RIVER IS STILL DIRTY

The River Restoration project above Junction City is still providing lots of turbidity for that area of the river and makes for bad fishing. Will it do to or for any in-river spawning? Years ago, before the Dam the mining turned the river into a “river of mud” but the salmon had plenty of clean up-stream area to spawn in. If the river restoration is supposed to provide more spawning area for the Chinook salmon where are the reports of increased production of the salmon? I have not seen any nor is there any listed report of an increase of Chinook salmon for the upper Trinity River. The Trinity Hatchery produces 3 million Chinook, 280,000 steelhead (reduced from 500,000) and 300,000 (reduced from 500,000) Coho salmon but no reports from the TRRP of in-river spawning production. There is a report of in-river salmon Redds but no follow up of how they do. So, what does the TRRP do other than spend $15million per year on “river restoration” that does not improve the fishing opportunities. 

I will have more on the Hoopa weir next week as I am waiting for a response from the Hoopa Tribe as to how they plan to manage the weir. 

Junction City Weir counts: Julian week 31 the week ending Aug. 5; Chinook salmon, 5-jack, 48-adult, total 53, season total 124; Coho 0; steelhead ½-lbs 0, adults 16, season total 16; Brown Trout 3, season total 13. 

Fishing: Fishing above the Round house is still very good. Both Todd LeBoeuf, Tiger T guide service, has reported great fishing above the Round House. Last week Todd took out Dana and Chris Dase of Oregon and was able to get them limits of salmon with the largest being 18lbs. They were also able to hook up and release a couple of nice adult summer run steelhead to finish off their trip.

Summer releases have arrived and Lewiston is now releasing 444cfs into the river. The extra water releases for the Hoopa Boat Dance should be released sometime around Sept. 3rd for the ceremonies. (This is the odd year, even years is Yurok’s)

Just 20 more days before the Fall Chinook salmon season opens! Labor Day weekend starts Aug. 31st but Sept. 1st is Sunday of that weekend. You salmon fishermen had better get in your reservations now if you want to hopefully get a guide and a place to stay.

Mid-Klamath: The Klamath at Weitchpec is flowing about 2,622cfs and the river is a nice green now. John Harlan from E Ne Nuck, reported that the moss has dissipated and the river is green again. The problem being that the salmon have not shown up yet at Bluff Creek. Usually they start to show up around the first week of August. He did state that he saw plenty of nice steelhead at the mouth of Hopkin’s Creek. That would be natural because Hopkin’s Creek is nothing but cold water coming down off of the mountain. The fish love to take a break there and cool off some before the head on up the Klamath or turn around and go up the Trinity.  

Lake Conditions:  Whiskeytown is 98% of capacity (an increase of 0%) with inflows 1,574cfs and releasing 1,628cfs on to Keswick and the Sacramento River. Shasta is 8% of capacity (a decrease of % minus 4ft) with inflows of 2,829cfs and releasing 9,799cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 93% (a decrease of 0%) with inflows of 11,668cfs and releasing 11,107cfs into the Sacramento river. Oroville Lake is 84% of capacity (a decrease of 3% minus 7ft) with inflows of 3,062cfs with releases of 11,288cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 8% of capacity (a decrease of 2% minus 2ft) with inflows of 1,917cfs with releases of 1,917cfs into the American river.

Trinity Lake: the lake is 17ft below the overflow (an increase of 2ft) and 89% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) and inflows are 5cfs and releases are 1,674cfs into Lewiston Lake with 1,372cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown Lake and on to Keswick Power Plant, which is releasing 10,903cfs into the Sacramento River. 

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam releases are 444cfs and water temperatures of 54.8 degrees and air at N/A as of 12:00pm today Saturday August 10, 2019. Limekiln Gulch is 4.89ft at 366cfs. Douglas City is 6.54ft and flows of 464cfs. with air temps of 69 water temperatures of N/A degrees. Junction City is N/Aft at N/A cfs due to turbidity. Helena is 8.75ft at 445cfs with water temps of 59.7 degrees and water turbidity of 1.40 (Hi was 4.30 @ 10am). Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is 2.97ft at 623cfs. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.40ft at 145cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 768cfs and air is 67 degrees and water at 66 degrees. Hoopa is 11.71ft at 929cfs and water is 69 degrees. Water flows at the mouth of the Trinity River at the Klamath are estimated to be 2,622cfs.

Klamath: Iron Gate is releasing 1,093cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.29ft at 1,319cfs. Happy Camp is estimated at 1,408cfs, the Salmon River is 2.25ft at 357cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,336cfs. Orleans is 2.84ft at 1,693cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.64ft at 2,938cfs and water temps of 71.7 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jedia Smith is 5.07ft and flows of 368cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.42ft at N/A cfs.

Temperatures in the Valley last week were 100 hi with a low of 53. Rain for the week was 0.23in with thunder and lightning storms and total rain for the water year to date of 67.93 inches, with snow of 4.5in. in the valley to date. Forecasts for next week are for temperatures in the mid to hi 90s and sunshine for the coming weekend. We had rain and thunder and lightning storms come through last week which cooled things down a bit.