After a few years of low returns, including one closed season, the Sacramento River has bounced back and is teeming with salmon. Limits of salmon have been the rule for guides and fishermen on the Sacramento River for a month, and it’s not slowing down. In the ocean, tuna fishing is still a possibility, as warm water is within reach, and anglers hope the albacore are hungry when they can get out.
“The Sacramento River is limits every day, and the American is just as hot,” J.D. Richey reports from his jet boat on the Sacramento.
The weather is nice this time of year, but it’s the fishing that’s hot.
Some days, a guide boat with four clients may hook up with more than 20 salmon. The majority of the salmon are still between 6 and 10 pounds, with a few bruisers mixed in.
J.D. also reported, “We have had a few great night bites on the lower American River as we fish salmon at night. In that stretch of the river, we are getting at least one salmon over 20 pounds each time we go out.”
Night fishing for salmon has been a fun pursuit in the lower American River for many years, and this year it happens to be very good. The American is having a fantastic return of king salmon this year. In fact, the river has more salmon in it than people have seen in decades.
Most people are catching salmon from boats — both jet boats and drift boats. The best technique has been side casting salmon eggs cured in bright red colors tipped with a Fish Pill. Anglers are also back-bouncing fresh salmon eggs and back-trolling Kwickfish with a fresh sardine wrap.
Salmon are staging in all the deeper holes of the Sacramento River and have been intercepted in the travel lanes as they migrate up river from Freeport to Red Bluff. The American has produced easy limits of salmon using the same techniques throughout its watershed.
Most of the salmon have been stacked up just below the salmon hatchery at Sailor Bar park on the American River.
The American does have good bank-fishing locations for people who don’t have access to a boat, too. River fishing for salmon can be an exciting way to catch them and a chance at some new scenery.
Mike Baxter has fished in the Monterey Bay Area since he was a boy and has been a licensed charter boat captain for more than 15 years. Contact him at ca************@ya***.com.
