Sorry about last week for no report but I was up in Idaho checking things out for fishing. Lots of places to fish is all I can say. I was in the
The rains, what little the were, helped the firefighters and slowed the fires progress down. In fact, it helped the firefighters gain control over some of them. The good part is that the smoke hazard has really lessoned, one can finally breath when outside doing things. It is finally great to be able to go out and fish without your chest hurting when you come back home.
River access around Willow Creek; the Big Rock area is still closed to the public because of the helicopters, Kimtu Beach is now open to the public just be careful when you drive by the fire camp at Veterans Park. Also be observant of the NO FISHING sign at the upper end of Kimtu Beach, most other public access up river are open to fishing. The Hoopa Reservation is still closed to non-residence so please respect their regulations. Most all of the of the walk-in trails on the Klamath are open but only for Day Use fishing. Weitchpec Old Village and below is still closed to non-residence. Anything up by Happy Camp or higher is still closed due to the fire.
Junction City Weir: Is now closed:
Trinity River Hatchery: Spring Chinook subtotal Julian week 41 ending Oct. 14, 2020; 378-Jacks, 882-Adults, season total 1,260; 0-Coho; 3-Adult steelhead.
Willow Creek weir: Julian week ending Oct. 14, 2020; 4-Jacks, 17-Adults, total 21, season total to date 90; Coho salmon 19-Jacks,12-Adults, total 431, season total 46; steelhead 2-1/2-lbs, 58- Adults, total 60, season total to date 145. Last week a 28-1/4lbs native Coho salmon was trapped. This is very unusual for the Trinity River but a very good sign for Coho salmon.
Recreational Harvest Count Mouth of Klamath: Julian week 41 ending Oct. 14, 2020; Chinook Harvest Above Highway 101 Bridge; 7-adults, 7-jacks, total 14, season total to date 3,269; Lower Klamath Chinook salmon harvest total to date 1,651
Fishing: Fishing in the Willow Creek has really picked up in the last couple of weeks. Although public access is limited the fishing is good. Fly fishers have been able to ply the waters and get some good hookups as has the hardware throwers. Bait fishing under a bobber has been the best for bait fishers. Throwing Blue Fox spinners has been doing very good for the hardware fishers a new spinner by Six Rivers Tackle out of Willow Creek has been doing very well for steelhead. Jerry England, one of the creators, has been fishing Kimtu Beach in the mornings and has been able to land and release several each time he went fishing, so I would say that the spinner was doing well.
The upper river has been doing very well for the salmon fishers in the last several weeks. Patrick of Del Loma RV and campground said that he has been having a good load of fish guts to empty every night. He stated that the fishers in camp were not getting a lot of adults but that the jacks were nice and fat with great meat. This is great news the hear because for a while I was beginning to worry if we would have any kind of salmon season this year. It appears that we are having a good salmon fishing season just not a lot of adults. Todd LeBoeuf of Tiger TS fishing guide, had a customer, Terry Hawk of Walnut Creek, land a really nice adult Chinook salmon of 22lbs last week fishing in the Canyon area of the upper river. With the jack counts so big it is a good indicator that next year would be a great year for adult salmon fishing in the Klamath River Basin. Right now, it is steelhead fishing time so check out you gear and get ready to head out and hammer those steelies.
Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing @ 1,928cfs. a decrease of 803cfs from last week. Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,031cfs as of Sunday afternoon. The Weitchpec and Orleans areas are also seeing more Fall Run fish coming through but the majority of the salmon are heading up the Trinity right now. The Orleans area is fishing good for salmon and steelhead with very light smoke in the area.
Happy Camp to I-5 is still restricted due to fires butI-5 to Iron Gate should be doing good with very little smoke and fresh fish moving in.
Upper Klamath River weir count: Julia week 41 ending on Oct, 12th; Shasta river; 3,375-Chinook, season total 4,876, Coho 0; Scott River, 0- Chinook, season total 1, 0-Coho; Bogus Creek; 688-Chinook,season total 202, 0-Coho.
Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 90% of capacity (a decrease of 5%) with inflows of 411cfs and releasing 1,050cfs on to Keswick. Shasta Lake is 47% of capacity (a decrease of 1% minus 4ft) with inflows of 3,895cfs and releasing 4,293cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 8% (an increase of 1%) with inflows of 5,504cfs and releasing 5,611cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 42% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 5ft) with inflows of 759cfs with releases of 3,702cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 40% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 2ft) with inflows of 1,159cfs with releases of 1,597cfs into the American river.
Trinity Lake: The lake is 82ft below the overflow (an increase of 2ft) and 54% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) with inflows of 82cfs and releasing 664cfs into Lewiston Lake with 291cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,611cfs into the Sacramento River.
Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 98% of capacity (an increase of 0%) and water releases are 291cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 50.9degrees, as of 1:30pm today Sunday Oct. 18, 2020. Limekiln Gulch is 4.66ft at 295cfs. Douglas City is 6.21ft with flows of 304cfs. with air temps of 79 and water temperatures of 54.5 degrees. Junction City is 1.60ft at 322cfs. Helena is 7.91ft at 343cfs with water temps of 56.8 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.18ft at 345cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 1.87ft at 39cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 384cfs and air is 73 degrees and water at 59 degrees. Hoopa is 10.88ft at 487cfs and water is 61.8 degrees.
Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath in Weitchpec are estimated to be 1,928cfs a decrease of 803cfs.
Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,031cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.05ft at 1,144cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,182cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,308cfs, and the Salmon River is 1.39ft at 139cfs. Orleans is 2.15ft at 1,441cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.09ft at 2,318cfs and water temps are 62.6 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith are 4.55ft with flows of 218cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.62ft at N/A cfs.
Temperatures in the Valley last week had a high of 79 and a low of 46 degrees. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year to date of 0.15 inches with snow in Willow Creek of 0.00in. (weather for the year was for 2020 and the new water year starts Oct.1st) Forecasts for next week are for high of 87 and lows of 41. The temperatures are starting to drop back to fall weather temperatures now. It’s about time and maybe it will rain some more and put out the fires.
This is the 28-1/4 in Coho trapped at the WC weir
last week.
