Summaries of Trinity River Counts:

Trinity River Hatchery:

2010 Season Totals; Spring Chinook sub- total 2,859; Coho- Total 54; Steelhead – total 9.

Willow Creek Weir:

The Willow Creek weir was blown out Sunday Oct. 24 by 7+ inches of rain.

Fishing:

The rain this weekend did bring up the river some but not enough to cause a problem. I believe that the leaves in the river caused more problems than any thing because it made the fish spooky. The overcast Friday and Saturday caused good fishing conditions but with all the leaves it was very hard to get fish to take flies or hardware. Those fishing from the banks had better luck fishing with bait. I know the drift boats were having as much trouble getting hookups as I was and I fished the lower section of the Junction City to Pigeon Point run twice. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, we were able to get a few strikes but nothing great. In the afternoon we saw a lot of fish swim by us but no hookups. I can say that for a Friday there were a lot of drift boats out on the river. There were a lot of fly fishers fishing from the bank due to a Fly Club from San Diego coming up and booking the whole Red Hill motel in Weaverville. I don’t know what Saturday was like because I stayed down river.

Trinity River:

The upper section had a lot of drift boats and rafts out but there were some salmon landed above Poker Bar. A few German Brown trout were caught and released by the fly fishers but mostly it was a slow fish.

Douglas city saw some action but again it was crowded with fly fishers.

Evans Bar it was almost a waiting game to launch but most of the guides were patient and waited their turn or as some did, go down to the Sky Ranch Road to launch to try and spread out a bit. From what I heard Saturday was a better day for launching up river, I was down river so I could not say for sure what it was like.

Del Loma was a little better Friday as there were only two boats on that section. My fishing buddy Ed Trujillo was fishing there with a couple of his friends and they were able to land a couple of fair sized Germen Brown Trout as well as getting several other hookups but only a few to the boat. Saturday Ed Trujillo and his friends Linda and Lonnie drifted from Junction City to Bagdad. They landed two steelhead, one about 7lbs and the other about 2lbs. Linda landed her first salmon, a 22lb buck that took her 45 minutes to land and they had to track the fish  through three holes before they could get it to the boat. Man was she one tired lady but a one happy one!

Down river it was much less crowded in Willow Creek and no drift boats up at Hawkins Bar, just bank fishers. Hawkins Bar there was a few fly fishers catching ½-pounders. From the word I got some bait casters were able to land a couple of small adults to 3lbs.

Hoopa saw a good mix of fishermen but I didn’t see or hear of any BIG steelhead being caught. We saw several but were unable to get them interested in what we had to offer. I know that they are on their way up the river but I believe the weather and leaves in the river just made the fish spooky.

River Flows and Conditions:

Trinity Lake is 66.4ft below the over flow (1.6ft decrease) and 61.1 percent of capacity (1% decrease) at 11:00am today.
Inflow to the lake is 1,133cfs and 648cfs is being released to Lewiston Lake with 318cfs going to the Sacramento River. Trinity River at Lewiston releases are 330cfs, water temperatures 48.9 degrees, air 54. Limekiln Gulch is 5ft at 545cfs. Douglas City is 6.8ft at 812cfs, water temps are 50.6 degrees, air 51 degrees.
Helena/North Fork is 10.9ft at 1,080cfs, water temps 51.9 air 53. Cedar Flat is 4.48ft at 1,140cfs.
Willow Creek 1,529cfs, water at 53 air 55. Hoopa is 13.6ft at 2,450cfs, water 54.4.  Trinity at Klamath is 9,870cfs.
Klamath River releases at Iron Gate Damare 1,340cfs. Seiad Valley is 3.6 at 2,390 cfs.
Happy Camp estimated at 3,000cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 4,460cfs. Orleans is 7ft at 7,420cfs.
Klamath at 101 is 11.6ft at 11,00cfs water temperatures at 55.4 degrees. Most of the rivers and tributaries are peaking and should be dropping at a good rate for next week

In The Valley:

Temperatures last week were 64/48 with 1.35 inches of rain for a season total of 15.1 inches. Next week it is predicted to be 57/33 with scattered showers today and partly cloudy Monday with showers Tuesday and then morning clouds for the rest of the week.