Trinity River Spring Flows

For those of you that don’t know the annual Spring Flows have stated and we are now up to 6,000cfs being released from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River. The Spring Flows started April 23 as the flows went from 300cfs up to 500cfs.They have now ascended to the peak flows and will remain there for a period of 5 days and then slowly reduce to 2,000cfs by June 6 for 26 days at which time they will reduce to 750cfs for a period and then back to normal by August 2^nd.  Each year there is a group of us (Water Flow Group) that works with the Trinity River Restoration Program that meets and determines how the allotted water will be used (released) as per the Record of Decision (ROD 2000). The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) determines the type of water year by the amount of snow and rain accumulated in the high mountains (Trinity Alps) on April 1^st. Once the water year is determined the water flow group determines how the water can best be used to accomplish the restoration projects for restoring the river for fish habitat, the goal of the ROD.

Fish & Game Commission: On April 21^st the commission held a conference call meeting to vote on the coming Fall Chinook Salmon season. That decision has been made and we will have the same bag and possession limits for Fall Chinook as last year. What the commissioners DID NOT decide was what type of fishing season and regulations would be for the Sacramento River. They determined that staff should seriously review the 8,200 harvestable surplus Chinook estimated for return to the Sacramento River to make sure there would not be a similar mistake in the return estimate as last year. This is a good idea in that we don’t want to over harvest the returning salmon so that the escapement goal for the Sacramento River can be made and all of the hatcheries meet their egg quotas. It is not too late to email the commissioners with your opinion. Please let them know how you feel by emailing them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This is the only way you can influence their decision in such a short time.

Trinity River Conditions

If you haven’t seen the Trinity in the last few days then you wouldn’t know that the river is very high. As I stated above the Spring Flows are being released and because of this the river is unfishable on the lowers parts and very hard in some of the upper most parts. I do not recommend that you plan on fishing the Trinity until after July 28^th.

Klamath River Conditions

The Upper Klamath is fishable in some areas but one would have to know the river to determine just what areas to go to fish. I would imagine that above I-5 it would be fishable so if you have some contacts up there I would call before making the trip.

River Flows and Levels

Trinity Lake is 68ft below the over flow (4ft decrease) and 59 percent of capacity (2% increase) at 1:00pm today.
Inflow to the lake is 3,700cfs and 7,587cfs is being released to Lewiston Lake with 1,587cfs to the Sacramento River.
Trinity River at Lewiston releases are 6,000cfs, water temperatures 51. degrees.
Limekiln Gulch is 9.4ft at 6.3K cfs. Douglas City is 9ft at 7.1K cfs, water temps are 51.1 degrees, air 74 degrees.
Helena/North Fork is 16.61.3ft at 6,8K cfs, water temps 51 air 72. Cedar Flat is 10.8ft at 8,840cfs.
Willow Creek 11.9K cfs, water at 52, air 74. Hoopa is 20.5ft at 15.5K cfs, water 52. Mouth of Trinity is 30.3K cfs.
Klamath River releases at Iron Gate Dam are 1,500 cfs. Seiad Valley is 5.2ft at 4,260cfs.
Happy Camp estimated at 5,260cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 10.3K cfs. Orleans is 9.47.9ft at 14.8K cfs.
Klamath at 101 is 17.4ft at 36.3K cfs water temperatures at 51.8 degrees.
Temperatures in the valley last week were 81/37 degrees with 4.6 inches of rain, to date 76.85 inches. Weather next week in the valley, 70/37 degrees, with partly cloudy and sun thru Sunday, then possible showers.