The Bureau of Reclamation is reducing water releases to the Trinity River to summer flows of 450cfs by 4:00am Wednesday September 23, 2026. This will be the end of higher water flows to the Klamath/Trinity River Basin. This flushing has also helped to reduce the contamination of Ich (Ichthyophthirius). Ich is the parasite that attacks the skin and gills of Salmon and can make the fish uneatable as well as kil the fish. This is why the water flows were increased to help flush out the rivers and decrease the parasite. The cooler water also helps bring in more fish into the rivers. Ich and Columnaris were the two disease that caused the September 2002 fish kills.

Now that the two lower weirs on the Trinity River have been combined into one at Tish Tang on the Hoopa Reservation, the CDFW Willow Creek weir summary will be a combination of the two weirs. It will also help make for a more accurate count. The tagging of fish will also continue as before. It will also allow for the Hoopa Valley Tribe to continue their traditional harvesting for ceremonial practices, science and improve fisheries management. 

Upper Klamath creel count: Julian Week 38, ending Sep. 23, 2026; Bogus Creek, Chinook Salmon, 0-adults, 0-jacks. Shasta River, Chinook Salmon, 629-adults, 0-jacks, season total 629; Coho, 0-adults, 2-jacks, season total 2. Scott River, Chinook Salmon. 0-adults, 0-jacks, season total 0. Jenny Creek, Chinook Salmon, 0-adult, 0-jacks, Coho Salmon, 0-adult, 0-jack. Shovel Creek, Chinook Salmon, 0-adult, 0-jack. 

Lower Klamath creel count: (Has not been published yet) Below Hwy 101 Bridge; Julian Week 36, ending Sep. 9, 2026; Chinook Salmon, 103-jack, 359-adult, total 462, season total 881; harvesting of adult Salmon ceased; Above Hwy 101 Bridge; 299-jack, 216-addult, total 515, season total 1,073.

Junction City weir summary: The Junction City weir has been partially pulled because of the higher water releases and shall resume next week after water releases are back to normal. Julian Week 35, ending on Sep. 2, 2026; Chinook Salmon, 2-jack, 7-adult, total 9, 552-hatchery, season total 848; Coho Salmon, o- fish; Steelhead, 0-1/2pounder, 1-adult, total 1, season total 84, Brown Trout 0, season total 50.

Willow Creek/ Hoopa weir summary: Has started but not published yet.

Lewiston Lake: The last report I received Louise said that the fishing was slow even after a fish planting but should start to get better as the water flows drop. Lewiston Lake is receiving 1,631cfs from Trinity Lake and releasing 1,192cfs into the river. If you would like to know more up to date fishing you can contact the Pine Cove Marina and ask Louise or Matt (530)778-3878), for Upper Trinity River you can call Junction City Store, (530)623-2803 or North Coast Outfitters (415)596-3488. 

Willow Creek area: The water flow releases are to be dropped Sept. 23, 2026 back to 450cfs at 4:00am (summer releases) so I expect the fishing to get better as the flows decrease. Right now, the fishing is sparce on the lower river but doing pretty good up river. I am not hearing a whole lot about the upper river area but it should start getting better after Wednesday. The good news is that Ich has finally started to be reduced to the point that there are very little amounts reported. I will be starting to go down to Tish Tang and check out the counts now.  

Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Mid-Klamath Creel count and counting stations have been reporting good counts and I have started receiving this week’s reports.  The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 2,769cfs. This is an increase of 862cfs. The Iron Gate/Bogus Creek area is flowing 987cfs a decrease of 184cfs from the last report.  The river is still flowing fair up river and getting a bit cooler. The lower river at Terwer Creek is 66.5 degrees. The counts are showing much better movement of Salmon now that the river is cooling down. For better information you can call or check out the face book for Marble Mountain Guest Ranch (800) 522-6284, or Scott Caldwell, SC Guide Service (530)905-0758 to get the latest fishing information for fishing the Upper Klamath.

Lake Conditions: Trinity Lake is at 237,736AF, a decrease of 1,492,214AF. We are seeing more lowering of the lake storage with the extra water releases. Whiskeytown Lake is 99%, an increase of 0% with inflows of 500cfs and releases of 217cfs.  Shasta Lake is 55% of capacity, a decrease of 1% and minus 2ft with inflows of 2,680cfs and releasing 5,985cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 91% of capacity, a decrease of 1% with inflows of 2,038cfs and releases of 6,280cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 54% of capacity, an increase of 1% and plus 4ft, with inflows of 1,677cfs with releases of 8,631cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 45% of capacity, a decrease of 0% and minus 1ft, with inflows of 1,573cfs with releases of 2,2119cfs into the American River. 

Trinity Lake: The lake is 161ft below the overflow, an increase of 121ft and 70% of capacity, a decrease 1%, with inflows of 365cfs and releasing 1,631cfs into Lewiston Lake with 439cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to the Keswick Power Plant, and releasing 6,280cfs into the Sacramento River, a decrease of 236cfs.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 96% of capacity, an increase 0% and water releases of 1,192cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 50.0 degrees, as of 0:00pam today Sep. 19, 2026Limekiln Gulch is 5.71ft. with flows of 1,187cfs. Douglas City is 7.62ft with flows of 1,169cfs and water temperatures of 53.6 degrees. Helena is 10.50ft with flows of 1,114cfs with water temps of 54.8 degrees. South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.56 with flows of 65cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 1,166cfs, air is 62 degrees and water at 62.0 degrees, Hoopa is 12,22ft with flows of 1,286cfs with water at 62.3 degrees.

Klamath River flows and conditions: Iron Gate/Bogas Creek is 1.73ft with flows of 1,004cfs, an increase of 17cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.13ft with flows of 1,189cfs. Indian Creek is 3.22ft with flows of 36cfs. Happy Camp is estimated to be 1,1225cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,564cfs, and the Salmon River is 1.55ft with flows of 165cfs. Orleans is 1.90ft at 1,569cfs, the Klamath River with flows of Terwer Creek at 8.24ft and flows of 3,307cfs with water temps of 66.4 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jediah Smith are 4.36ft with flows of 224fs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.15ft at N/A.

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 91 and a low of 43 degrees. Rain for the week was 0.00in with a water year total to date of 58.57 and 1.45in of snow in Willow Creek. The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 87 and a low of 46. We are looking at a cool down in the weather with some sunshine and seeing more fish in the rivers.  

 Good Fishin and Good Luck but remember; “keep your tip up with a tight line lands fish”

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