On Saturday October 30th the Willow Creek weir blew out due to the river high water flows. If you are fishing in the area and find any parts to the weir, would you please call 1(707)822-5876 MaryClaire Kier CDFW. With that in mind just to let you know that the weir will not be replaced into the river so just the Junction City weir and the Trinity River Hatchery are going to be reported along with some Mid-Klamath reports. Today the river is slowly subsiding which has allowed the CDFW people to recover much of the weir parts but most of all we will be back to fishing again.   

The quotas for the Klamath and Trinity Rivers have now been met for Fall Run Adult Chinook salmon. Sunday October 31 the Lower Trinity was closed to the take of Fall Run Adult Chinook salmon. You can still fish for salmon but you are limited to Jacks only, that is any salmon under 23 inches. You are limited to 2 salmon per day and 6 in possession. The salmon I have seen are getting pretty dark so now we can turn our attention to steelhead fishing. It is a little early for the winter run but there are some ½-pounders being hooked and a few small adults being recorded.

Lower Klamath Harvest Survey: Julian Week 43 ending Oct. 28, 2021 for Fall Run Chinook salmon for below Hwy 101 Bridge; 0-jack, 0-adults, total 0, season total 389. Chinook salmon above Hwy 101 Bridge; 0-jacks, 0-adults total 0, season total 3,060.

Junction City weir summary: Julian week 43 ending the week of Oct. 28, 2021 for Fall-Run Chinook salmon; 5 - jacks, 16 - adults, total of 21, season total of 1,753; Coho salmon, 2- jacks, season total 4; 13- adults, total15, season total 22; steelhead, 0- 1/2lber, 26- adults, for total of 26, season total 143; 0-Brown trout, season total 7.

Willow Creek weir summary: Julian Week 42 ending Oct. 21 for Fall Chinook salmon; 46-jacks, 224-adults, total 270, season total 2,814; Coho salmon; 7-jack, 17 adults, total 24, season total 168; steelhead, 1-1/2lbers, 74-adults, total 74, season total 331. Willow Creek weir is being removed.

Trinity River Hatchery summary: Spring Run Chinook salmon totals; 452-jacks, 1,553 adults; totals 2,005; Fall Run Chinook Salmon Julian Week 43 ending on Oct. 28, 2021; 16-jacks, 440-adults, total 456, season total 456.

Upper Klamath summary: Julian Week 42 observed through Oct. 18, Shasta River 6,659; Bogus Creek 1,306 adult Chinook salmon; Scott River, 23, a significant number have already spawned, no new counts as of Sept. 17. 

Fishing: The Trinity is still muddy in the Willow Creek area with high water subsiding. We should see some fishing in the near future hopefully. It looks like we could have some rain showers this week but not heavy rains. It is going to depend on how heavy the rain showers become as to what the fishing is going to be on the Lower Trinity. As for the Upper Trinity it looks like one could be fishing above Cedar Flat. The only problem I see would be where Highway Department has the Highway blocked off for traffic control, other than that one could be fishing for jacks or the steelhead following them.   

Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 4,627cfs. This is a major decrease of 10,334cfs. Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,082cfs. With the temperatures dropping and the water cooling down the Upper Klamath should be fishable above I-5and down to Happy Camp. The Weitchpec area is still a bit high for fishing.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 97% of capacity (a decrease of 2%) with inflows of 96cfs and releasing 798cfs in to Spring Creek. Shasta Lake is 22% of capacity (a decrease of 0% minus 1ft) with inflows of 3,197cfs and releasing 4,432cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 84% (an increase of 1%) with inflows of 5,044cfs and releasing 5,040cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 28% of capacity (an increase of 3% plus 6ft) with inflows of 3,381cfs with releases of 2,000cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 32% of capacity (an increase of 9% plus 17ft) with inflows of 1,451cfs with releases of 571cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 159ft below the overflow (a decrease of 2ft) and 27% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows of 917cfs and releasing 296cfs into Lewiston Lake with 3cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 5,040cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 97% of capacity (a decrease of 2%) and water releases are 293cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 54.3 degrees, as of 11:00am today Monday November 1, 2021. Limekiln Gulch is 4.71ft at 326cfs. Douglas City is 6.39ft with flows of 381cfs with water temperatures of 53 degrees. Junction City is 1.78ft at 369cfs. Helena is 8.60ft at 527cfs with water temps of 53.6 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 3.29ft at 749cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 3.17ft at 390cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 1,193cfs and air is 57 degrees and water at 54.5 degrees and the river is still muddy. Hoopa is 12.72ft at 1.690cfs and water is 55.9 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath in Weitchpec are estimated to be 4,627cfs a decrease of 10,334cfs.

Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,082cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.45ft at 1,420cfs. Indian Creek is 4.07ft at 216cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,636cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 2,258cfs, and the Salmon River is 2.47ft at 679cfs. Orleans is 3.34ft at 2,937cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 9.92ft at 5,889cfs and water temps are 56.9 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jed Smith are 7.43ft with flows of 2,363cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 14.07 ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 68 and a low of 43 degrees. Rain for the week was 2.92in with a water year total to date of 11.46 inches and 0.0in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted weather for next week is high of 71 and a low of 46. The predicted weather for next week is rain showers for all day Monday and showers the rest of the week. Let’s hope the rain is light rain and showers and not a downpour so we don’t get mudslides. 

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