The weather for February was classified as dry and snow pack was 70% of normal which leads to a Dry Water Year for 2013 water year and could make for low water flows for the coming spring water flows that will start in April.

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council met this past week in Washington. The pre-season I report provided Ocean Abundance of 727,000 Chinook salmon that will provide the possibility of the same quotas for 2013 salmon seasons as they were for 2012 salmon season. The pre-season II report will be out around March 12 or 16^th for the April meeting that will be held in Oregon. I am sorry to say that I will not be attending any of those meetings because of the expense to travel that far and stay for a week to attend the meetings. There will be a PFMC public hearing March 26 in Eureka that I plan on attending to see what PFMC will be recommending for Chinook salmon harvests for the 2013 season. If you care to attend they usually are held at the Red Lion in Eureka and start about 6:30 or 7:00 PM. It is going to be very interesting to hear what the PFMC will be suggesting for Fall Chinook salmon harvests. If you read my report last week it was noted that the 2012 Fall Chinook salmon return was the second largest return and spawners since 1978. One thing I do know is that this year’s Fall Chinook salmon return will be having a lot of four year old salmon in it. Watch for more information coming! 

As of this report you will see some difference in the Trinity River Fishing Report as I will be covering and expanding the report to cover more of the different sections of the river by request of my publisher I hope it will please more fishermen and provide better fishing information for the readers.

Fishing: Indian Creek Lodge area (530-623-6294); Todd LeBoeuf, 5302-222-2725, reported he had been fishing the Indian Creek Lodge section of the Trinity form Steel Bridge to Douglas City, mostly fly fishing with some good results. His customers were able to get 15 hookups with 5 break offs and either losing their fish due to hurrying the fish to the boat. They were able to bring 5 nice adults to the boat and release them. Most of the steelhead was bright chrome fresh fish in the 5 to 8lbs range. Todd noted that earlier in the week the fishing would start off good but diminish as the week wore on but then would pick up again after a few days of fishing. This is something you might want to keep in mind as the steelhead are on their way up the river to spawn and will not stay in any one place very long.

The Canyon area, Douglas City to Evans Bar; Trinity Outfitters, 530-623-6224, Liam Gogan has been fishing the canyon most of the week with good to fair results throwing flies. On Saturday Liam said his clients were able to catch and release 4-5adults steelies up to 7lbs. a couple of them being down runners. They also were able to catch and release 3 nice German Brown Trout in the 15 to 21 inch range.

Junction City area, Steve Townzen, 530-6232112, has been fishing that area but I wasn’t able to get a report from him before deadline time.

Cedar Flat area, while driving up to Weaverville I saw some fishermen working that area of the river but I didn’t see them hook into anything.
 

Willow Creek area, my buddy, Ed Trujillo, from Sacramento has been fishing this section of the river most of the week and has been doing well on a on and off basis. This tells me that we are seeing the last big rush of winter run native’s fish in a hurry to reach their spawning areas. Saturday he was fishing with a couple of friends of his from Salyer to Kimtu and hooked into 6 adults up to 8lbs and 4- half-pounders back trolling plugs. Ed said that all of the fish were caught below the South Fork and were all native fish

The Mid-Klamath:  Weitchpec / Orleans area is still seeing some high water which makes for some hard fishing conditions so I haven’t had much to report from that area. Releases from Iron Gate Dam were ramped up to 1450for some reason and the area above I-5 was a little tough for fishing there also.

Trinity River Flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 30.4ft. (0.4ft decrease) below the overflow and 81.4% of capacity (0.4% increase) at 1:00PM today.
Inflow to the lake was 000cfs and dam releases are 588cfs to Lewiston Lake with 286cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and then on to the Sacramento River at Keswick.    
 

Trinity River: Lewiston Dam releases are 302cfs water temps 46.7, air is 44 degrees. Limekiln Gulch is 4.9ft at 325cfs. Douglas City is 6.2ft at 504cfs, water temps 45.7 air is 42, Junction City is 2ft at 574cfs.  Helena is 9.7ft at 742cfs with water at 45.6. Cedar Flat is 4.5ft at 1,260cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 2,222cfs, air 60, and water 44. Hoopa is 14.9ft at 3,640cfs, water temps 45.8 degrees. Mouth of the Trinity at the Klamath is 9,740 cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 1,450cfs. Seiad Valley is 3.7ft at 2,470cfs. Happy Camp estimated at 2,887cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 4,790 cfs. Orleans is 6.3ft at 6,100 cfs. Klamath at 101 is 12.3ft at 13.1K cfs & water temps of 46.2 degrees. Smith River is 8.5ft at 3,250 cfs and fishable again low with more fresh fish coming in. Temperatures in the Valley last week were 65/36 degrees with 2.1 inches of rain, total to date 48.6 inches. The Weather in the valley next week is expected to be 64/32 degrees. Mon/partly cloudy, Tue-Wed/mostly cloudy, Thu/cloudy, Fri/AM cloudy – PM sunny, Sat/partly cloudy, Sun/ cloudy, Mon/showers.