Chinook Salmon Run Declining, Steelhead Increasing

The mouth of the Klamath was blocked for about a week a couple of weeks ago stopping fish from coming into the estuary during low tides. Most Salmon wee hesitant to cross the bar at the mouth of the Klamath until flows broke open the bar. Then the fish started to come in but held up in the lower river. Because of the mouth of the Klamath was blocked the Chinook Salmon count at the Willow Creek weir started declining. The good thing was that the Steelhead count started going up which has helped fish conditions on the Trinity. Now with the rain we will start to see more fish in both rivers.

Notice: the Trinity River will start to reduce water flows on October 16th. This means that water releases from Lewiston Lake/Dam will drop to winter flows of 300cfs by 4:00pm Thursday afternoon.

It looks like TRRP has enlarged the parking area at the Juncton City Campground Launch site to allow more parking with a little better access. This is good as Winter Steelhead fishing is about to start with all this early rain. It does look like we could possibly have an early winter thus increasing fishing. The problem being that one can not keep Salmon this year but we can keep Hatchery Steelhead. When releasing be sure to NOT take hooked Salmon out of the water as it will get you a citation for sure!!

Trinity River Hatchery summary: The hatchery count for Julian Week 40 is in a bit of a backlog and did not get into the report. Julian Week 37, ending Sep. 16; Chinook Salmon, 39-Jacks, 331-adults, total 370, season total 512; Coho Salmon, 0-Jacks, 0-adults, season total 0; Steelhead, 0-1/2-lbs, 1-adult, total 1, season total 2 hatchery.

Junction City Weir summary: Julian Week 40, ending Oct. 7, 2025: Chinook Salmon, 18-jacks, 51-adults, total 69, season total 1,052, 235-Hatchery Chinook; Coho Salmon, 2- jacks, 1-adults, season total 5; Steelhead, 6-1/2-lbs, 117-adults, total 123, season total 375, 151- Hatchery Steelhead; Brown Trout 4, total 4, season total 43. JC counted their first Coho.

Willow Creek summary: Julian Week 40, ending Oct. 7, 2025: Chinook Salmon, 35-jacks, season total 1,245, 125-adults, total 160, season total 1,819, 235-Hatcher Chinook: Coho Salmon, 2-jacks, 1- adults, total 3, season total 8, 6-Hatchery Coho; Steelhead, 6-½-lbs, 117- adults, total 123, season total 390, 124- Hatchery Steelhead.

Klamath River summary: Shasta River starting Sep.25, 2025, Oct 9, 2025 count; 0-Chinook Salmon, season total 2,630, Coho Salmon total 0; 0-Steelhead 96-adult total; Scott River; 514-Chinook Salmon season total 527, Coho Salmon 0, 0 Steelhead; Bogus Creek starting Sep. 26, 2025, October 9,2025 count, 123-Chinook Salmon, season total 123; Jenny Creek starting Sep. 19, 2025, Oct. 9, 2025 count; 64-Chinook Salmon, total 77, 0 Coho Salmon, 0 Steelhead; Shovel Creek starting Sep. 2025, Oct,9,20256 count; 42- Chinook Salmon, season total 42, 0 Coho Salmon, 0 Steelhead.

Lewiston Lake: I haven’t receive a report from Lewiston Lake this week. I would expect would be fair to good as there is plenty of water to fish right now but will be reduced flows Oct. 16th. 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. I have not received any fishing information from Indian Creek Lodge for some time now.

Willow Creek area: I haven’t seen any buddy fishing at Big Rock for several days now. There are plenty of Steelhead in the lower river but fishing has been slow for the last two weeks. We should see the fishing start to pick up before the winter flows kick in. After the water flows drop, I am sure fishing will be a little tight until the rains show up. Which should be next week some time if the predictions are correct. I have not heard about any good fishing up river but I am sure there should be some.

Mid-Klamath to Happy Camp: The Klamath River at Weitchpec is flowing 3,176cfs. This is an increase of 929cfs. The Iron Gate/Bogus Creek area is flowing 1,089cfs an increase of 17cfs from the last report. I haven’t received a fishing report from the Upper Klamath for some time now so I am not sure how fishing has been due to the fires. The fires oar out now but the river is still closed for recreation because there is no one in USFS working in our area to open them up. There is still fish moving in the Upper Klamath so I would expect that the Mid-Klamath would be seeing the same thing. The reports of Fall Chinook Salmon spawning numbers at Shovel and Jenning Creeks are still increasing so that is good news. 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 and river closures.

L ake Conditions: It appears that readings are being posted a day late. Whiskeytown Lake is 99%, an increase of 0% with inflows of 1,616cfs and releases of 1,554cfs. Shasta Lake is 58% of capacity, a decrease of 1% and minus 5ft with inflows of 5,039cfs and releasing 7,456cfs into Keswick. Keswick is 85% of capacity, a decrease of 5% with inflows of 7,202cfs and releases of 7,137cfs into the Sacramento River. Oroville Lake is 56% of capacity, a decrease of 5% and minus 119ft, with inflows of 1,896cfs with releases of 7,603cfs into the Feather River. Folsom Lake is 45% of capacity, a decrease of 1% and minus 3ft, with inflows of 960cfs with releases of 1,285cfs into the American River. Trinity Lake storage is 1,778345AF a decrease of 56,271AF of storage.

Trinity Lake: The lake is 45ft below the overflow, an increase of 4ft and 73% of capacity, a decrease of 2%, with inflows of 137cfs and releasing 2,103cfs into Lewiston Lake with 1,656cfs being diverted to Whiskeytown and on to the Keswick Power Plant, and releasing 7,456cfs into the Sacramento River, a decrease of 93cfs.

Trinity River flows and conditions: Lewiston Dam is 95% of capacity, an increase 0% and water releases of 447cfs into the Trinity River, with water temperatures of 46.7 degrees, as of 0:00 pam today Sunday October 12, 2025 . Limekiln Gulch is 4.90 at 471cfs. Douglas City is 6.67ft with flows of 488cfs with water temperatures of 50.8 degrees. Junction City (gauge is out of order), Helena is 9.08ft at 514cfs with water temps of 51.9 degrees. Cedar Flat (Burnt Ranch) (Gauge is still out of order). South Fork of the Trinity near Hyampom is 2.64 at 154cfs. Willow Creek is estimated at 668cfs, air is 57 degrees and water at 57.8 degrees, Hoopa is 11.92ft at 1,024cfs with water at 57.8 degrees.

Klamath River flows and conditions: Flows at Bogas Creek are 1.98ft with flows of 1,089cfs, an increase of 17cfs. Seiad Valley is 2.54ft at 1,500cfs. Indian Creek is 3.84ft at 61cfs. Happy Camp is estimated to be 1,561cfs, Somes Bar is estimated to be 1,665cfs, and the Salmon River is 1.94ft at 387cfs. Orleans is 2.95ft at 2,052cfs, the Klamath River at Terwer Creek is 8.62ft flowing at 3,933cfs with water temps of 59.3 degrees. Flows for the Smith River at Jediah Smith are 4.79ft with flows of 394cfs. and flows at Dr. Fine Bridge are 11.56ft at N/A.

Temperatures for the Valley last week had a high of 79 and a low of 46 degrees. Rain for the week was 1.07in with a water year total to date of 1.59 and 0.00in of snow in Willow Creek. (We started a new water October1st.The predicted temperatures for next week are for high of 77 and a low of 46. The weather predicted for the next week is predicting rain starting last Monday with cloudy skies for the middle of the week then some more rain with nice fishing weather for the weekend.

Chinook Salmon Run Declining, Steelhead Increasing

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