 7,431cfs.

Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,009cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.50ft at 1,470cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,734cfs, the Salmon River is 3.06ft at 883cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 3,549cfs. Orleans is 4.46ft at 4,432cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.31ft at 13,353cfs and water temps are 45.3 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith are 11.55ft with flows of 9,579cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 17.40ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week had a high of 58 and a low of 34. Rain for the week was 2.78in with a water year to date of 25.32 inches, with only a trace of snow in willow Creek, snow of 0.0in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures in the highs of 57 and lows of 34 with some rain and scattered showers during the first part of the week and by Wednesday there should be snow on all of the passes. The weather forecast is snow down to 3,000ft and possibly lower in some areas. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of next week could possibly be some fair fishing if the rivers are not blown out. If you plan to try and come up you might want to check for road conditions before you travel.

It is winter steelhead fishing time

I hope all had a great Thanksgiving with family and hope you are getting ready for Christmas. I was away for Thanksgiving and with family down south and stuffed myself with turkey and pie.
The north state had a bit of weather while I was away and it looked like the area tried to catch up with the rain fall. While I was gone the area had lots of rain and plenty of snow in the higher elevations. This was good for the rivers and streams but also sent message to the fish. Get up river for spawning you are late! Fishing was really slow for salmon on the Trinity this year but it looks like it could be a great steelhead fishing year. By the way don’t forget to buy your new fishing license and steelhead harvest card for the beginning of next year’s fishing. Right now, with all the rain the rivers are muddy but as I make out this report the rivers are on the retreat, meaning that they will be clearing and dropping fast! From what I am seeing the Trinity should be ready to fish this weekend with lots of steelhead throughout the river. The fish are moving fast even in the mud so get your tackle and gear ready, change your lines and leaders and be ready to head out at the first clear skies.

There has been some controversy going on about the salmon fishing for the Trinity River. Some are saying the Hoopa Weir has allowed the tribe to take to much salmon and not leaving enough salmon to spawn for the next spawning. I have been looking into this and have found out that it has been a multitude of things that has caused the lack of salmon on the Trinity. 1. The PFMC made a mistake about how many salmon would be available for sharing the harvest; 2. The fish had a bad year out in the ocean for feed; 3. This is the beginning of the returns that the Klamath and Trinity Rivers had very bad conditions with hot water, Ich and Shasta-C causing a loss of 80 to 90% of out migrating smolt; 4. Possible over-harvesting of our salmon by Tribes. I am sure that there are several other conditions that I have missed that could have also caused the loss of our returning salmon for the Klamath River Basin. My best recommendation is that you write your congressmen and senators to start a through and complete investigation about these problems so that we don’t lose our fishing. Letters and email do help and we are going to need lots of them if you want o keep fishing the Klamath and Trinity Rivers.
We have the “Fox guarding the Hen House”. When it comes to Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, the previous chief lobbyist for Westland Water District. The new water contract would give them a permanent deliver of 1.15 Million Acre Feet of water per year, enough water to supply 2 million households with water for one year. All of that at a cheap rate that Westland’s can sell at a great profit. We had better be writing some emails and letters about that or the Trinity will not have enough water for the fish to swim.

Trinity River Hatchery: Julian week 48 ending Dec. 2; Fall Chinook, 27-jacks, 106-adults, total 133, season total 1373; Coho, 4-jacks, 123-adults, total 127, season total 242; steelhead, 0, total 0 ,season total 14.

Willow Creek Weir counts: Julian week 48 ending Dec. 2; Fall Chinook salmon, 1-jacks, 0-adults, total 1, season totals 1,589; Coho salmon, 0-jacks, 0-adults, total 0, season total 153; steelhead, 0-1/2-pounders, 3-adults, total 3, season total 779.

Trinity River Redds survey: Julia week 47 week ending Nov. 26; survey sections 01- 02 Lewiston 8; 06 – 07 Junction City and Helena 6, total 15; total reach on Trinity River Lewiston to Weitchpec 1,481 Redds surveyed.

Fishing: The Trinity is running muddy right now as I write this report but the good news is that the rivers and streams are on their way down and look to be dropping most of the first part of the week. There have been a lot of steelhead moving on the Trinity prior to the muddy water and I am sure that they continued to move during this muddy water. During the mining days I have read that the salmon would swim up the Trinity even when the river was so thick with mud from the hydraulic mining that one could practically walk across the river and not get your pants wet. So, I am sure that the steelhead were not detoured buy this little bit of dirty water. The Thanksgiving holiday storm sent the message and this set of storms has got them moving. Last week Dec. 3^rd, Brian Clemens and a friend of his fly fished from the South Fork to Big Rock section the Willow Creek run and was able to hook five adult natives up to 6lbs. On Dec. 6^th Brian and another guide, Rob Salkow, fly fished the Hawkins Bar to Kimtu section down here and were able to hook 6 adult natives and a couple of half-pounders. The good news is that they saw several pods of adult Iron Heads moving up river during their trip. This tells me that steelhead are on the move to their up-river spawning grounds. It also states that there is going to be some very good fishing in the upper sections of the Trinity very soon! If I were going to think about fishing for winter steelhead in the near future, I would be booking me a guide for next week.

Upper Klamath fish video counts: Julian week 47 ending Nov. 25, Bogus Creek, Chinook salmon 0, total 973; Coho 0, total 5; Scott River, Chinook salmon 14, total 1,490, Coho 5, total 23; Shasta River, Chinook salmon 3, total 5,848, Coho 1, total 23.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 11,393cfs. Right now, the Klamath is muddy but with the river and in-flowing steams starting to drop the river should be clearing up for the weekend. Fishing below Orleans is non-existent right now because of high muddy water. After the river clears the fishing should start picking up around the mouth of the Trinity and up to Slate Creek. Up river, Happy Camp to I-5 there will be better fishing as more adults move into the system. Above I-5 I would expect “all bets are off” for trout and steelhead fishing because fishing should be very good.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 89% of capacity (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 3,482cfs and releasing 268cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 71% of capacity (an increase of 0% plus 1ft) with inflows of 20,322cfs and releasing 4,352cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 90% (a decrease of 1%) with inflows of 5,277cfs and releasing 5,034cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 55% of capacity (an increase of 0% plus 2ft) with inflows of 9,295cfs with releases of 2,397cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 51% of capacity (a decrease of 1% minus 3ft) with inflows of 2,729cfs with releases of 2,373cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 33ft below the overflow (an increase of 0ft) and 79% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) and inflows of 4,287cfs and releasing 209cfs into Lewiston Lake with -84cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,034cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 94% of capacity (a decrease of 4%) and water releases are 293cfs with water temperatures of 45.5 degrees, as of 1:00pm today Sunday December 8, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.93ft at 451cfs. Douglas City is 6.70ft and flows of 560cfs. with air temps of 53 water temperatures of 45.7 degrees. Junction City is 2.58ft at 736cfs. Helena is 10.01ft at 988cfs with water temps of 46.1 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 5.66ft at 2,038cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 5.17ft at 1,669cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 3,707cfs and air is 55 degrees and water at 46.1 degrees. Hoopa is 16.90ft at 5,952cfs and water is 47.2 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 11,393cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,003cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.63ft at 1,569cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,986cfs, the Salmon River is 3.23ft at 999cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 4,442cfs. Orleans is 5.03ft at 5,441cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.30ft at 13,273cfs and water temps are 47.8 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 9.37ft with flows of 5,005cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 15.91ft at N/A cfs. Prior to these rains the Salmon River was almost dry with only wet sand. (Bad News)

Temperatures in the Valley last week had a high of 55 and a low of 42. Rain for the week was 9.98in with a water year to date of 12.43 inches, with only a trace of snow in willow Creek, snow of 0.0in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures of highs of 64 and lows of 32 with some scattered showers and possible clear weekend weather.

Winter like weather is steelhead weather

Sorry about no report last week but my area was on “Safety Power Shut Off” due to PG&E for Northern California.
It appears that this is going to happen more often when we have high winds, dry weather and Red Flag conditions. The reasoning for that is to try and stop/reduce disastrous fires in California.

With the cold winter like weather we are experiencing in the Trinity Valley the water temperatures are dropping to a point where the steelhead are moving up to their spawning grounds. This is good because we are starting to see more adult steelhead go through the Willow Creek area. At the present time we are seeing about a 25% drop in returning adult hatchery steelhead at the Willow Creek Weir as compared to last year at this time, but we are seeing an increase in adult native steelhead. I don’t know if this is good or bad yet because I am not sure of what it takes for the Trinity River Hatchery egg count for the rearing and release of steelhead into the Trinity River. I do know that the Klamath River Hatchery has not been able to reach their hatchery steelhead release for several years so the Upper Klamath has become a “catch and release fishery for steelhead for some time. The good part is that the Willow Creek Weir count of steelhead has increased over last year’s return by about 33% for this time of year. It’s just later this year than last year’s return.

I know many of you are concerned about the low amount of salmon that have retuned to the Trinity for salmon fishing this year and all I can say is that I am looking into it and hope I can have something soon. I am trying to find an answer but, in the meantime, I would advise you to write letters to your congressman about the pour fishing conditions on the Trinity River and request an investigation into the Trinity River Restoration Program and the placing of a second weir in the river on the Hoopa Reservation. Letters do help, complaints to me and other fishermen does nothing. You can write your representative. U.S. Senate, Dianne Feinstein: Hart Senate Office Building, Room 331Washington, D.C. 20510; U.S. Representative Jared Huffman: 1630 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515; Huffman.house.gov, the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of NOAA.

We are also having a serious problem on the South Fork of the Trinity River. The return of spring run Chinook salmon for this year is drastically low, only 12 – 14 spawning salmon were counted this year and that makes that run genetically limited and could possibly go extinct. What is the TRRP doing with the $2million watershed money they are supposed to be using for watershed restoration. Spending it on the Upper Trinity destroying in-river salmon spawning! Again, letters and emails to our representatives are the only thing that will make a change.

Trinity River Hatchery: Julian week 43 ending Oct. 28; sub-total for Spring Chinook, jack totals 532, adult totals 3,946, for a total of 4,478; Coho 0, Steelhead 2, season total 9.

Junction City Weir counts: ended on Julian week 40 Oct. 7; Chinook salmon, 3-jack, 2-adult, total 5, season total 546; Coho 0; steelhead ½-lbs 0, adults 1, season total 118; Brown Trout 0, season total 23.

Willow Creek Weir counts: Julian week 43 ending Oct. 28; Chinook salmon, 15-jacks, 13-adults, total 28, season totals 1,493; Coho salmon, 1-jacks, 19-adults, total 20, season total 89; steelhead, ½-pounders – 18, adults -19, total 37, season total 704.

Fishing: Right now the Trinity is running low and cold with very little fishing pressure. It is hard to find anyone fishing on the river. The few that are fishing are having a good time catching and releasing steelhead with some good-sized adults amongst the jacks. It is true that 75% of the steelhead landed are native fish, but it is still fun hooking into one of those feisty fish. From the Willow Creek Weir counts the main part of this run happened last week down here so I would expect that those fish should be arriving in the upper part of the river by this weekend. The low flow (293cfs Lewiston releases) of the river and clarity of the water makes it hard to just walk up and drop a line in without spooking the fish. So, I recommend stealth and patients to land those Iron Heads.

Upper Klamath fish video counts: Julian week 43 ending Oct. 29, 11, 16; Bogus Creek, Chinook salmon 1,062; Coho 0; Scott River, Chinook salmon 1,000, Coho 1; Shasta River, Chinook salmon 5,592, total 6,093, Coho 0.

Lower Klamath Creel Counts:) Julian week 43 ending Oct. 28, Below Highway 101 Bridge; jacks 0, adults 14, total 14, season total 1,006.
Above Highway 101 Bridge; 4-jacks, 11- adults, total 14, season total 4,820. Lower Klamath season total count 5,826. The Lower Klamath river quota has not been met yet so one can still keep adult salmon below the Wetchpec Bridge.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 2,712cfs. Fishing below Orleans has slowed for salmon with the colder water but has picked up somewhat for steelhead. The Happy Camp to I-5 has really turned hot for steelhead fishing. The area below the dam has been hard for salmon as the salmon a re very dark, but fishing for trout and steelhead has picked up with the colder weather and cooler water.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 85% of capacity (a decrease of 5%) with inflows of 532cfs and releasing 541cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 72% of capacity (a decrease of 1% minus 3ft) with inflows of 2,359cfs and releasing 5,398cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 94% (an increase of 3%) with inflows of 6,020cfs and releasing 5,741cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 57% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 7ft) with inflows of 1,240cfs with releases of 4,484cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 66% of capacity (a decrease of 6% minus 6ft) with inflows of 1,306cfs with releases of 2,953cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 31ft below the overflow (an increase of 1ft) and 80% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) and inflows are 113cfs and releasing 901cfs into Lewiston Lake with 608cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,741cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 97% of capacity (an increase of 2%) and water releases are 293cfs with water temperatures of 43.6 degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Sunday November 3, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.72ft at 327cfs. Douglas City is 6.27ft and flows of 320cfs. with air temps of 55 water temperatures of 45.4 degrees. Junction City is 1.69ft at 373cfs. Helena is 8.09ft at 346cfs with water temps of 46.2 degrees and water turbidity at 0.90. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.41ft at 419cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.19ft at 91cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 510cfs and air is 50 degrees and water at 46.3 degrees. Hoopa is 11.27ft at 665cfs and water is 46.8 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 2,712cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,308cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.67ft at 1,600cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,656cfs, the Salmon River is 1.92ft at 219cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,828cfs. Orleans is 3.06ft at 2,047cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.74ft at 3,134cfs and water temps are 49.2 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 8.46ft with flows of 820cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.78ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week had a high of 68 and a low of 31. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year to date of 2.38 inches, with snow of 0.0in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures of highs of 85 and lows of 46 with some clouds at first and then sunshine for the rest of the week. Fishing for the coming weekend is looking better on the Klamath but with more steelhead on the Trinity. We need some rain to bring in more fresh fish and improve fishing.

Fall Run Chinook Salmon

The Trinity River Fall Run Chinook salmon are now starting to trickle in, but very slowly! The Lower Klamath has only harvested 2,241 Fall Chinook salmon as of September 9^th. We should have seen about twice that number move through the system by now as we are looking at the third week of September already. Part of the problem was the heat during the early part of August but I believe it was mostly low water flows for that time period. The increased water flows for the Tribal Ceremonies last week helped but we need more water in the rivers to help get the salmon to move up the rivers. A real good short flush from both dams would really help move fish into the Klamath and up the river. Usually by the second week of August we are seeing salmon staging at the mouths of Hopkins and Bluff Creek. These are their cooling off areas after Blue Creek and before the Fall salmon go backdown to the Trinity or head on up Iron Gate and Bogus Creek. We will soon see what is going to happen on the Trinity because the Willow Creek weir is in and operating.

Trinity River Hatchery: “The Trinity River Hatchery started letting fish up the ladder last week” Mary Claire Kier, fish biologist CDFW. 201 adult Chinook salmon moved up into the holding tanks and another 1,213 adults were put into the round tanks to “ripen” for JW36 TRH count.

Junction City Weir counts: Julian week 36 the week ending Sep.9; Chinook salmon, 0-jack, 1-adult, total 1, season total 459; Coho 0; steelhead ½-lbs 0, adults 1, season total 91; Brown Trout 0, season total 22. The Junction City weir only trapped one day and was closed down and removed Sep. 8^th.

Willow Creek Weir counts: The Willow Creek Weir was installed Sep. 9^th so the first nights trapping will not show up until next week.

Fishing: Fishing the Lower Trinity has been slow but half-pounders are being caught down in Hoopa at Red Rock, up behind the shopping center and at Tish Tang. Most of the people I have talked to were fly fishing. I did see a fisherman down by the mouth of Willow Creek throwing iron but I couldn’t see if he had landed any fish. One of my fishing buddies that fly fishes said he had fished Kimtu Beach last week but all he caught was down running smolt. Up river fishing has also been slow but early Fall Run Chinook salmon are being caught. In fact, one of the first early Fall salmon caught and brought into camp at the Del Loma RV and Campground was a nice 8lb salmon by Harold of San Diego. It’s a shame that us “old timers” are the ones that have to be the first at most things including catching fish! The coming week is predicted to cool down with some possible thunder storms and rain showers. If that happens, I would suspect that a good influx of fresh Fall Run Chinook will be the talk around the campfires. There are also some older dark spring run salmon being caught in the upper sections of the river.

Lower Klamath Creel Counts: Below Highway 101Bridge; Julian week 36 ending Sep. 9; jacks 82, adults 173 total 255, season total 545.
Above Highway 101 Bridge; Week ending Sep. 9; jacks 854, adults 404, total 1,258, season total 1,696. Lower Klamath season total count 2,150.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 2,065cfs and the river is looking very good for fishing. John from E Ne Nuck, hasn’t said anything how the fishing is down there but I heard that the Indians at Weitchpec have put out their nets expecting a good run of fish to be coming in. I sure hope so because if the fresh Fall Run Salmon don’t start coming in soon people are going to pack up and go home.
With the releases from Iron Gate increasing up to 1,076cfs the trout fishing from Happy Camp up Iron Gate should be explant. A call to Scot Caldwell of SC Guide Service should let you know how that area is fishing. If you are interested, I am sure he can put you onto some great fishing from Iron Gate down to I-5 if you want to book him. Flows at Seiad Valley are 1,230cfs. so, fishing above I-5 should still be great and fishing down around Happy Camp should also be in the best of conditions. A call to Marble Mountain Adventures, Doug or Heidi Cole at 800-552-6284 should get you the information of how good the fishing for trout is.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 99% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows of 61cfs and releasing 155cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 77% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus32ft) with inflows of 1,600cfs and releasing 8,147cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 94% (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 8,589cfs and releasing 8,485cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 69% of capacity (a decrease of 8% minus 9ft) with inflows of 3,236cfs with releases of 12,037cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 74% of capacity (a decrease of 1% minus 1ft) with inflows of 2,227cfs with releases of 5,67cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 23ft below the overflow (an increase of 0ft) and 85% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) and inflows are 216cfs and releasing 401cfs into Lewiston Lake with 0cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 8,485cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 79% of capacity and releases are 504cfs and water temperatures of 55.6 degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Sunday September 15, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.94ft at 454cfs. Douglas City is 6.56ft and flows of 475cfs. with air temps of 76 water temperatures of N/A degrees. Junction City is 2.03ft at 492cfs. Helena is 8.60ft at 490cfs with water temps of 58.1 degrees and water turbidity at 1.20. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.72ft at 527cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.06ft at 79cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 606cfs and air is 77 degrees and water at 63 degrees. Hoopa is 11.46ft at 775cfs and water is 66.8 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 2,065cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,076cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.16ft at 1,230cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,281cfs, the Salmon River is 1.89ft at 208cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,087cfs. Orleans is 2.54ft at 1,290cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.36ft at 2,414cfs and water temps of 69.6 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 4.72ft and flows of 229cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.65ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week were a high of 88 and a low of 51. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year to date of 67.93 inches, with snow of 4.5in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures again with a high of 94 with a low of 49. Thunder storms are predicted for Monday and Wednesday of this week and sun for the coming weekend. Hopefully we will also have some good fish’en.

River is still dirty!

The River Restoration project above Junction City is still providing lots of turbidity for that area of the river and makes for bad fishing. Will it do to or for any in-river spawning? Years ago, before the Dam the mining turned the river into a “river of mud” but the salmon had plenty of clean up-stream area to spawn in. If the river restoration is supposed to provide more spawning area for the Chinook salmon where are the reports of increased production of the salmon? I have not seen any nor is there any listed report of an increase of Chinook salmon for the upper Trinity River. The Trinity Hatchery produces 3 million Chinook, 280,000 steelhead (reduced from 500,000) and 300,000 (reduced from 500,000) Coho salmon but no reports from the TRRP of in-river spawning production. There is a report of in-river salmon Redds but no follow up of how they do. So, what does the TRRP do other than spend $15 million per year on “river restoration” that does not improve the fishing opportunities.

I will have more on the Hoopa weir next week as I am waiting for a response from the Hoopa Tribe as to how they plan to manage the weir.

Junction City Weir counts: Julian week 31 the week endingAug. 5; Chinook salmon, 5-jack, 48-adult, total 53, season total 124; Coho 0; steelhead ½-lbs 0, adults 16, season total 16; Brown Trout 3, season total 13.

Fishing: Fishing above the Round house is still very good. Both Todd LeBoeuf, Tiger T guide service, has reported great fishing above the Round House. Last week Todd took out Dana and Chris Dase of Oregon and was able to get them limits of salmon with the largest being 18lbs. They were also able to hook up and release a couple of nice adult summer run steelhead to finish off their trip.
Summer releases have arrived and Lewiston is now releasing 444cfs into the river. The extra water releases for the Hoopa Boat Dance should be released sometime around Sept. 3^rdfor the ceremonies. (This is the odd year, even years is Yurok’s)
Just 20 more days before the Fall Chinook salmon season opens! Labor Day weekend starts Aug. 31^st but Sept. 1^st is Sunday of that weekend. You salmon fishermen had better get in your reservations now if you want to hopefully get a guide and a place to stay.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 2,622cfs and the river is a nice green now. John Harlan from E Ne Nuck, reported that the moss has dissipated and the river is green again. The problem being that the salmon have not shown up yet at Bluff Creek. Usually they start to show up around the first week of August. He did state that he saw plenty of nice steelhead at the mouth of Hopkin’s Creek. That would be natural because Hopkin’s Creek is nothing but cold water coming down off of the mountain. The fish love to take a break there and cool off some before the head on up the Klamath or turn around and go up the Trinity.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 98% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows 1,574cfs and releasing 1,628cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 8% of capacity (a decrease of % minus 4ft) with inflows of 2,829cfs and releasing 9,799cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 93% (a decrease of 0%) with inflows of 11,668cfs and releasing 11,107cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 84% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 7ft) with inflows of 3,062cfs with releases of 11,288cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 8% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 2ft) with inflows of 1,917cfs with releases of 1,917cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: the lake is 17ft below the overflow (an increase of 2ft) and 89% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) and inflows are 5cfs and releases are 1,674cfs into Lewiston Lake with 1,372cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 10,903cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 444cfs and water temperatures of 54.8 degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Saturday August 10, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.89ft at 366cfs. Douglas City is 6.54ft and flows of 464cfs. with air temps of 69 water temperatures of N/A degrees. Junction City is N/Aft at N/A cfs due to turbidity. Helena is 8.75ft at 445cfs with water temps of 59.7 degrees and water turbidity of 1.40 (Hi was 4.30 @ 10am). Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.97ft at 623cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.40ft at 145cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 768cfs and air is 67 degrees and water at 66 degrees. Hoopa is 11.71ft at 929cfs and water is 69 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 2,622cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,093cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.29ft at 1,319cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,408cfs, the Salmon River is 2.25ft at 357cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,336cfs. Orleans is 2.84ft at 1,693cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.64ft at 2,938cfs and water temps of 71.7 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 5.07ft and flows of 368cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.42ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week were 100 hi with a low of 53. Rain for the week was 0.23in with thunder and lightning storms and total rain for the water year to date of 67.93 inches, with snow of 4.5in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures in the mid to hi 90s and sunshine for the coming weekend. We had rain and thunder and lightning storms come through last week which cooled things down a bit.

Changes to Trinity River Fishing Report

It is winter steelhead fishing time

Winter like weather is steelhead weather

Fall Run Chinook Salmon

River is still dirty!

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