The forecast for the Klamath Chinook salmon season is NOT looking very good for the 2016 salmon season. What with four years of drought, no to very little snow pack and very poor water conditions the projected Klamath River fall Chinook salmon ocean abundance of 142,200 is more like the 1996 returns. We could be looking at very small in-river salmon quotas for this coming season. Maybe two salmon per day (1-jack & 1-adult) with a very limited season both for ocean sport salmon fishing and in-river sport fishing. I do remember when the Klamath – Trinity Rivers were subjected to very small quotas of 300 adult salmon per section of river before CDFW closed the rivers to the taking of adult salmon just to try and provide enough adult salmon for spawning. The PFMC sets the allotted fall salmon for harvest and the CDFW sets the sport fishing harvest Calif. waters. If you review the estimated abundance of salmon expected to be in the ocean subtract the fish needed for natural spawning then divide that by half that leaves very few salmon for Ocean Commercial, Ocean Sport and In-River Sport harvest this coming 2016 fall salmon season. Will people come up to the north coast to fish this year. It could be a very tough year for fishing economically this year.


Mid Klamath: The Upper-Klamath above I-5 could possibly see some fishing after the weekend but with Iron Gate releasing 1,770cfs it is not likely. The river at Seiad Valley is flowing 10.1Kcfs and Orleans is flowing 46.3Kcfs so I don’t see any fishing on the Mid-Klamath or the Lower Klamath for that matter. Maybe after this storm passes we could see some fishing for down runners but that is a lucky wish.



Klamath: Iron Gate Dam releases are 1,770cfs.  Seiad Valley is 8.5ft at 10.1Kcfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 13.4Kcfs. Somes Bar is estimated at 30.9Kcfs. Orleans is 17.5ft. at 46.3Kcfs. Klamath at Terwer Creek is 25.1ft at 87.9Kcfs peaking at 10a.m. and water temperatures of 48.6 degrees. Flows at Smith River, Dr. Fine Bridge are 16.7ft at 27Kcfs.

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