Fishing Report

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

The Trinity Journal

August 12, 2009

Trinity Lake is 102 feet below the overflow and 46.5 percent of capacity. Inflow to the lake is 131 cfs, and 1,912 cfs is being released to the Sacramento River.

The forecasts are for cooler weather the rest of the week so we should see some more fish moving up the Trinity River. My contact down at Weitchpec said that he saw salmon staging at the mouth of the Trinity and that fish, both steelhead and salmon, have been moving up the Klamath most of the week.

Douglas City to Junction City is seeing an influx of fresh springers because of the colder water, but it is still a hard fish up there, with only two to three fish per trip.

The Del Loma area is seeing some nice small adult steelhead up to 3-4 pounds but not many salmon yet. The dredgers in the Del Loma access will have to pull out all of their equipment and clean up the area which will make for better launching and fishing in that top stretch for the fall fishing. The really bad part is that all of the dredgers will have to do the same and are being punished for the damage of a few. Not what I would call fair, but it seems to always work out that way no matter what we do in outdoor recreation. The majority suffers for the mistakes of the few.

If you have the opportunity to get some fresh roe, I would suggest that you start working on that because it will only be a very short time before the fall salmon start showing up. Burnt Ranch and Grays Falls area will close to ALL fishing Aug. 31. This area is defined as from the Highway 299 bridge at Cedar Flat down to the bridge at Hawkins Bar. Please don't try to sneak into this area after Aug. 31 and fish as it will be a costly experience for you.

The section of the Trinity River from the South Fork down to the confluence of the Klamath is open for hatchery trout and hatchery steelhead fishing and we are seeing some adults up 8 pounds in this area. It is still an early morning fish, but if you are willing to be at the river at first light you very well could experience a hookup with one of these babies.

The Mid-Klamath is cooling down some and the fish, both salmon and steelhead, are moving around. The half-pounders have not shown yet but I expect them any time now if the weather stays cool. My fishing buddy John said he has been checking out the mouths of Slate and Bluff creeks and has seen small pods of fish hanging out in the colder water of the mouths. This is great news in that we are on our way back to some great fishing.