I hope everyone had a great and safe Fourth of July weekend. For the Willow Creek area it was a swimmer’s delight!

Lots of sunbathing and river swimming, tubing and great fun.

The heat has warmed up the river to the point that fishing is a bit hard right now. Even the early morning fish is hard. I know this not what one wants to hear but it is better swimming than fish at the present time on the Lower Trinity. On the other hand, the Upper Trinity is not too bad for the early morning fish. TRRP is getting ready to start in-river rehab work at the Junction City Campground section of the river so that area is going to be hard to access and fishing will not be good. I would suspect that if you were to fish above the bridge, it might be fair fishing but I would check with Butch at the J.C. store first just to be sure.

This was supposed to be the third year of NO SALMON FISHING but CDFW decided to allow Ocean Sport Fishing for June 7-8 with a limit of 7,500 Salmon to be harvested. The estimated harvest was 9,165 Salmon. (A 1,665 over harvest) I wonder why the PFMC continues to cry “over harvest” for In-River Sport Fishing for the last five years. (maybe more years) For as long as I have not been a fishing guide the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) has claimed the there has been an over harvesting of Salmon because they have not been able to reach 47,500 in-river natural escapements of Salmon. Each year they have not met the natural escapement of Chinook Salmon they have lowered the escapement goal to allow harvesting of Fall Run Chinook Salmon in California. CDFW is the agency that has applied to the PFMC to allow for a harvest of Fall Chinook Salmon and the PFMC has allowed it. The June 7-8 Ocean Sport Fishing of 9,165 Chinook Salmon is an example of why the PFMC claims there has been an “Over Harvesting” of Salmon. We need a better computer modeling for the escapement program and for the ocean abundance estimate so that we don’t continue to “Over Harvest” the fishery.

Saturday June 28th was Kids Fish Derby time. The 49th Fish Lake Kids Fish Derby went well with about 65 kids fishing. The HOT DOG lunch was great and lots of prizes were awarded. The Pine Cove Marina Kids Fish Derby was the same day and Louise stated the they had about 35kids at their Derby. All the kids caught fish that day because Dara Springs Fish Hathery released 1,100 lbs. of Rainbow Trout the Friday before the Derby and on the day of the Derby the Hatchery released another 800 to 900 lbs. of Trout so the kids could see how the fish were released. Lots of prizes were awarded along with many Hot Dogs consumed after the Derby.

Lewiston Lake: From Louise; Trinity Lake has been fishing great for the last week or so. Many Rainbow Trout have been landed with some in the 20 to 22 inches. Kast masters and Litle Cleo’s for the hardware night crawlers or power bait did the best for the regular fishers but the fly guys out did the regulars by far. The fly fishers did good on small black midges. You can contact the Pine Cove Marina and ask Louise or Matt (530)778-3878); for Lewiston Lake fishing; for the Upper Trinity River you can call Indian Creek Lodge, Andy or Hannah, (530)623-6294), Junction City Store, Butch, (530)623-2803. 

Willow Creek: Fishing the Willow Creek/Big Rock area this week has been hard because of the swimmers and tuber people. Kimtu Beach has been nothing but full almost every day with sun bathers and swimming. Fishing below Big Rock was a bit sketchy as was up at the mouth of South Fork. Late afternoon or evening has not proven much better during this heat wave. 

Mid-Klamath Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 1,162cfs. This is a decrease of 1,571cfs. The Iron Gate/Bogus Creek area is flowing 1,026cfs a decrease of 276cfs from the last report. To get the latest fishing information 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 to fish the Upper Klamath.

Lake Conditions: These readings are for July 5 at midnight. It appears that readings are being posted a day late. Whiskeytown is 99% of capacity (an increase of 1%) with inflows of 1,581cfs with releases of 1,761cfs. Shasta Lake is 81% of capacity, a decrease of 5% and minus 8ft with inflows of 3,640cfs and releasing 12,472cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 89% of capacity (an increase of 7%) with inflows of 14,000cfs and releases of 13,973cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 92% of capacity, a decrease of 5% and minus 11ft, with inflows of 3,299cfs with releases of 15,253cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 81% of capacity, a decrease of 7% and minus 7ft, with inflows of 1,488cfs with releases of 5,772cfs into the American River. Trinity Lake storage is 2,191,168AF a decrease of 43,995AF of storage. 

Trinity Lake: The lake is 16ft below the overflow and 90% of capacity (a decrease of 1%) with inflows of 598cfs and releasing 2,171cfs into Lewiston Lake with 1,549cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to the Keswick Power Plant with releases of 13,993cfs into the Sacramento River. 

Trinity River flows and conditions: Trinity Lake is 90% of capacity, a decrease of 1% and 16ft below the overflow, a decrease of 1ft. Lewiston Dam is 96% of capacity, a decrease 1% and water releases of 622cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 49.0 degrees, as of 0:00pam today Sunday July 6, 2025.  Limekiln Gulch is 5.11t at 651cfs. Douglas City is 6.90ft with flows of 611cfs with water temperatures of 58.7 degrees. Helena is 9.81ft at 1,042cfs with water temps of 61.2 degrees. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.88 at 213cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 1,255cfs, air is 81 degrees and water at 62.7 degrees, Hoopa is 12.47ft at 1,460cfs with water at 63.3 degrees. 

Klamath River flows and conditions: Flows at the Iron Gate/ Bogas Creek are 1,026cfs, a decrease of 276cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.73ft at 1,647cfs. Indian Creek is 3.78ft at 104cfs. Happy Camp is estimated to be 1,751cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 3,047cfs, and the Salmon River is 2.41ft at 9655cfs. Orleans is 4.06ft at 3,702cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 9.15ft flowing at 5,234cfs with water temps of 70.4 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jediah Smith are 4.88ft with flows of 435cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.65ft at N/A.

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 108 and a low of 59 degrees. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year total to date of 53.47 and 1.75in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 100 and a low of 58. The weather predicted for the next week is looking like sunshine all week long with temperatures to reach 100 by Saturday hopefully with a cooling off period after. 

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