A dangerous condition has occurred on the Trinity River just below Hawkins Bar. Around the bend from the Hawkins Bar access the river cable that marks the river for aircraft, with the phone cable, has come down and is in the river just below the surface. It is identifiable by the two large orange balls up against the bank on river right. This cable is at just the right depth that it will hook and capsize any water craft that tries to goes by it. Please be careful if you plan to drift this part of the Trinity River! We are trying to get the river posted at this point until this hazard is removed. You must get out of the water at this point and portage around the hazard.

Once again the rivers of the North Coast are plagued by the rains. Just as the rivers are coming into fishable conditions, we get more rain that blows out the rivers. The Trinity was fishable in the upper reaches but only for a short time. Maybe this is a good thing in that we could get a good spawn from salmon as well as native steelhead which will help the river in two to three years when we see the return. Only time will tell!

The PFMC will be meeting next week in Rohnert Park to finalize the fall Chinook salmon fisheries for the Klamath River Basin. I sure hope they can come up with some decent numbers to provide an Ocean salmon fishery and In-River Sport salmon fishery. It is going to be very interesting as to what the PFMC will determine will be the allowable harvestable surplus for fishing quotas. With the CDFW accepting the petition for listing spring run Chinook I would expect CDFW would be hard pressed to be able to come up with some type of quotas for the Tribes and still be able to provide an In-River Sport fishing season

The Tribal harvest quota is 50% of any harvestable surplus; the Jessy Short settlement (a Federal Judgement) states the Yuroks’ to receive 80% and the  Hoopa to receive 20% of the Tribal quotas. The Hoopa have already stated they intend to harvest a 50% share of the Tribal quota for this year. My math figures 50% plus 80% equals 130%, where is the extra 30% going to come from? We already have a problem on the Trinity with a gill net being placed in the river just above the Hawkins Bar Bridge. As far as I know there is NO Reservation in that area and the Trinity is closed to the take of Chinook salmon at this time.I am having trouble retrieving the California Data Exchange Center for river flows and data today so I am not able to provide all of the normal river information at the lower part of this report. Sorry about that. I am still having troubles with this new computer. 

Fishing: The Rivers are going up and down like a yoyo in summer. Just as the Trinity gets fishable, we have another set of storms come in and the rivers go back up again. In between the storms the upper section of the Trinity fishes good for down runners with a few late fresh native steelhead in the mix. This makes for some exciting fishing because you never know what you will have on the end of your line until you can see it. 

Mid-Klamath: Iron Gate Dam is releasing 1,841cfs. at this time. Fishing on the Klamath right now is a guessing game because of the storms. The good part is that the Sierras are stacking up some much-needed snow, for later this spring and summer. (Good for the farmers too)

Lake Conditions:  Whiskeytown is 90% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) with inflows 1,548cfs and releasing 1,049cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 88% of capacity (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 25,043cfs and releasing 10,940cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 81% (a decrease of 3%) with an inflow of 14,563cfs and releasing 15,103cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 80% of capacity (an increase of 3% plus 9ft) with inflows of 17,897cfs with releases of 11,601cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 674% of capacity (an increase of 5% plus 5ft) with inflows of 9,108cfs with releases of 4,908cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: the lake is 48ft below the overflow (a decrease of 4ft) and 79% of capacity (an increase of 2%) inflows are 3,371cfs and releasing 156cfs into Lewiston Lake with 3,215cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 15,103cfs into the Sacramento River.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 307cfs and water temperatures of 52.6 degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Sunday Mar. 31, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is N/Aft at N/Acfs and water temps of N/A. Douglas City is 7.30ft and flows of 1,0778cfs. with air temps of 58 and water at 46.9 degrees. Junction City is 3.96ft at 1,670cfs. Helena is N/Aft at N/Acfs with water temps of N/A degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is N/Aft at N/A cfs. South Fork of the Trinity is N/Aft at N/A cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at N/A cfs and air is 60 degrees and water at N/A degrees. Hoopa is 18.71ft at 11,275cfs and is N/A degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be N/A15,103cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,841cfs. Seiad Valley is 5.03ft at 4,059cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at N/A cfs, the Salmon River is N/Aft at N/A cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be N/A cfs. Orleans is N/Aft at N/A cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 15.56ft at 28,675cfs and water temps of 48.7 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 9.19ft and flows of 4,700cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 15.57ft at N/A cfs. Temperatures in the Valley last week were 67 hi, with a low of 47. Rain for the week was 2.56in with total rain for the water year to date of 58.02 inches, with snow of 4.5in. in the valley to date. We will be seeing rainy days with light rains and scattered showers during the rest week. Nothing heavy predicted but we could see some snow melt that would change the dam releases.