At 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, anglers reached the 2026 adult fall-run Chinook quota on the lower Trinity River, based on projections from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. That reach runs from the Denny Road Bridge at Hawkins Bar down to the Klamath confluence, so every bar and riffle through Willow Creek is inside it. Anglers can still keep jacks. Adult kings go back in the water.
A month earlier, a second change took place downriver. CDFW's Willow Creek Weir had counted Trinity salmon since 1978, and this season it is gone. Its monitoring work moved into a single weir run jointly with the Hoopa Valley Tribe near Tish Tang Campground. For the rest of 2026, the town's stretch of river is mostly a place where fish pass through and get counted, and the harvest from it is small.
A big forecast filled a fixed number
The 2026 season opened on high expectations. CDFW forecast 176,233 Klamath River adult fall-run Chinook, more than double the 82,672 forecast for 2025, according to Kenny Priest's Fishing the North Coast. The recreational share is still a set number of fish. For 2026 the Klamath Basin adult quota was 3,248, divided by reach. The Trinity season runs Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
The Trinity has two quota reaches of 536 adults each. One runs from Old Lewiston Bridge to Cedar Flat. The other runs from Denny Road Bridge to the Klamath, and that's the one that includes Willow Creek. The lower Klamath below the Highway 96 bridge at Weitchpec carried a 1,624-adult quota, and it was met on Sept. 13. In his Oct. 1 column, Priest wrote that the entire Trinity was still open to adult Chinook at that point. The Willow Creek reach stayed open for adults about five weeks longer than the lower Klamath and two weeks past that column.
What's still allowed on this stretch
As of the CDFW notice and the 2026 freshwater regulations, the river near town now works like this:
- Jack Chinook only. Anglers can keep Chinook of 23 inches or less from Denny Road Bridge to the Klamath. Any adult has to be released right away.
- Report card in hand. Salmon anglers in the Klamath-Trinity system must carry a 2026 North Coast Salmon Report Card and fill it out in real time.
- Steelhead remains open. On the Trinity's anadromous reaches, the 2026 rules generally allow up to two hatchery trout or steelhead. Unclipped wild fish have to be released.
- No coho. Coho retention is prohibited throughout the basin. Released coho go on the report card.
- Upstream isn't an easy fallback. The section from Cedar Flat to Denny Road Bridge is closed to all fishing from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
The upper reach above Cedar Flat has its own 536-fish count and its own closure trigger. CDFW's quota hotline at (800) 564-6479 gives the current status of each section. This is a general summary of published rules, not legal advice. Confirm the current regulations with CDFW before you fish.
The weir that moved downstream
For 48 years, much of what agencies knew about Trinity salmon came from a structure in Willow Creek. CDFW says the Willow Creek Weir provided data used to evaluate long-term salmon and steelhead trends, including run size, species mix, age structure, hatchery share and migration timing. Since 2016, the Hoopa Valley Tribe had run its own Selective Fish Harvest Weir downstream near Hoopa, and it supplied fish for ceremonial, subsistence and community use.
Starting this season, both jobs happen at the Tribe's on-reservation weir near Tish Tang. CDFW Director Meghan Hertel and Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Joe Davis dedicated it on Sept. 8. According to the CDFW release, moving from two weirs to one means migrating fish meet in-river structures and get handled fewer times. Davis described the change in the CDFW announcement:
"By combining our monitoring programs and selective harvest into a single operation, we are improving efficiency, reducing impacts to migrating fish, strengthening the scientific foundation of fisheries management and continuing to support the cultural, subsistence, and economic needs of the Hupa people."
KRCR reported on Sept. 8 that the unified weir was catching salmon daily and would stay in place only while migrating fish were moving through. It monitors Chinook, coho and steelhead.
The first numbers from the new site came in fast. Priest's Oct. 1 column reported 547 adult kings and 176 jacks at the Lower Trinity weir for the week ending Sept. 16. The season total was 1,288 fish after 12 trap days, compared with 1,957 fish over 36 trap days in all of 2025. That works out to roughly double the fish per trap day. The 2025 figures came from different weir operations, though, so the comparison is a rough signal.
Counting continues after the harvest closes
With adult harvest closed through town, the most current news about this run comes from survey crews. A preliminary Trinity redd survey update, dated Oct. 16 and produced by federal, state and tribal partners including Yurok staff, counted 956 cumulative salmon nests through survey week Oct. 12. The full update is public.
The river is also running on its winter setting. The Trinity River Restoration Program said the summer baseflow of 450 cfs would hold through Oct. 15, and then releases would drop to a 300 cfs winter baseflow. On the evening of Oct. 18, the USGS gauge at Hoopa read 588 cfs, a provisional figure. Measured flow downstream includes tributary water on top of the dam releases, so the first real rain will push the Hoopa number higher.
Last year's numbers explain why this count gets close attention. The Herald and News reported that the Klamath's 2025 natural-area spawning escapement was 39,860 adult Chinook, 205% of the preseason prediction. It also reported a total river run of 69,852 fish of all ages, 26,015 of them from the Trinity. The same report connected newly reachable Klamath habitat to the dam removal finished in 2024 and said stock rebuilding isn't complete. The 2026 counts at Tish Tang and in the redd surveys will show whether the doubled forecast showed up in the river.
The town calendar picks up as the river quiets
The weeks after the adult closure already have a few dates set in town:
- Wednesday, Oct. 28: The Willow Creek Library has Story Time, free tech support and Cribbage & Board Game Night, all listed on the Willow Creek Chamber calendar.
- Saturday, Nov. 7: The Willow Creek–China Flat Museum's Annual Membership Dinner starts at 5 p.m. at Gonzalez Restaurant. Local historian Jerry Rohde speaks at 6:30 p.m., per the museum's events page.
- December, date to come: The museum's Christmas Bazaar features handmade crafts by local artisans.
- This winter, date to come: The Chamber says the Willow Creek Festival of Light & Wonder is returning with a lighted parade, a holiday movie and a tree lighting at Commons Park.
On the retail side, Kelley Harris's Unique Boutique sells fall costumes now and switches to holiday gifts in winter, according to a September Chamber profile. Anyone after a Halloween costume can find one in town before the shop changes over.
Questions about land along the Trinity, like river frontage, access or what a parcel near Willow Creek is like through a full fall and winter, are part of the everyday work at Kyla Nored. Contact Us when you want someone who knows this stretch of the river.
