Thank you for being patient as I am still learning to use windows 10 and having some difficulties.

This year’s Federal California water projects could possibly take a hit to help pay for Trump’s Border Wall. This funding would come from Army Corps of Engineering projects that have been funded by Congress, but not yet been put to contracts.

Some of these water projects are critical for water storage badly needed to provide water for farming, cities and fish restoration. As it is, some news media are insistent upon providing fodder for the so-called water wars. “Fish need water more than farmers,” “Farmers grow food,” “Water grows food.” If the media continues to keep the farmers fighting the fishermen, then the politicians can do with the water whatever  they want and blame the farmers and fishermen because THEY (meaning the fishermen and farmers) don’t really know what they want.

To get more water for more needs, we need more water storage. More water storage would be the answer to all the water problems. Only so much water comes from the sky, whether it be rain or snow. With more storage there would be more water that could be used for needed projects, rather than fighting over the small amount that is stored. We would not be fighting over which is the best needs for the water if water was used efficiently. Remember, when much of the water storage we have today-- California only had a population of 20 million. Today we have 40 million people living in California.

It looks like the weather is finally catching up to normal. This last set of storms brought the snow level up to 84% of normal for this time of year. Just a week ago we were at 67% of normal. This is good news for the water supply! 

Klamath Iron Gate: The counts are still going up for the Scot and Shasta Rivers, but I am still having trouble getting the data.

Trinity River Hatchery: TRH is now spawning salmon and steelhead eggs at the hatchery and I expect the TRH will have no trouble reaching their egg quota. TRH for the week of Jan.1 thru Jan. 7; Chinook 7, season total 7,303; Coho 0, season total 745; Steelhead 93, season total 925. 

Redd Survey: No survey last week due to the weather.

Fishing: On my way home this weekend, I saw several vehicles with boat and raft trailers at most of the take outs. The Trinity looked great for steelhead fishing and I saw fishermen fishing the upper part of the river. I am not sure how well they did for landing fish, but right now, water conditions are really good for winter steelhead fishing. According to the weather forecast, we are supposed to get some more rain this coming week. This will bring more fresh fish into the Trinity. I should have better fishing news for the next report.   

Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate Dam is releasing 944cfs. at this time. The Upper Klamath fished well last week and should only do better the next week or two. The Siead Valley and Happy Camp are still fishing good with adults up to 6lbs. There is a fair amount of ½-pounders in the area and water conditions are good. The cold weather was a deterrent, but with rain, the water warmed up some and put the bite back on. Right now, it depends on what the weather is going to do for the next week or so. If it snows, I would expect the bite to slow down as the water temperatures drop and the steelhead look for less heavy flowing waters, and go deep to try and save energy.

Lake Conditions:  Whiskeytown is 85% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) with inflows of 793cfs and releasing 1,224cfs into Clear Creek and on to Keswick. Shasta is 53% of capacity (an increase of 3% and plus 6ft) with inflows of 10,360cfs and releasing 1,867cfs, Keswick is 83% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 6ft) with inflows of 3,296cfs and releasing 4,077cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 31% of capacity (an increase of 2% plus 8ft) with inflows of 4,334cfs and releases of 2,285cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 34% of capacity (an increase of 2% minus 3ft) with inflows of 2,976cfs and releases of 1,736cfs.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 69ft below the overflow (a decrease of 3ft) and 61% of capacity (an increase of 1%,) inflows are 1,646 cfs and 504cfs is being released into Lewiston Lake with 204 cfs going to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 4,077 cfs into the Sacramento River. 

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 300cfs and water temperatures of N/A degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Sunday Jan. 13, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.81ft at 360cfs and water temps of 42.8, Douglas City is 6.46ft and 475cfs. Junction City is N/A at N/Acfs. Helena is 9.55ft at 740cfs with water temps of 45.2 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 4.71ft at 1,466cfs. South Fork of the Trinity is 7.71ft at 1,299cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 2,765cfs and air is 49 degrees and water at 45 degrees. Hoopa is 15.48ft at 4,624cfs and is 45. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River are estimated to be 9,654cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 944cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.86ft at 1,752cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 2,088cfs, Salmon River is 3.48ft at 1,366cfs, Somes Bar is estimated at 3,964cfs. Orleans is 5.32ft at 5,330cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 12.31ft at 14,560cfs and water temps of 45.8 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 8.5ft and flows of 3,472cfs. 
Temperatures in the Valley last week were 52 hi and low 39. Rain for the week was 6.in and total rain for the water year to date is 23.22 inches with no snow in the valley yet. Rain and showers are predicted for next week with some snow in the higher elevations.