Fish & Game Commission

Sorry but I will not have any official report or information on the Fish & Game Commission until Tuesday. I know many of you are making plans for the Memorial Day weekend and would like to have this information so you can complete your plans. Hopefully I will be able to post some thing by Monday afternoon. The proposed regulations are based upon 8,200 surplus Chinook salmon available for the Sacramento River. Season: Sept. 4 thru Oct. 3 from the Carquinaz Straits up to the 113 Bridge Knights Landing. Oct. 4 thru Dec. 12, from Knights Landing to the Lower Boat landing Red Bluff Diversion Dam, 2- Adult Fall Chinook Salmon per day/possession, unless the 8,200 salmon quota is reached prior to the listed dates. The period means that you may NOT have more than two Fall Chinook in possession. (This is what was presented to the commissioners) The Klamath/Trinity River basin regulations for Chinook salmon are the same as last year. The good news is, even with the high water, some spring Chinook salmon has been landed in the Lower Klamath. You may want to call ahead if you are planning a fishing trip to the Lower Klamath.

Trinity River Conditions

The Trinity is dropping and the smolt and yearling steelhead (trout) are on the out migration. March, April and part of May report shows that 3,581 Chinook smolt and 1,073 yearling steelhead have been trapped at the Willow Creek trapping station. Now you must remember that this is raw data and has not been extrapolated into proper and full counts. It should also be noted that the peak of the out migration has not been reached yet so as the river drops we will see more and larger numbers coming from the W.C. traps. I might add that most of the numbers are wild (native) fish so fare. This is good news because it shows that the river is producing more native fish and that the restoration work in the upper river is working, we just don’t know how well. Only time will tell!

Klamath River

the good news is that reports of some spring Chinook are being caught at the mouth of the Klamath. This should only get better as the flows decrease and the boats are able to get up river to the holding spot. My best recommendation would be for you that are interested in salmon fishing on the Lower Klamath to find out some one you can rely on to contact for river conditions. I will try to get some good reliable numbers one can use to find out whom to call for local river and fishing conditions and post them for you ASAP.

River Flows and Levels

Trinity Lake is 69ft below the over flow (1ft decrease) and 60.7 percent of capacity (1% increase) at 11:00am today.
Inflow to the lake is 3,994cfs and 3,328cfs is being released to Lewiston Lake with 38cfs to the Sacramento River.
Trinity River at Lewiston releases are 3,290cfs, water temperatures 46.8 degrees.
Limekiln Gulch is 7.2ft at 3,0801fs. Douglas City is 6.5ft at 3,500cfs, water temps are 46.1 degrees, air 54 degrees.
Helena/North Fork is 14ft at 3,875cfs, water temps 46.4 air 55. Cedar Flat is 8.8ft at 4,700cfs.
Willow Creek 6,000cfs, water at 47, air 62. Hoopa is 17.6ft at 8,690cfs, water 49.8. Mouth of Trinity is 217K cfs.
Klamath River releases at Iron Gate Dam are 1,200cfs. Seiad Valley is 4.4ft at 3,240cfs.
Happy Camp estimated at 3,838cfs. Somes Bar estimated at 6,430cfs. Orleans is 7.8ft at 9,230 cfs.
Klamath at 101 is 14.3ft at 21K cfs water temperatures at 49.8 degrees.
Temperatures in the valley last week were 82/40 degrees with 1.7 inches of rain, to date 80.15 inches. Weather next week in the valley will be, 72/41 degrees, with showers Monday thru Friday.  The month of May seems to be acting like the Month of April. You know “April showers bring May flowers” thing, because during the month of April we had every kind of weather but showers. I can’t remember when we had so much snow flurries, slush and hail that late in the year. It was very good in many respects because the mountains got a lot of late snow which I hope will help Trinity Lake start to recover and re-fill. I know many of the resorts on the lake have been complaining about the low water level and that boat launching became a nightmare due to only one being available because of the low water. It also became very troublesome for “cold water” to be released into the Trinity to help save the salmon spawn. The eggs require 55-60 degree temperatures in order to hatch.