News:

The Willow Creek Weir was pulled on Monday Nov. 25.just before the storm hit. Good thing to because the river came up three feet and would have scattered the weir down the river clear down to the bend below Whitson’s Plumbing. The weather has really turned cold, the last two days it has been down to freezing on my front porch and today it reached 30 degrees. Everything was white when I went outside to get my paper. The weather report for the week doesn’t show it getting any better for the next couple of days either. Monday or Tuesday it is suppose to get down to 27 degrees before it starts to warm up any. The water temperatures are not much better. Water releases from the dam at Lewiston is showing 40 and Hoopa gauge is showing 40.8 versus the mouth of the Klamath near Turwer Creek being 42.2 degrees. If you plan on coming up to fish the Trinity I recommend that you come prepared for COLD weather and water. The good part is that you don’t have to get early so you can be on the water at daylight. From my experience I have found the fish are not ready to bight until 8 or 9:00. One thing I recommend is that you have some HOT coco or coffee at the car or by the river side so that you can stop fishing about every half hour and have a shot of something hot to drink

Willow Creek Weir Count: (last count) Nov. 25; Chinook, 0 jacks, 2 adults, total 2, to date 1,670: Coho; 0 jacks, 0 adult, total 0, to date 363:  Steelhead; 0-1/2lbers, 1 adult, total 1, to date 1,676. 
The week before the weir closed we had a last spurt of fresh fish come through with 74 Chinook and 40 steelhead going through the weir. A good rain will start the main run of winter steelhead coming up the river.

Fishing: 
 

Fishing up river has been fair to good but there has also been lots of drift boats and bank fishermen working the area. They are catching some adult steelhead to 7lbs but the quantity is down because the water is low, gin clear and the fish are a little spooky. One has to use plenty of stealth to be successful. Fly fishermen are doing best with stone flies, blue & red copper johns or epoxy back hare’s ear. Hardware fishers have had to downsize some to get strikes. Most of the steelhead that are landed at this time are native fish and have to be released. 
The lower section is seeing some small half-pounders with an adult every so often. Hoopa is seeing a few more adults and a lot less fishing pressure. 
 

Klamath: 
 

The word from Weitchpec is there are more half-pounders than adults being hooked but the size of the adults are 5-8lbs. Worms are doing best but I suspect that if one is proficient with a fly one could hook a fewhalf-pounders. 
 

Trinity River Flows and Conditions: 

Trinity Lake is 31.5ft (3.5ft.decrese) below the over flow and at 81% of capacity (-1% of capacity) at 1:00pm today.
Trinity River: Inflow to Trinity Lake is 268cfs. Trinity Dam releases are 2,303cfs to Lewiston Lake with 2,003cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and the Sacramento River.
Lewiston Dam releases are 300cfs, water temps 40, Hoopa is 12.3ft and water temps are 40.8 degrees. I am sorry but my CDEC program is off screen this week and I am unable to bring up the rest of the flows. 
Klamath River Releases: Again I was unable to bring up the CDEC program for the Klamath and could not get readings for this week. 

Temperatures in the valley last week were 56/33 degrees with 0 inches of rain, total to date 15.6 inches. The weather next week in the valley is predicted to be 52/27 degrees, Mon- Tue- Wed- Thu-Fri- is to be clear and sunny afternoons with cold mornings. Saturday and Sunday are predicted as cloudy mornings with fog and warmer afternoons. Next Monday is to be freezing but warming through the week. A good rain would do wonders for fishing!  It would be wise to call ahead before traveling and watch for ice on the shady areas of the Highway.