The big news is that the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) is having a public hearing at the Red Lion Inn I Eureka March 26, 7:00PM for public comment about the 2013 Chinook salmon seasons as proposed in Pre-Season II report. Anyone can attend and testify or make oral comments. I plan on being there to speak on behalf of In-River Sports Fishermen and the Trinity River Guides Association Inc. A hard copy of the Pre-Season II will be at the meeting for those who wish to have one.

The Trinity River Hatchery started releasing Chinook salmon smolt the week of March 4^th or Mar. 11^th and they are working their way down the river. Last week some of the guides that fish the upper Trinity River made comments at the guides meeting last week that it was very hard fishing as the smolt take or go after everything that floats in front of them. So this is a word to the wise, “be prepared to have your bait gobbled up or the hardware hit at any time you are fishing the Trinity in the next couple of weeks!

The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) is having a meeting April 1, 2013 at the Weaverville Fire Station, 9:00AM. If you have any questions to ask about the Trinity River Restoration on Trinity River this would be the time for you speak up.

The Trinity River Water will start ramping up some time around April 14^th. Because this is or has been designated a Dry Water year we are likely to see a much lower and shorter water flows for the spring flows. There should be a flow update at the TAMWG meeting in Weaverville

Fishing:

Old Lewiston Bridge Area:Cemetery Hole, Bucktail Hole and Poker Bar. With the release of the smolt and higher water coming fishing in this or other upper Trinity River areas is going to be tough but a lot of action for catch and release for those little fish.

Indian Creek Lodge Area (530-623-6294): Steel Bridge, Indian Creek Hole, Douglas City Bridge. The influx of fresh fish and the release of the smolt are making fishing very interesting. In between the smolt one is able to hook a few adult steelies to 6-8lb. You must remember that the majority of these adults are native fish and “Must Be Released” unharmed. The thing is that they really give you a fight and

are really fun to catch.
The Canyon Area: Douglas City to Evans Bar; Trinity Outfitters, 530-623-6224, Liam was one of the guides that complained loudly about the smolt gong after his customers flies. Sometimes I wonder about these little fish as they seem to go after anything that looks like food. The good part is that they bring down the Germen Browns and they are good to eat.

Junction City Area: Steve Townzen, 530-6232112, was hard to get a hold of the last week as we was very busy so I am not sure how that section was affected by the down flow of smolt.

Hawkins Bar to Willow Creek Area: “D” Fishing Guide, 530-629-3554. I was able to check out the river this week and as I was driving down in Kimtu Beach I watched a local throwing hard ware and he hooked into a nice 3-4lb Iron Head that was bright silver with hardly any stripe to it. This had to be a fresh fish. After he released his fish a drift boat came floating in and started to fish bait right across from where this guy was fishing. Rude! But the good part was that he was able to hook another fish right from under these guys. Fishing below the South Fork to Big Rock is still producing some good hookups with adults to 8lbs if you can get around the smolt.

Hoopa Valley to Weitchpec Area: The Hoopa Reservation is still off limits to sports fishermen at this time but I plan on going to their next fish meeting to see if they want to change anything about sports fishermen fishing on the reservation. I do know that most of the tribal members are NOT against sports fishermen fishing on the reservation. After all some of these fisher people have been fishing the Hoopa Valley for 30-40 years.

The Mid-Klamath:  Weitchpec / Orleans still has high water in the area and fishing is still hard to fish. This is not to say there are no fish in the area because if you don’t get to close to the willows one can in fact hook into some fresh adults that are working their way up the Klamath.

Trinity River Flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 26ft. (2ft decrease) below the overflow and 82.9% of capacity (0.9% increase) at 1:00PM today.
Inflow to the lake was 1,730cfs and dam releases are 367cfs to Lewiston Lake with 50cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and then on to the Sacramento River at Keswick.    
 

Trinity River: Lewiston Dam releases are 317cfs water temps 49, air is 67 degrees. Limekiln Gulch is 4.9ft at 337cfs. Douglas City is 6.2ft at 504cfs, water temps 47.8 air is 65, and Junction City is 2ft at 557cfs.  Helena is 9.7ft at 735cfs with water at 47.8. Cedar Flat is 4.6ft at 1,300cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 2,180cfs, air 643, and water 489. Hoopa is 14.9ft at 3,600cfs, water temps 48 degrees. Mouth of the Trinity at the Klamath is 12K  cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 2,000cfs. Seiad Valley is 4.6ft at 3,480cfs. Happy Camp estimated at 4,040cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 6,660 cfs. Orleans is 7.5ft at 8,470 cfs. Klamath at 101 is 12.9ft at 15.2K cfs & water temps of 47.6 degrees. Smith River is 8.4ft at 3,010 cfs with fresh steelhead coming in. Temperatures in the Valley last week were 66/32 degrees with 0.7 inches of rain, total to date 49.3 inches. The Weather in the valley next week is expected to be 70/34 degrees. Mon, cloudy; Tue, partly cloudy; Wed, showers; Thu, scattered showers; Fri, partly cloudy; Sat, showers; Sun-Mon, scattered showers.