Happy Winter Solstice. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and as we approach the end of the year, Happy New Year to all. I am hoping that we all have a great 20025 and that fishing will much better than 2024. The loss of Salmon fishing for two years in a row has been devastating economically to the Noth Coast Fishing Industry. I am not sure if California were to allow Salmon fishing this coming year if the industry could recover. The state needs to allow more hatchery production releases for several years to allow the Salmon to recover and increase returns and ocean harvests.

 

Water; we have had some serious rain in the last several weeks in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In talking to some of the old timers still around I have heard that the rains over the Christmas holiday was very similar to those of the 1964 floods. The only difference was that in 1964 there was two feet of snow on the ground with much more in the upper elevations. Then on December 23, 1964 the “Pineapple Express”, straight from Hawaii, hit the west coast and “all - -l” broke loose. The Klamath River at Klamath reached a record peak of 55.3 feet and flood stage is 38 feet, we have reached 33 feet with the rains we have had over the Holiday. Verry close! The Atmospheric River occurrences that have been happening lately are almost like back in 1964 except we don’t have the snow nor the “Pineapple Express” type of rains, thank goodness.

 

There has been a lot of conversation going on about the “Winter Variable Flows”. As the Record of Decision states, the Trinity River is supposed to be managed by an “Adoptive Management Program”. As I have seen there has been very little “Adoptive Management” going on. The Winter Variable Flow releases reached 6,500cfs at 12:00 AM 12/25/24, during this same period of time the North Coast had an Atmospheric River hit the North Coast, this should have been reduced or stopped to allow the river to do its own thing in order to prevent such highwater flows. (Close to flood stage) I would think that would be some type of Adoptive Management. Management of water flows is part of the ROD and near flooding is not a thing to miss judge. With this type of  highwater flows and the predicted coming rains, I would expect many of the Fisheries Projects on the Upper Trinity River by TRRP would be destroyed. Why are there no reviews of that being planned? If I calculate correctly that would be somewhere of about $264 million lost. Should we ask Congress to investigate tis dollar loss? 

 

Klamath River summary:  Julian Week 49 Dec. 3 ending Dec. 9, 2024: Shasta River; season total 4,944-adult Chinook Salmon; 16-adult Coho Samon: Bogus Creek, November 19, 2024; 352-adult Chinook Salmon; 32-adult Coho Salmon; Scott River, Dec. 23, 2024: season total, 599-adult Chinook Salmon; 706-adult Coho Salmon; Jenny Creek Weir began operations: November 27, 2024; 332-adult Chinook Salmon; 0-adult Coho Salmon; Shovel Creek weir counts: Nov. 19 , 2024 through Nov. 25, 2024: 228-Adult Chinook Salmon; 0-Adult Coho Salmon. The Scott, Jenny Creek, and Shovel Creek weirs were pulled Nov. 20, 2024 and to be reinstalled when conditions allow.

 

Trinity River Hatchery summary: Julian Week 49 ending Dec. 9, 2024: 22-Jack Chinook Salmon; 602-adult Chinook Salmon, total 624, season total 4,768; 2-jacks, 267-adult Coho Salmon, season total 0674: 0-1/2- pounder; 39-Adult Steelhead; 13-hatchery Steelhead, season total 509.

 

Junction City Weir summary:  weir pulled for the season, season total Chinook Salmon 323; Coho Salmon; season total 6; Steelhead; season total 220; 1- Brown Trout, season total 27.

 

Willow Creek weir summary: weir pulled for the season; Chinook Salmon, season total 694; Coho Salmon; season total 18; Steelhead; 1-1/2-pounders, 1-adults, total 37, season total 647. About 61% of the Steelhead this last count was hatchery clipped fish.

 

Fishing: Fishing the Trinity River is not fishable at this time due to the high waterflows. I would expect fishing to resume as soon as the rains stop and allow the river to drop back to fishable conditions.

 

Lewiston Lake: For Lewiston Lake and Trinity Lake information you can call, Pine Cove Marina, Matt or Louise (530)778-3878, for the river you can call Indian Creek Lodge, Andy or Hannah, (530)623-6294), Junction City Store, Butch, (530)623-2803.

 

Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 126,124cfs. This is an increase of 116,883cfs.  Iron Gate Dam/Bogus Creek area is flowing 7,715cfs an increase of 6,625cfs from last time. The Upper Klamath is flowing high right now. I’ve noticed that the water flows have increased by volumes so the fishing would be very difficult at this time. I suggest you call Marble Mountain Guest Ranch (800) 522-6284, or Scott Caldwell, SC Guide Service (530)905-0758 to get proper fishing information for that area.

 

Lake Conditions: Whiskeytown is 95% of capacity (a decrease of 5%) with inflows of 40,070cfs with releases of 2,135cfs into Spring Creek. Shasta Lake is 71% of capacity (an increase of 4% and plus7ft) with inflows of 40,070cfs and releasing 1,173cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 82% of capacity (a decrease of 5%) with inflows of 3,986cfs and releases of 3,952cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 64% of capacity (an increase of 8% and plus 26ft) with inflows of 21,893cfs with releases of 1,978cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 33% of capacity (a decrease of 1% and minus 2ft) with inflows of 6,073cfs with releases of 2,042cfs into the American river. Trinity Lake storage is 1,765,827AF an increase of 105,308AF of storage. 
Trinity Lake: The lake is 47ft below the overflow (a decrease of 7ft) and 72% of capacity (an increase of 4%) with inflows of 10,669cfs and releasing 2,800cfs into Lewiston Lake with 300cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to the Keswick Power Plant while releasing 3,952cfs into the Sacramento River. 

 

Trinity River flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 72% of capacity (an increase of 4%) and 47ft below the overflow an increase of 7ft. Lewiston Dam is 96% of capacity (a decrease of 0%) and water releases of 2,507cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 46.4 degrees, as of 11:00am today Sunday December 29, 2024. Limekiln Gulch is 7.70ft at 3,771cfs. Douglas City is 10.98ft with flows of 5,220cfs with water temperatures of 46.8 degrees. Junction City is N/Aft at N/Acfs. Helena is 18.61ft at 9,586cfs with water temps of 46.6 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) is N/Aft at 0.00cfs (Gauge is still out of order). South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 14.85 at 10,725cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 20,038cfs, air is 53 degrees and water at 48.5 degrees and raining, Hoopa is 28.85ft at 48,453cfs with water at 50.0 degrees. Flood stage is 48 feet. The river is still going up.

 

Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate/Bogus Creek area flows are 7,715cfs, an increase of 6,625cfs. Seiad Valley is 12.55ft at 20,259cfs. Indian Creek is 11.70ft at 6,695cfs. Happy Camp is estimated to be 27,954cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 48,223cfs, and the Salmon River is 16.98ft at 31,448cfs. Orleans is 23.21ft at 79,671cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 32.54ft at 156,253cfs and water temps are 49.8 degrees. Flood stage is 38 feet Flows for the Smith River at Jediah Smith are 26.13ft with flows of 75,853cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 31.58ft at N/A.

 

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 59 and a low of 33 degrees. Rain for the week was 0.02in with a water year total to date of 12.76 and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 58 and a low of 32. The weather predicted for the next week is looking like we could have some rain after the weekend.