The Trinity River is Steelhead Green! But where are they? I have been searching the Lower Trinity for fishermen and have only found a few and they have only been getting a few bites and landing even less. The word is that the Upper Trinity has a fair amount up at hatchery but they are waiting their turn to get in. I can’t believe that as nice as the river is that there are not more fishermen out there flailing the waters let alone the small amount of Iron Heads NOT in the river. I’m not even hearing about ½-pounders being landed. Here it is almost Brown Trout time and the winter steelhead fishing is not HOT. Well, we are supposed to have some weather change later in the week so maybe that will start the inflow of more fish.

The South Fork of the Trinity should be seeing some good steelhead fishing very soon as the water is dropping fast and could be very fishable soon. The water is great and visibility is of the right color. I do know we start to see sea run Brown Trout in the waters during the month of March so maybe the Iron Heads are waiting for them. I mt quandary as to what is going on this year. I do know the weather has been really crazy this year.

Trinity River Hatchery summary: Sorry but now report this time as it is report time for CDFW. Julian Week 2 ending Jan. 14, 2023; Fall Run Chinook Salmon, 0-adult, 0-jacks, total 0, season total 3,857; Coho salmon, 0-jack, 2-adult, total 2, season total 3,504; 38-steelhead, season total 192. It looks like the hatchery will make egg quotas for salmon but not for steelhead.
Fishing: As I said earlier this has really bee an odd year for fishing due to the weather patterns. The rains have caused many of the burn areas to have mud slides but so far it has not been really bad but has caused some difficulties. It appears that the upper river is the place to be fishing right now. So if you are interested you might want to contact you local people for where to be fishing. Indian Creek Lodge, Cory (530) 6236294, Junction City, Butch (530)623-2803, Pine Cove Marina Matt or Louise (530)778-3878.

Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 12,990cfs. This is a decrease of 8,614cfs.  Iron Gate Dam is releasing 954cfs.

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 91% of capacity (a decrease of 9%) with inflows of 460cfs and releasing 2,090cfs into Spring Creek. Shasta Lake is 56% of capacity (an increase of 2% plus 5ft) with inflows of 6,591cfs and releasing 1,151cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 86% (an increase of 2%) with inflows of 3,563cfs and releasing 3,311cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 64% of capacity (an increase of 2% plus 12ft) with inflows of 7,548cfs with releases of 923cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 52% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 5ft) with inflows of 4,553cfs with releases of 5,843cfs into the American river. Trinity Lake is 757,480F plus 16,597AF, we are looking good to stay above the “Cold Water Pool” of 600,000AF for the time being.  The Trinity Alps is the water source for Trinity Lake. We could hopefully have a turnaround in the weather this year and refresh the reservoirs.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 145ft below the overflow (an increase of 1ft) and 31% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows of 1,155cfs and releasing 299cfs into Lewiston Lake with -3cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to Keswick Power Plant, leaving 757,480AF in lake storage (an increase of 16,597AF), and releasing 3,311cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 95% of capacity (an increase of 1%) and water releases of 302cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 44.0 degrees, as of 12:00pm today Saturday December 28, 2023. Limekiln Gulch is 4.84ft at 415cfs. Douglas City is 6.65ft with flows of 530cfs with water temperatures of 40.9 degrees. Junction City is 2.48ft at 758cfs. Helena is 9.73ft at 946cfs with water temps of 42.3 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 5.33ft at 1,802cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 5.44t at 1,732cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 3,534cfs and air is 48 degrees and water at 43 degrees, Hoopa is 16.10ft at 5,986cfs with water at 44.3 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath in Weitchpec are estimated to be 12,990cfs a decrease of 8,614cfs.

Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate is releasing 1,005cfs. Seiad Valley is 3.09ft at 1,946cfs. Indian Creek is 5.28ft at 673cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 2,619cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 5,230fs, and the Salmon River is     3.73ft at 1,774cfs. Orleans is 6.03ft at 7,004cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.93ft at 15,821cfs and water temps are 44.2 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jed Smith are 7.70ft with flows of 2,643cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 14.25ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 54 and a low of 31 degrees. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year total to date of 48.45 inches and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 62 and lows of 31. The weather predicted for next week is mild with a possible weather change for the weekend. Not much of a change.