I wish all a great Christmas and a Happy New Year with some great winter steelhead fishing. It is winter steelhead fishing time and the weather is making travel hard up here on the north coast. Both Highway 299 and 96 are having rock slides causing travel difficulties. Hwy 299 is seeing small rock slides…
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…
We have a small weather depression last week that brought a few showers. Enough to make the ground wet! The good part was that the Hoopa Weir was removed and the weather depression started the fish down in Hoopa to start moving up river. In one week’s, time, many of the fish that had been…
There are salmon and steelhead down in the Hoopa Valley but none up river! By now, there should be lots of fish in the Upper Trinity but no one has been able to find them. There are Redds, but not as many as usual in the Lewiston to Helena section of the river. This year’s…
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…
Fall weather patterns are in the valley. Nights are chilly and the water in the river is really cooling down. The trees are taking in their autumn colors and leaves are falling. The big question is where are the fish? The Trinity River Hatchery has been taking in good numbers of Spring Run Chinook salmon…
As I am writing this report it is raining! In the last several days it has been overcast, showers and cloudy in Willow Creek. This type of weather pattern usually brings in fish, both at the mouth of the Klamath and into the Trinity. This is great news for the fishermen that have been waiting for…
The Trinity River Valley has fallen into the old weather patterns of years ago. We are experiencing weather patterns like in the 1950s and 1960s, rain in September now if that continues into October like back then we should see a lot more fish. (Both salmon and steelhead) I remember when everybody used to have…
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 9th. 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….
The Trinity River Willow Creek Weir is supposed to be starting installation Monday Sept. 8th. The river is in summer flow now so we will see what happens. I plan to check both the Willow Creek installation on Monday. I also plan to see when the Hoopa Weir is going to be installed. With the…
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…
The Trinity River Weirs; the Junction City weir is working as usual and should be removed sometime around Sept 1st, but the Willow Creek weir will not be installed until sometime after Sept. 8th because of high water flows. The Hoopa weir will not be installed until after the Tribal Ceremonial “Boat Dance” which will be…
The Tribal Ceremonies are now being done on the Mid-Klamath which will cause some river access closures. Please respect these areas for the short time access will be restricted; Aug. 11th to Aug. 20th near Orleans to Camp Creek; Aug. 26th to Sept. 4th near Somes Bar. Hoopa Weir; I hope to attend the next meeting in Hoopa to the meeting about…
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…
TRRP: The Trinity River Restoration Program is working on restoration project. I have been receiving reports of the river being dirty from just below the Round House down to below Junction City area of the river. From what I could find out was that the TRRP is working in that area. The problem is the work is…
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…
As the Trinity drops the salmon are starting to move into the river. The upper river is seeing more bright fish and Greys Falls is seeing more salmon holding. I have heard that the Falls is starting to get loaded with fishermen and sometimes one has to wait for a spot to fish. Water flows…
The New Emergency Spring Salmon Fishing Regulations for the Klamath River Basin have been released to the public! It is official, I got the word Thursday from CDFW about noon, the new salmon regulations have finally been released and are posted on the Fish and Game website with a public announcement release. The Spring Chinook Salmon…
At the April Fish & Game Commission meeting in Sacramento, the commissioners accepted a petition for listing the Spring Chinook salmon as a threatened species, thus causing an Emergency Regulation for Spring Chinook Salmon. (1) NO fishing for Spring Chinook Salmon in the Klamath River Basin. This was printed in the Supplemental Regulation book for fishing for…
At the April Fish & Game Commission meeting in Sacramento, the commissioners accepted a petition for listing the Spring Chinook salmon as a threatened species from the Tribes and notified the public that the spring salmon fishery was closed to the take of any salmon. That meant NO FISHING FOR SALMON! Later the commission, with the recommendation from…
The snow reports are in and final. The Trinity Alps are 128% of normal and the Sierras are 130% of normal for this time of year. This indicates a very good water year for the Eastern Sierras as well as the Klamath – Trinity River Basin. 10 of the 12 State Reservoirs are over 100%…
Now that the Trinity River water releases are back on schedule, we saw high water flows in the Willow Creek area of Big Rock and Kimtu Beach. (5,475cfs) This was not the best water flows for a Memorial Day Weekend but with the light showers we didn’t see a large turnout on the river. Instead…
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…
For the next week or so it looks like we will be getting some light rains or scattered showers. It doesn’t look like enough rain to make the rivers rise much. In fact, the Klamath Trinity River Basin is on the down side. Yes, the Klamath Trinity rivers are dropping, the Trinity not as much…
Finally the Feds have allowed the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to euthanize the sea lions, (Protected by the Federal Marine Mammal Act) on the Columba and Willamette Rivers to stop the slaughter of the salmon and steelhead runs. The Willamette Wild Steelhead Runes have improved after Sea Lions were allowed to be euthanized…
A dangerous condition has occurred on the Trinity River just below Hawkins Bar. Around the bend from the Hawkins Bar access the river cable that marks the river for aircraft, with the phone cable, has come down and is in the river just below the surface. It is identifiable by the two large orange balls…
The rains and scattered showers have kept the Lower Trinity in a state of high and milky water. The upper sections of the river are in good shape for fishing. Most of the native fish have spawned out and started their migration down river. Most of the creeks in the upper river are running at…
I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. The PFMC (Pacific Fisheries Management Council), posted their preliminary estimate for fall run Chinook salmon for the west coast from their March 6th -12th meeting and posted three options for the Klamath River salmon quotas. The PFMC estimates that there is an estimate of 5,230 to…
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…
We are finally seeing a break in the weather for the Trinity Valley. That is good news, because of all the flooding along the North Coast, The Eel, Van Duzan and Mad Rivers saw flooding while the Trinity and Klamath came close to it. The river bar in front of my house was at least…