Jan 16 - 22 - Trinity Reports.
Jan 21 - 3 pm. Flows are leveling at Douglas but there was weird rise between Limekiln and Douglas. The water was a little off near the lodge but definitely fishable. We did see a number of empty trailers today and quite a few of the guests were fishing but not back as of yet. We’re still maintaining the fishing only gets better from here out and still the forecast is holding. We’re expecting a couple of days topping out at 43-45 degrees and then the trend for daily highs continues to rise. It was a bright and sunny day, a welcomed change. We’d like to see the flows continue in this range but we’re expecting a continued decline.
Jan 20 - 2pm. Douglas flows are now below 800 cfs and the river continues to clear. I see nothing in the upcoming forecast to show a change until Jan 28. We’re seeing highs in the 50’s and lows near freezing. I would expect conditions to continue to only get better from here on. There’s a bunch of boats on our stretch today so we’ll see how they do! Nice to see some sunshine!
Jan 19 - 3:30 pm. The rain we had over the last 24 hours came, but in the form of snow. Freeze is currently below 2000 ft and the river is dropping into the 800 ~ 850 cfs levels at Douglas. We’re seeing the typical “steelhead green” color on the river and I would guess at Indian Creek Lodge we’re somewhere around 2-3 feet of visibility. Rush creek, Deadwood, and all other tribs continue to drop but at a slower rate which should be expected. We will below freezing tonight at the lodge so I would expect the river to continue its overnight decline. Weaver creek still had color, I would not expect it to hamper conventional gear tomorrow but fly anglers may have tougher time further down river with daily highs reaching 50. We’d expect a small flush of the lower elevation snowfall to release. All in all, things look really good. I’d be thinking about floats down from lewiston, Steel, and Indian creek tomorrow.
Jan 18 - 10:15 am. The river above indian creek at the lodge has about a 1.5 visibility and still not quite in that steelhead green color - but flows and color are improving quickly. The river at Limekiln is running about 800 cfs and most of the tribs are also steadily dropping. Flows at douglas may be under 1000 cfs this afternoon. We still feel like Friday afternoon or Saturday we should see fishable waters down to Indian Creek. We have a few anglers in at the lodge and we’ll try to get another report in this afternoon.
Jan 16 - 3 pm. We have some great news to report. The recent upward trend of the river appears to have broken and we’re currently seeing flows at Douglas City of 1490 cfs. All tributaries are beginning to relax and we see nothing in the current forecast to change a continued downward trend of flows. We are showing a 1/2 inch of rain possible on Wednesday. We’ve also heard reports of anglers catching fish up near Lewiston on gear. 5 nice adults and some were very bright. This is good news. With the downward trend, fly fishing should begin here in the next few days. I would look at flows on Wednesday evening to see where we end up after the rainy day. By Friday or Saturday the river should be very fishable down to Douglas or further depending on how flows from Weaver creek, Douglas, Grass Valley, and Deadwood decline. By Friday, expect the river to be above typical flows coming from the dam and it being a bit turbid in certain locations below the tribs. Those seamlines should be great to fish tho. Have a few hi vis patterns at the ready. Hopefully though, we see the river to continue it’s steady decline. These first few days on the water drop are going to be very successful. We’re all ready for a few decent days outside! The next system to move through appears to be around the 27th of Jan but with light precipitation so for.