FISHING REPORT

BY E.B. DUGGAN . 530-629-3554 yen2fish@yahoo.com

The Trinity Journal

September 30, 2009

BOR has stated that as of Sept. 29, Trinity water releases will be for temperature control; all releases from the Trinity Reservoir will be from the auxiliary outlet to help lower water temperatures.

Trinity River Hatchery shows a total of 953 spring chinook entering for spawn this year. The Junction City weir count to date: 246 chinook vs. 201 for 2008; 24 steelhead vs. 27; 165 German brown vs. 99.

Willow Creek weir count to date: 807 vs. 1,387 in 2008; 35 coho vs. 17; 533 steelhead vs. 307. It appears that the 2009 fish run is improving each week. We have yet to see the main run of fish come into the system.

This past week and a half has seen a steady increase of fresh fish coming into the Trinity, but the big spurt has yet to arrive. Hopefully cooler weather in the coming weeks will help the water temperatures to drop more and the fish will head upriver.

In the last week, fishing has been good for some but sparse for others. Last Monday saw Ted Migdal of Napa land a nice adult steelie in the 6-pound range on a fly while his fishing buddy Dave Grahm was hooking salmon down in the Hoopa Gorge. Tuesday saw Tom Weseloh, Byron Leydecker and Herb Burton fish from Salyer to Willow Creek and Byron caught and released a nice 8-pound native steelhead. Herb was not to be outdone and landed a nice hatchery steelie of 6 pounds. Wednesday saw Ron and Nola Jerom of Santa Rosa fishing up in the Del Loma area. These people stay at the Del Loma RV Park each year and this year Nola landed a nice 12-pound salmon while her husband was busy fighting a nice adult iron head. Believe me when I say both were very happy.

Thursday saw my fishing buddy Ed Trujillo from Sacramento land a nice fresh salmon of 25 pounds in the Sky Ranch Road to Pigeon Point section. Ed and his fishing partner did well in that section with three adult salmon in the 10-pound range, largest being the 25-pounder. They also landed two nice adult steelies. Friday saw them fishing down in Del Loma — five more fish, three salmon 6-8 pounds, two hatchery steelhead 1-5 pounds, all released. Saturday they were back up to J.C. landing six more fish with one native steelie at 8 pounds. So you can see the fish are in. At this time of year it is just a guessing game as to where the fish may be because of the range or air and water temperatures.

The Mid-Klamath at Weitchpec and Orleans is doing well for salmon and steelhead. My buddy John says that fishermen are catching salmon limits at the mouth of the Trinity, while up at Slate Creek Riffle the fly fishers are doing very well on flies for half-pounders. At the same time, it has been a good mix of salmon and steelhead at the Bluff Creek hole. All I can say is that there are fish in the river, you just have to locate them.