Begoora an a Happy St. Patties Day to Ya All! May the wee ones be kind to ya on this great day of fishing.

Well the PFMC met March 6 – 11 in Tacoma, WA and the preliminary reports for the ocean abundance for Fall Chinook salmon was very good. They estimated that there should be 727,000 Fall Chinook salmon to work with for the 2013 salmon season. The Management Council Pre-Season Report II should be out by March 20 and ready for the public hearing at the Red Lion in Eureka March 26, 2013. So far the Fall Chinook salmon season should be very similar to the 2012 season and harvest except for the Ocean Sport salmon season will be one day shorter due to the calendar. It will be very interesting to hear what they have to say.

This last week I have been very busy whit the Healing Waters Fly Fishing project in the upper river sections of the Trinity. Results will be out in a Special Report that I am working on. The project is sponsored by the Shasta-Trinity Fly Fishers in Redding and is for veterans that use fishing as a means to heal from the stress of war. The Trinity River Guides Association and the Redding Fly Shop agreed to provide boats and guides that would allow these veterans to go fly fishing on the Trinity River.

The Trinity River Water flows have increased some of it due to snow melt, so some areas are experiencing higher water flows than normal at this time of the year. The spring water flows have NOT yet been determined but are in the process and should be out the first week of April. I have also noticed that releases from the Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath is way up and I have yet been able to find out the reasoning for it as the reservoir is not full and there is not an apparent reason for such an early release of water.
 

Fishing: Old Lewiston Bridge Area: Cemetery Hole, Bucktail Hole and Poker Bar. With the new higher flows coming out of the dam there has been a new influx of fresh steelhead in the area. Fly fishers are seeing a greater number of hookups nymph fishing under an indicator. Back trolling plugs is a little difficult except in the dipper runs up there.

Indian Creek Lodge Area (530-623-6294): Steel Bridge, Indian Creek Hole, Douglas City Bridge. Again the influx of fresh fish has helped provide some very good fishing in the upper sections of the river. There has been some good fishing for ½-pounders as well as adults up to 8lbs. Fly fishing has been fair to hot depending on the day in this area. Back trolling plugs was also providing some good hookups. I did notice that most of the fly fishers were using indicators with two flies about 4 to 6ft under the indicator. Sometimes it is hard to get guides or fishermen to tell you what they are using when fly fishing but because I have been on the river a few more years than most I am able to see and notice what they are using. I on the other hand believe it is best to let people know what I am using and how I use it. I have found out over the years that a happy fisherman will come back to fish again and possibly bring his buddy. This is good for the local economy.
 

The Canyon Area: Douglas City to Evans Bar; Trinity Outfitters, 530-623-6224, in talking with Liam he last week he stated he has been getting three to six hookups a trip in the canyon area now that the fish have moved on up into the upper river. Lim also stated that he is landing more Browns lately.
 

Junction City Area: Steve Townzen, 530-6232112, fished Evans Bar to the Junction City campground last week and was able to land some nice adults in fact I think his veteran landed the largest adult for the Healing Waters fish day.

Hawkins Bar to Willow Creek Area: My buddy, Ed Trujillo, from Sacramento was fishing the Eel River this last week and I was busy up river so I don’t have much of a report for this area at this time. I do believe that the fish that were here last week moved up the South Fork in a big hurry to get to their spawning grounds near Hyampom. Let’ hope that we will get another fresh run when this next storm comes in.

Hoopa Valley to Weitchpec Area: The Hoopa Reservation is still off limits to sports fishermen at this time but I did go to their Fishing Committee meeting last week and expressed that there was no need to exclude sports fishermen form fishing on the reservation as they have been fishing the valley for over 40 years without any kid of trouble and there should be not problem for them to fish for the next 40 years as they are only catching the sportsmen share of the fish allotted to sports fishing and not affecting the Tribal’s quota as allotted by the PFMC.

The Mid-Klamath:  Weitchpec / Orleans has had high water most of this past week and my buddy Kenny Peugh is on vacation to Hawaii so I will have to wait until he gets back to find out how the fishing is in that area. Releases from Iron Gate Dam were ramped up to 1,510cfs this week for some reason and the area above I-5 is a little tough for fishing in the higher flows.

Trinity River Flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 28ft. (2ft decrease) below the overflow and 82% of capacity (0.6% increase) at 2:00PM today.
Inflow to the lake was 1,867cfs and dam releases are 369cfs to Lewiston Lake with 57cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and then on to the Sacramento River at Keswick.    
 

Trinity River: Lewiston Dam releases are 312cfs water temps 49, air is 60 degrees. Limekiln Gulch is 4.9ft at 344cfs. Douglas City is 6.2ft at 516cfs, water temps 49.4 air is 60, Junction City is 2ft at 585cfs.  Helena is 9.8ft at 767cfs with water at 49.8. Cedar Flat is 4.9ft at 1,460cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 2,510cfs, air 63, and water 49. Hoopa is 15.2ft at 4,060cfs, water temps 50.4 degrees. Mouth of the Trinity at the Klamath is 12K  cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 1,510cfs. Seiad Valley is 4.2ft at 3,080cfs. Happy Camp estimated at 3,690cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 6,230 cfs. Orleans is 7.3ft at 8,000 cfs. Klamath at 101 is 12.8ft at 14.7K cfs & water temps of 55.6 degrees. Smith River is 7.7ft at 2,190 cfs and subject to low flow closures. Temperatures in the Valley last week were 70/34 degrees with 00 inches of rain, total to date 48.6 inches. The Weather in the valley next week is expected to be 63/32 degrees. Mon/partly cloudy, Tue/PM showers, Wed/rain, Thu/partly cloudy, Fri/mostly sunny, Sat/partly cloudy, Sun/AM cloudy PM sunny, Mon/cloudy.