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Trinity River Fishing Report – January 15, 2012 PDF  | Print |  E-mail
Visitor Info - Fishing Report
Sunday, 15 January 2012 00:00

News: 

 
It is time to send in your 2011 Salmon & Steelhead cards to Fish and Game. Steelhead Report cards, P O Box 944209, Sacramento CA 94244-2090. Or you can go on line and report at WWW.dfg.ca.gov/steelheadcard. Salmon Report cards go to: DFG Klamath River Project, 5341 Ericson Way, Arcata, CA 95521. Many fishermen don’t realize how important these cards are but it helps the Department determine if we met escapement goals for the Klamath River Basin as well as the numbers for harvest fish. This data is used to help determine the 2012 harvestable surplus for 2012 fishing quotas. So if you want a plentiful Salmon and Steelhead season then you should make sure you do your part by sending you Salmon and Steelhead report cards.
 
Hopefully the Hoopa Tribal Council will be meeting this week to discuss and determine how they are going to allow fishermen to cross Reservation lands to reach the Lower Section of the Trinity River that runs across the Reservation. I know it has taken time and that we are reaching prime steelhead fishing season but in order to do things right and NOT having to do it over and over again it does take time to get it done right the first time. I just hope it will be accomplished in a timely manner so that you the fishing public will be able to go fishing go out and catch you some prime winter steelhead.  
 
Trinity River Hatchery Counts:
 
The hatchery continues to still see steelhead come into the hatchery. They just are not seeing the main run yet. I am sure that the coming rains will help to improve those numbers.
 
Fall totals at the Hatchery for Chinook salmon, 15,733, total for 2011 22,314, total for 2010 11,908. Total to date for Coho salmon for 2011 is 4,784, total for 2010 4,215. Steelhead to date for 2011 is 1,936, total for 2010 2,037. Remember that the Coho salmon and steelhead are still coming into the river.
 
 
Fishing:
 
Fishing has slowed some what due to no rain and the river becoming very clear and low. I checked the river yesterday and the visibility was about 15-20ft. I could see the bottom of the river in some of the deeper holes. This is very unusual for this time of year. Normally we are having rain storm after rain storm and the visibility is down to 1 or 2ft. The Low clear water makes for some very stealth fishing because the fish can see a long way and they are very spooky. Right now the best way to get consistent hookups is to downsize leaders, hooks and the size of your bait. We are looking at dime size presentation when using roe and about half a night crawler. As for hardware you would be best to switch to silver and keep it small and  for flies I would recommend that you also stay small.
On the upper river it is the same conditions and the fresh fish are very slow in getting up there. I haven’t heard of many half-pounders up river yet so if you are looking to fish for half-pounders you will have to fish below Hawkins Bar and above the reservation or go all the way down to Pearson’s in Weitchpec.
 
Klamath:
 
The Klamath needs rain because the mouth is blocked by sand bars that only allow fish to come over during high tides. At Weitchpec it has been on and off for fishing. Both of my contacts, Thommy and John have been working the mouth of the Trinity and doing good one day and slow the next. They say that it takes about two hours to catch your limit of hatchery steelhead but you will have lots of action on the native fish for catch and release.
 
Trinity River flows and Conditions:
 
I have had some computer problems so my River conditions are not up to date.
 
Trinity Lake is 34ft (0ft decrease) below the over flow and at 79% of capacity (0.1% increase) of capacity at 12:00pm today.
Trinity River: Inflow to Trinity Lake is 284cfs. Trinity Dam releases are 568cfs to Lewiston Lake with 284cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake.
Lewiston Dam releases are 284cfs, water temps 43, air is 40. Limekiln Gulch is 4.9ft at 306cfs. Douglas City is 5.9ft at 354fs, water temps are 41, air 39. Junction City is 1.4ft at 382cfs. Helena is 9.2ft at 439cfs, water is 41.9. Cedar Flat is 3ft at 348cfs, Junction City is 382cfs at 1.4ft. Willow Creek estimate is 738683cfs, water at 40, air at 44. Hoopa is 12.3ft at 1,200cfs, water temps 41.6 degrees. Mouth of the Trinity is 4,310cfs. 

Klamath River Releases:
 
Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,020cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.7ft at 1,610cfs. Happy Camp is 1, 761cfs. Somes Bar is 2,524cfs. Orleans is 4.5ft at 3,110cfs. Klamath at 101 is 10ft at 11.5Kcfs water temp at 43 degrees. 
 
Temperatures in the valley last week were 48/27 
degrees with 0.1 inches of rain, total to date 18.7 inches. The weather next week in the valley is predicted to be 53/32 degrees, Mon-overcast, Tue-rain, Wed-showers/cloudy, Thu-rain, Fri/ Sat-Overcast.  Remember when traveling in the north be sure to carry chains and a shovel.  
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