Fishing Report

BY E.B. DUGGAN (530) 629-3554 yen2fish@yahoo.com
The Trinity Journal

July 29, 2009

Trinity Lake is 97 feet below the overflow and 48.7 percent of capacity. Inflow to the lake is 134 cfs, and 1,999 cfs is being released to the Sacramento River.

The Trinity River Junction City Weir count has dropped some; I expect from the hot days, we only saw 33 spring Chinook come through the weir this past week. There were three German brown over 16-1/2 inches and 8 under. It appears that the count is starting to go down.

I believe that the heat has made the salmon slow down and start looking for cooler water. This would be below good flowing streams or deep pools of water which are going to be hard to find as the feeder streams are also drying up. Unless something drastic happens, I see the Trinity River being very shallow in many places this year and fish are not going to be in their usual holding areas.

For the guides and experienced fishers, this is going to make a big difference at the end of the day. We are not going to see the usual limits brought in after a hard day of fishing. This is my best guess, not a fact.

Right now for fishing I would recommend that you use fresh roe, tuna balls or a 50/50 mix. For the time being, you are going to want to fish those areas below fresh flowing streams. You might want to check the water of these streams to make sure it is colder than the main stem of the river so you won't be wasting your time.

The Del Loma Access Hole is still producing a fish or two in the early mornings. The Burnt Ranch and Grays Falls area is still slow for spring Chinook and the anglers are only coming out with an average of one salmon per angler. The thing to remember is that coming out you will be in the heat of the day and it is going to be hot. So go slow and have some water with you.

The restrictions at the Willow Creek Big Rock access have been lifted and you will be able to take out and launch there now. Willow Creek and Hoopa areas are still closed to the take of Chinook salmon until Aug. 31, but fishing for hatchery trout or steelhead is allowed. There are some summer run steelies in the lower Trinity but the smolt and trout are hard on bait.

The fishing has been early morning, like at dawn, and with the latest increase of heat, the evening fish has all but disappeared. Most fish are looking for cooler water, so that is where one should try to fish.