Trinity Lake is 43 ft. below the over flow and 74 % of capacity. Average inflow to the lake for the week is 448cfs. 2,300cfs is being released to the Sacramento River. Water releases to the Trinity River @ Lewiston are 454cfs & water temperatures are 51 degrees with air temps of 87 degrees at 1:00pm today. Douglas City flows are 460cfs @ 2.2ft, with water temps of 57 degrees & air temps are 91 degrees. Helena / North Fork water flows are 502cfs @9.4ft, with water temperatures of 65.4 degrees and air temps of 92 degrees. Cedar Flat, water flows are 553cfs @ 3.1ft. Willow Creek flows are est. @ 610cfs with water temperatures about 70 degrees and air at 90 degrees at 1:00pm today. Hoopa water flows are 942 cfs. @ 11.9ft, with water temps of about 71 degrees.

The Klamath River releases at Iron Gate are 1,020cfs. Seiad Valley flows are 1,210cfs @ 2 ft. Happy Camp flows are est. at about 1,270cfs. Somes Bar flows are 1,670cfs; Orleans flows are 2,010cfs @ 3.7ft. Water flows at Weitchpec are about 2,900cfs with water temps of 74.4 degrees & air temps at 90 degrees. Klamath at 101 Bridge is 2,810cfs @ 9ft and water temperatures are 76 degrees.

Last weeks temps for the Trinity Valley were 104/58 degrees with no rain. Next weeks forecast is for 90/56 degrees with possible showers Tuesday and Wednesday with the rest of the week-overcast morning's sunny afternoons. If the thundershowers occur we could have lightning strikes with fire in the high mountains like last week up at Gasque. Not to be afraid as all fires were extinguished or are under control and I would expect the same this week if it were to occur. Any way you look at it next week we are going to have muggy afternoons.

The Junction City weir counts are very encouraging for last week. The Spring Chinook Counts were up again showing a total of 287 for the week. Steelhead counts were also up, at 54,of which 40 were hatchery fish. Germen Brown Trout was a total of 75, of which 63 were over 16-1/4inches. From this information I would say that fishing in the upper Trinity is very good. Most boats were landing 3-5 Salmon with some German Browns and Steelhead in the mix for those back trolling plugs or throwing spinners.

Fishing the Trinity in the Del Loma area has started to pick up with an occasional adult Salmon and some nice hatchery Steelhead to boot for those fishermen side drifting roe or fishing from the banks. Because of the weather being so hot in the afternoons it has been strictly an early morning fish and I mean like 5:30 to 11:00am. After that it gets to hot until after the sun goes down about 7PM. Another thing you have to keep a check on is the water temperature. You want to try and fish in water that is below 68degrees if at all possible. Some of the places to look for are incoming streams and shaded deep holes that have a good tail out on their lower end with a riffle. Any of this type of water will provide you with some good hookups. The warm water will cause the fish to tire faster so you want to be sure that if you are going to release your fish that they swim out of your hands and not just throw them back into the river as they may not survive. When catching and releasing your fish you want to hold the fish by their tails and move it slowly back and forth in the water to try and get fresh water over their gills. Once the fish has recovered enough it will swim out of your hands and into deeper water. If you release your fish by just throwing it back into the river 9 times out of 10 it will sink to the bottom of the river and die.

Shad have finally hit the Trinity River. Our Shad runs are very short and usually don't last very long but they do provide some very hot action when they are here. Last week some fly fishers got into them up at Hawkins Bar and for several mornings had some great action. I also saw some down below the airport in Willow Creek working the backflow of some riffles

The Mid-Klamath has been heating up lately and by noon the water has reached into the 70-degree range in the Weitchpec area. Like I said a few weeks ago the river is getting too hot and will really start to cause some water quality problems for the fish if nothing is done soon. There has already been several Klamath River advisories published and I don't see it getting any better in the short term. Let's hope some of the people in power will take the hint and look for a solution. Until next time ------

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