This storm, (4.6in), plus what has already dropped from the skies, another 10 inches, has brought in lots of water to the reservoirs and provided the rivers of the north coast the much needed water to raise the rivers and allowed a great influx of fish. The Willow Creek weir was removed to prevent it from washing away so there is no counting of fish for the Lower Trinity. The good part is that fresh fish are coming into the Klamath and the Trinity Rivers. Both the Upper Klamath and the Upper Trinity are in fair to good shape for fishing. The Upper Trinity fishing is somewhat hard due to all the leaves in the river but fish are being caught. Yes it is fall going into winter and the trees are losing their leaves and of course there are leaves in the river which make the fish spooky which in turn makes it hard to entice the fish to strike there for the need to be slow on your approach when using lures. It appears that the reservoirs are filling and that we could have a fair to good storage of water as long as the storms keep rolling in on a regular manner.

It appears that there is an attempt to get the farmers and fishermen to argue over water while the government steel the water and siphon it off to southern Calif. The attempt to start a water war between the fishermen and the farmers will allow the Bureau of Reclamation and the State Water Control Board to run extra water down the Tuolumne River to the San Joaquin River in the name of fish health and pump the water into the canal once it reaches the Delta. Of course it makes the farmers mad because it drains the water from the reservoirs and leaves them no water for crops. This is a subterfuge to steal water by the Feds and the State. The Stanislaus, Tuolumne and San Joaquin Rivers are some of the most over used water ways in the state and the state is looking at another way to ship more water south just like the tunnels would. Think about it where is the most population and votes located? In the south!

TRH: The hatchery has reached their egg quota for the spring run as of Sep 30; Chinook salmon entered the hatchery as of Sep. 30th, jacks 56, season total 356; adults 376, season total 1,751. I have no counts for the fall run Chinook from TRH yet but I know it is low for this year.

Junction City Weir: Sep 30, season totals, jacks 52, adults 105; Coho, jacks 0, adults 0 (it is too early for Coho salmon), steelhead season totals, adults 60; Brown trout season totals, 10. The J C weir has been pulled due to high water.

Willow Creek Weir counts: Oct 8 thru Oct 14; Chinook salmon, jacks 2, season totals 81, adults 8, season totals 371, Coho, adults 1, season totals 2; steelhead, ½-lbs 6, season totals 46, adults 8, season totals 523. W C weir has been pulled due to high water.

Klamath River Weir counts: Bogus Creek, 343 salmon, Shasta River 2,565 salmon, Scott River 160 as of Oct 18. Fishing: Last week’s fishing was basic rained out except for those of the hardiest of fishermen. The Lower Trinity was not fishable due to the high waters and muddy water. The upper river from Lewiston down to Douglas City was hard fishing due to the fish being spooky from leaves in the river. One of Todd’s friends fished this section and did ok with a few adult fish to the boat but stated it was really hard because of all the leaves. He also stated that there was a large drop off at the end of the restoration area at the Bucktail Bridge. It was about 10ft and he roped his boat through it. I am trying to get more information with some pictures. D. C. down was a little better. Todd LeBouf, of Tiger T guide service, fished the D.C. run last week and was able to land some adult steelhead to 6lbs. The first one was right out of the put in and was the largest fish of the day. On down river more feed in from streams made the river dirty and from about Helena down it was almost unfishable.

Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1966cfs. Shasta up it was fishable but hard. The Seiad Valley was even harder to fish a flows picked up from in flowing streams. Hopefully it will get better when this storm blows through. Orleans is 8,400cfs so I would expect the Lower Klamath would be unfishable.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 89% of capacity with inflows of 331cfs and releasing 255cfs into Clear Creek; Shasta is 60% of capacity (increase of 1% &1ft), inflows are 10,040cfs and releases are 3,801cfs; Keswick is 81% of capacity with inflows are 4,027cfs and releasing 4,889cfs; Lake Orville is 44% of capacity (a decrease of 0% & minus 0ft), inflow is 6,111cfs and releases are 5,536cfs; Lake Folsom is 35% of capacity (plus 2% & plus 3ft), inflows are 7,563cfs and releases are 11264cfs.

Trinity Lake: The Lake is 116ft (an increase of 3ft.) below the overflow and 41% of capacity (2% increase) Inflow to Trinity Lake is 4,745cfs and the Trinity Dam is releasing 236cfs to Lewiston Lake with 19cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and on to the Keswick Power Plant with 4,027cfs being released to the Sacramento River.

Trinity River Flows and Conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 308fs, water temps are 51.6 and air is 50 degrees at 11:00a.m.today. Limekiln Gulch is 4.9ft at 492cfs, water temps are 51.4 and air is 52. Douglas City is 6.6ft at 614cfs, water temps of 52.1 and air is51. Junction City is 2.11.3ft at 726cfs. Helena is 11.1 at 1,610cfs with water temps of 52.2. Cedar Flat is 6.1ft at 2,290cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 3,550cfs, air is 54 and water at 52. Hoopa is 15.4ft at 4,300cfs with water temps of 53.8 Flows at the mouth of the Trinity at Klamath River are estimated to be 12.7Kcfs.

Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 966cfs. Seiad Valley is 3.9ft at 2,760cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 3,416cfs. Somes Bar is estimated at 8,156cfs. Orleans is 7.5ft. at 8,400cfs. Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.5ft at 14.1Kcfs and water temperatures of 53.2 degrees. Flows at Smith River, Dr. Fine Bridge are 10ft at 5,990cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week were 70/47 degrees with 4.6 inches of rain with a season total of 14.5in of rain and 0.00in. of snow. Temperatures in the valley next week are expected to be 68/43 degrees, with some rain and showers at the first of the week and clouds and sunshine the last of the week. Sunday should start more rain.

Good Fish’en and Good Luck but remember; “Keep your tip up with a tight line lands fish.”

Websites: MyOutdoorBuddy.com, Willowcreekchamber.com,
from Willow Creek, CA Phone 530-629-3554, E-mail yen2fish@yahoo.com