Weirs
The Junction City weir was put in late this year due to the high water flows in the upper Trinity. The Willow creek weir was installed last week and counts should be coming out in the nest week or two. As of to date I have no Trinity River Hatchery counts.
JC weir, for the first three weeks: 112 Chinook; 0 Coho; 6 Steelhead; 37 German Brown under 16in, 81 German Brown Trout over 16in for a total 118 GBT.
WC weir counts next week.
Fishing
The Spring run and the Fall Run are kind of running together right now but we should see some fresh Fall Run Chinook any time now coming into the Hoopa Valley. My guess is that they are hanging out in the deep cool pools in the lower Hoopa Gorge just up river from Pearson’s store in Weitchpec. You must remember that you won’t be able to fish for these fish on the Trinity until Wednesday of next week; Sept. 1st. September 1st is also the date that the Falls area, Hawkins Bar to Cedar Flat closes to ALL fishing until Jan. 1st. I believe that it is going to be hard fishing until the water cools down a few more degrees. Hopefully in the next week or so.
Trinity River Conditions
The temperatures are on the warm side right now. Yesterday I fished Salyer to Willow Creek and when we launched at 6:30am in the morning the water was already 65 degrees. We were fly fishing for most of the morning and only were able to hook small trout. We tried it all! I would suggest that for the next couple of weeks you might want to try the Douglas City to Helena (North Fork) section of the river or even up by Indian Creek. This is going to be an early morning fish from say day light to 10 – 11:00am. When the sun hits the river it is going to start to warm up fast and the fish are going to seek out cool deep holes with plenty of shade. The next movement for the fish will be late evening about 2-3hrs before sun set.
Klamath River Conditions
The Klamath is cooling down from about Bluff Creek down. Your best bet for the Lower Klamath is around the end of the high tide when the fish come into the estuary which will start those in the estuary to move upstream. From the information I received best fishing is in the mornings in the deep holes or below fresh incoming cold streams. Hard ware or roe is working around the Weitchpec area. It appears that the Trinity coming out of the Hoopa Gorge is cooling down after it leaves the valley floor. The mouth of the Klamath is running about 70 – 72 degrees for the last week. This is about the limit that salmon can take without finding some cool place to hold up. The good news is that the Steelhead seem to blast right through it and head for cool water
River Flows and Conditions
Trinity Lake is 53ft below the over flow (1ft increase) and 69.1 percent of capacity (0.8% decrease) at 2:00pm today.
Inflow to the lake is 14cfs and 1,420cfs is being released to Lewiston Lake with 1,405cfs to the Sacramento River.
Trinity River at Lewiston releases are 467cfs, water temperatures 53 degrees.
Limekiln Gulch is 4.8ft at 455cfs. Douglas City is 4.6ft at 530cfs, water temps are 54.5 degrees, air 72 degrees.
Helena/North Fork is 9.3ft at 575cfs, water temps 62.5, air 87. Cedar Flat is 3.3ft at 640cfs.
Willow Creek 740cfs, water at 70 air 78. Hoopa is 12ft at 964cfs, water 72.2. Mouth of Trinity is 3,100cfs.
Klamath River releases at Iron Gate Dam are 1,020cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.1ft at 1,110cfs.
Happy Camp estimated at 1,18cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 1,840 cfs. Orleans is 3.7ft at 2,140cfs.
Klamath at 101 is 8.8ft at 3,240cfs water temperatures at 71.2 degrees.
Temperatures in the valley last week were 99/52 degrees with no rain, to date 84 inches. Weather next week in the valley to be 91/49 degrees, with early morning overcast and afternoon sunshine. The valley is warming up a bit this week but hopefully cooler weather is on its way. Right now the fish appear to be moving early night with the moon. Hoopa and the Mid-Klamath are reaching max temps for salmon right now and they are looking of cooler waters, so they are on the move late evening or early mornings and holding up in the heat of the day. |
