States·CA
California fishing
News-desk briefs whose primary water is California.
Capt. James Smith’s Sept. 29 California Dawn report from Berkeley Marina: 18 king salmon to 22 pounds, a higher-than-normal lost-fish rate, and room on the next morning trip.
H&M Landing’s Sept. 27 sheet: 10 boats, 12 trips, 342 anglers, 608 yellowfin, 147 yellowtail, 115 bullet tuna, and 108 dorado. Tradition’s 2-day led with 210 yellowfin. Old Glory’s overnight added two striped marlin.
Guide Doug Rice told Western Outdoor News on Sept. 22 that Lopez Lake bait is spread from the surface to 25 feet, with bass schooled in open water. Deep cranks, spinnerbaits, A-rigs, and half-ounce jigs are the reaction tools.
Lewiston Dam releases rose from about 450 cfs to as much as 1,200 cfs from Aug. 28 through Sept. 21, with the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes, CDFW, and USFWS, to move stacked fall Chinook and cut disease risk.
WON’s Sept. 22 Eastern Sierra sheet: Crowley on flies/lures only with a two-fish 18-inch limit, Convict kicking out stocked trophies, and June Loop rainbows in a fall frenzy.
Capt. Mike Rescino’s Sept. 22 Lovely Martha trip from Fisherman’s Wharf finished 12 salmon for 10 anglers after the previous day’s hotspot changed. The boat listed open seats Friday and next week.
Fish Emeryville’s Sept. 22 sheet: Here We Go’s half-day morning trip went 3 anglers for 2 kings. Sea Wolf’s full day put 19 anglers on 190 rockfish, 8 lingcod, and 7 bonito. The landing says more than 12,000 fish remain on the fall Chinook guideline.
Allen Chin’s Sept. 20 TigerFish report: Greg and Stevie’s charter landed 6 salmon to 25 pounds, then 20 limits of rockfish and lingcod with lingcod to 20 pounds. Space was listed for the following week.
Capt. Mike Rescino’s Sept. 21 Lovely Martha report from Fisherman’s Wharf finished 17 salmon and 2 bonus bonito for 15 anglers. The boat advertised light loads for the next day and Friday.
Capt. Sean Hodges’s Sept. 20 Hog Heaven report from Sausalito logged 23 salmon to 27 pounds. The same filing also flagged an Oct. 10 salmon and air-show trip.
Capt. Jared Davis’s Salty Lady Sportfishing report for Sept. 21: Marin Coast trip finished 9 fish — 5 Chinook salmon and 4 bonito — in good weather with bites spaced out. Confirm the 20,000 fall guideline before keeping kings.
Chad Burton and Chris Borden's Sept. 18 SoCal Fish Reports sheet: Castaic near 95 percent capacity and about 80°F, with an excellent bass and striper bite on fish pushing bait into coves and flats, including Sharon's Rest.
Roger George’s Sept. 18 San Luis report rated the striper bite 3/10 in rising, algae-stained water — then a four-angler trip scored three personal-bests from 19 to 25 pounds at 60 feet on a shad-colored stickbait, all released.
Allen Bushnell’s Sept. 18 Monterey Bay report: Malakai Armenta’s 42-inch, 21-pound Santa Cruz beach striper on an SP Minnow, and a 54-pound white seabass for Ezio Vermiglio aboard The Big Anchovy on live Pacific mackerel.
Fish Emeryville’s Sept. 17 evening sheet: New Huck Finn and Sea Wolf full limits of rockfish and lingcod outside the Gate; Oakland Anglers II and Here We Go combined 15 kings for 14 anglers. Weekend weather looks great and Saturday is about sold out.
San Diego Fish Reports’ Sept. 16 Fisherman’s Landing totals: 418 dorado and 120 yellowfin for 127 anglers on six trips. Islander and Pacific Queen stacked the dorado; Tomahawk led yellowfin. Distinct from this morning’s Seaforth Pacifica brief.
Don Moir’s Sept. 17 4Reel column: north-end Lake Sonoma bass are chewing a KDV Square-build crankbait at Yorty, Cherry, and Skunk; landlocked salmon at the dam; Mendocino chartreuse topwater before 8 a.m.; Clear Lake wolf packs 15–20 ft with a frog at first light.
Jim Taibi’s Sept. 13 Tackle Express Castaic report: largemouth, smallmouth, and spots sharing shallow grass on abundant bait, 30–50 fish half-days on live shad, surface still the program. Off the water by 7 p.m. — earlier than prior weeks.
Fish Emeryville’s 4:08 p.m. Sept. 14 update: Diamond 5 anglers / 10 kings (limits of big-belly salmon), Oakland Anglers II 7 / 9 kings, and Sea Wolf 11 / 110 rockfish plus 22 lingcod. Pacific Pearl is a light-load salmon trip Sept. 15.
H&M Landing’s Sept. 14 fish-count page: Old Glory 93 yellowfin on a 1.5-day, Sea Adventure 80 with 250 yellowfin and 77 dorado on a 3.5-day, and Producer still on the water after 105 yellowfin.
Lost Coast Outfitters’ Sept. 11 Delta fly report (Capt. Bryce Tedford, Sept. 9) calls September the crossover month — all three bass species on the table, sometimes the same day. October–November striper books are full.
Seaforth’s Saturday, Sept. 12 sheet put Tribute on 55 yellowtail, 53 dorado, 36 yellowfin, and 1 wahoo, while San Diego, Sea Watch, and New Seaforth mixed yellowtail, bonito, and local bass.
Fish Emeryville’s Saturday dock: 6 trips, 92 anglers, 64 king salmon, 200 rockfish, 3 lingcod, and 1 halibut. Oakland Anglers II led with 22 kings; New Huck Finn had fish to 28 pounds. Lovely Martha and California Dawn added 22 and 34 salmon.
CDFW’s first 2026 in-season weir update, reported by Siskiyou News, counted 35 adult Chinook at the Shasta River through Sept. 10, zero at Bogus Creek, and set Shovel, Scott, and Jenny Creek stations earlier than the post-dam years.
Capt. Brian Woolley’s Sept. 11 Dana Point Times week recap says yellowtail rebounded on hard bottom and mud, water cooled into the low-to-mid 70s for calicos, and jumbo bonito to 10 pounds ripped the boats — with random yellowfin and dorado mixed offshore.
A Sierra Wave Sept. 8 Convict Lake brief says the resort dropped 600 pounds of trophy rainbows (about 4.5 lb average) the same weekend as a State plant — south shore fish to 5 pounds, with Ambush at the Lake running through mid-November.
Tackle Express’s Sept. 6 Castaic report, via guide Jim Taibi, says cooler nights flipped the lake into an almost all-surface pattern — largemouth on shad in the coves, stripers hitting topwater in as little as three feet.
Allen Bushnell’s Sept. 11 Santa Cruz report says tanker white seabass are thick on live bait from the Westside to Moss Landing, with rockfish, lingcod, and sandy-flat halibut still producing.
Fish Emeryville’s Friday AM update tallied 29 Chinook, 160 rockfish, and 32 lingcod across four boats on Sept. 10, with Scallywag and Here We Go near salmon limits.
Toronado Sportfishing’s Sept. 10 return from a 1.5-day trip out of Pierpoint Landing logged three bluefin to 150 pounds plus yellowtail, bonito, and a rockfish/whitefish bag.
Lovely Martha, California Dawn, Hog Heaven, and Fish Emeryville all reported strong Chinook days on Sept. 10 as California’s fall ocean salmon window stays hot.
The Log’s Sept. 10 South Coast report from Dana Wharf Sportfishing says quality yellowtail continue close to home while ¾-day boats mix skipjack and yellowfin offshore.
Don Moir’s Sept. 1 Ukiah Daily Journal 4Reel column says early buzzbaits and frogs are producing on Clear Lake, Lake Mendocino, Lake Sonoma, and Lake Pillsbury as midweek pressure eases.
Fish Emeryville’s Sept. 9 scores show multiple salmon boats near limits, with New Huck Finn to 30-pound kings, while Oakland Anglers II mixed rockfish, sanddab, and lingcod.
Guide Scott Caldwell’s Sept. 7 Shasta report says 2- to 4-pound rainbows — and some browns — are still on baby shad at 80–110 feet, with trolled plugs and spoons the ticket.
Kenny Priest’s Sept. 3 North Coast report says fall kings are leaving the estuary and staging upriver after cool Lewiston Dam releases, rain, and a BOR flow bump — Trinity quotas also opened Sept. 1.
ESA, with ICF and DWR, published a five-year acoustic-tracking study of nearly 600 striped bass at Clifton Court Forebay — five movement types meant to sharpen predator management for listed salmonids.
Bass Angler Magazine’s Sept. 8 Delta playbook says late-summer largemouth are still keyed on punching matted vegetation on moving tides, with topwater and finesse filling low-light and slack windows.
Western Outdoor News reports party and private boats from Bodega to Half Moon Bay found limits to near-limits of hard-fighting Chinook after the Sept. 1 fall opener — shared 20,000-fish fall guideline still in play.
On Sept. 8 the Hoopa Valley Tribe and CDFW dedicated a single jointly run selective-harvest weir near Tish Tang Campground, folding Willow Creek monitoring and tribal harvest into one Lower Trinity site ahead of the fall run.
Orange County Parks’ 2026 schedule lists Laguna Niguel, Mile Square, and Tri-City regional parks for channel catfish stocking the week of Sept. 7–11 — a California fishing license is required for anglers 16 and up at those waters.
CDFW’s Sacramento Fishing in the City program is still planting channel catfish through September at seven metro ponds, with a youth Learn to Fish clinic at Hagan Community Park on Sept. 12.
With heat still hanging over the Valley, CDFW and partners are tracking shallow winter-run redds below Shasta and warning that about one in five eggs could be lost if river temperatures climb — just as a strong fall Chinook return gears up.
CDFW reopened recreational razor clamming in Del Norte County after August samples fell below the federal action level — Humboldt County stays closed, and the first 20 clams dug still count.
CDFW shut the popular spit fishery at the mouth of the Klamath on Sept. 2 after anglers reached the area’s share of the basin recreational fall Chinook allocation — the rest of the river stays open until its own quotas fill.
CDFW says inland Chinook fishing is back on key California rivers after three closed years, with quotas and bag limits meant to keep the rebound going.