Trinity Lake is 75ft. below the overflow and 57.4 percent of capacity.
Average inflow to the lake is 515cfs and 112cfs is being released to the
Sacramento River.

Trinity River @ Lewiston is 307cfs & water Temps are 42.7, air 47cfs @
2:00pm today. Limekiln Gulch 492cfs at 4.9ft.

Douglas City is 790cfs at 2.8ft. water temps 41.7, air 47. Helena / North
Fork is 1,350cfs at 10.7ft. water temps 41.9, air 45.

Cedar Flat is 1,900cfs at 5.7 ft and Willow Creek estimated at 3,290cfs.
water temps about 43, air is 48.

Hoopa is 5.5K cfs at 16.1ft and water temps about water 44. Mouth of
Trinity River at Klamath 11.6K cfs water about 44 degrees.

Klamath River releases at Iron Gate are 1,350cfs. Seiad Valley is 2,320cfs
3.5ft. Happy Camp estimated at 2,680cfs.

Somes Bar estimated at 4,220cfs. Orleans is 6,100cfs at 6.4ft. Klamath
River at 101 is 15.2K cfs at 12.9ft with water about 43.5F.

Last weeks temperatures for the Trinity Valley were 48/29 degrees with 2
inches of rain and some snow flurries. Forecasts for next week are for 45/29
degrees with showers, rain, and some snow. The forecast also predicts snow
on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. If this is correct you can expect a cold
fishing trip for the weekend. Right now it is raining with intermittent
showers. Good weather for ducks and Steelhead.

Most of the North Coast Rivers are looking good for fishing but you can
expect some very cold fishing in the next week or so especially if we get
snow at the lower elevations. My best guess is to call Thursday afternoon or
night before you make the trip north. The Smith and Chetco are in good shape
but could be blown out by the weekend. So here again, you best call before
driving and if you do decide to head up be sure you have tire chains or the
CHP WILL stop you.

The Trinity River Hatchery counts just keep going up and up and up. Remember
a while back I said that the hatchery was still getting some Chinook Salmon,
well last week they got another two. Now that's just crazy. Don't they know
that Salmon spawning season is over, I guess you just can't fool Mother
Nature! As it stands the Fall Chinook Salmon run peaked out Nov. 19-25 with
4,841 salmon going into the hatchery. The total fall run was 18,112 as to
11,560 for 2006. Not a bad return except that they were very late in getting
here and many of the Salmon fishers gave upon them and went home or settled
for catching Steelhead. This means the the Trinity met the escapement goals
for 2007 with extra to spare. I have not found out how the Klamath did yet
but I only hope that they did at least half as good. Coho Salmon did not
fare as well this yeas as they have in the last couple of years. Now for the
Steelhead they just keep coming. The hatchery is a little behind last years
count at 5,699 for 2007, so it will be interesting to see how that will play
out over the next month. I sure hope the numbers continue to go up so I
won't have egg on my face from predicting that the 2007 Steelhead run will
surpass last year by a good margin.

The lower Trinity is seeing some fresh native Steelhead coming into the
system as the weather turns bad. You see some times bad weather is not
always BAD. If it brings in more fish then winter steelhead fishers are
happy. Just remember that you have to release these guys go as they will be
native fish and not hatchery. The good part is that they are usually larger
and will give you a run for your effort. If this run is of any accord
fishing in the Willow Creek / Hoopa area will start to heat up within the
next week or two. You will have to pick you areas to fish but I will be
working the lower side of incoming streams with hardware.

Most of the hot action was in the upper Trinity this past week. From
Lewiston down to Indian Creek was where most of the action was but from
Douglas City down to Junction City saw plenty of hot action for the few that
fished that area. The higher up river you went the more fish but the more
fishing pressure also. Bruce Mace said he and his friend did well around
D.C. with 6 adults the first day around Steiner Flat and 7 adults the next
day up around Indian Creek. They went just the opposite as most fishermen
and were not bothered with a lot of other fishers or boats, nice if you like
the river to yourself. I would say that is not bad fishing landing 13 adult
Iron Heads in two days of fishing. He even sent pictures to prove his point.
I know that fishing was a little harder down around Cedar Flat but got
better as you went up river to the Junction City to Evans Bar area.

Over on the Mid Klamath fishing will start to get better in the Orleans area
provided that the river does not come up to fast and turn muddy. Last week
hardware throwers were doing great up in the Somes Bar area. Some nice
adults to 6 pounds were recorded. If the rain does not blow out the river
fishing will be good from Weitchpec all the way up to Happy Camp. That
should make a lot of fishers happy. Remember that if you are down at the
river and it starts to rain hard you had better pack up and get out of there
if you are using only 2WD vehicles as some of the accesses get quite
slippery when they are wet. Many of the places you can drive down to the
river in 2WD but if it rains hard you could find yourself stuck in the mud
and that could turn a good fishing experience into a bad one very quick. Ti
Bar and Persidio Bar are two that come to mind right now. The good thing is
that most of the time you are OK using these accesses and they provide some
very good fishing for winter Steelhead. Until next time ----

Good Fish'en ------- Good Luck and remember: "Keep your Tip up and a tight
line lands fish!"