California's two flagship fisheries could not be more different: Clear Lake, the ancient volcanic bass factory that produces the heaviest tournament bags in the nation, and Shasta, the giant four-river reservoir where spotted bass stack on every rocky point.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
California's bass factory: the oldest natural lake in North America and pound-for-pound its heaviest bass water.
The keystone of California water: 30,000 acres of arms and coves with year-round bass and a famous two-story fishery.
Wine-country bass and kokanee: the two-story lake an hour from the Bay.
The Sierra foothill spotted-bass machine, with king salmon in the cold lanes.
SoCal's alpine escape: stocked rainbows, resident largemouth and 6,700-foot air.
The Oroville tailwater: spring-run salmon, steelhead and the Central Valley's best public access.
Sacramento's backyard anadromous river: kings, steelhead and shad through a city parkway.
California's steelhead refuge: cold Trinity Dam water and wild-feeling canyon runs.
A thousand miles of sloughs: trophy largemouth in the tules and stripers on the tides.
San Francisco's surf-fishing porch: striped bass in the Pacific wash, a pier built for crabs and salmon water beyond the fog line.
SoCal harbor royalty: two storied piers, a working bay full of spotted bass and halibut, and sportboats sailing from the Balboa Pavilion since 1900.
North County's working harbor: a classic SoCal pier, thresher water off the sand, and the last easy launch before Pendleton's empty coast.
California's workhorse: king salmon runs, wild rainbows below Shasta, and the striper migrations that feed a valley's fishing culture.
The trout with its own name: Eagle Lake rainbows, a high-desert alkaline lake, and a fishery that exists nowhere else on earth.
Northern California's trophy-trout pond: a foothill reservoir famous for planting the state's biggest stockers and letting camp families catch them.
California's crown jewel: the last major undammed river, running emerald through redwoods with the state's biggest steelhead and king salmon.
SoCal's big-bass ark: a 4,500-acre drinking-water reservoir stocked with Florida genetics from day one and managed like a trophy vault.
Sacramento's water-line barometer: granite-sloped bass water, landlocked kings and the drought-flood cycle written on every bank.
LA's big-bass arena: the lake that nearly broke the world record, still growing trout-fed giants half an hour from Hollywood.
The high-desert striper surprise: State Water Project currents, 2-pound shad schools and largemouth in the coves at 3,400 feet.
The gentleman's trout lake: Hex hatches at dusk, football rainbows and smallmouth over volcanic springs under Lassen's shadow.
The Ojai giant-maker: no-body-contact water that once yielded a 21-pound bass, still guarding trophy genetics behind quagga gates.
The cutbow pond: a foothill family lake famous for football trout bred on-site and a spring bite that fills stringers by breakfast.
The deep canyon's edge: rockfish armadas, salmon seasons and white-sand surfperch where the submarine canyon touches the beach.
Sonoma's salty harbor: crab-and-salmon culture, rock cod grounds past the head and the wind-carved coast Hitchcock made famous.
The Mother Lode’s deep blue vault: New Melones stacks bass on submerged mine country and kokanee over 300-foot water.
The Sierra's family trophy pond: Edison's mountain reservoir of kokanee derbies, planted rainbows and campfire culture at 5,500 feet.
Humboldt's steelhead sleeper: a coastal river of hatchery chrome and redwood fog, drift-fished between crab feasts.
Wine country's warm-water vault: a no-wake maze of arms where landlocked steelhead cruise deep and the bass bite never left.
The Kern's desert reservoir: wind-carved bass water, crappie years of legend and trout pouring in from the river's two forks.
The East Bay's stocked oasis: a canyon lake of planted trout, striped bass surprises and Bay Area crowds handled with grace.
San Diego's mile-high trout pond: a mountain meadow lake stocking year-round, where SoCal learns fly fishing and osprey supervise.
The Sierra's wild artery: whitewater trout canyons above Bakersfield, where the river earns its respect and gives back wild rainbows.
The Lower Yuba: gold-country's wild rainbow ribbon, running clear below Englebright with steelhead genes and skwala springs.
The Eastern Sierra's desert spring creek: wild browns winding through sage meadows with the White Mountains watching.
Carson Pass gold: a high-Sierra roadside lake of mackinaw mornings, brookie evenings and ice-out weeks that reward the drive.
The condor country pond: Piru's oaks and olive hills frame stocked trout winters, bass springs and quagga-tight boating rules.
Truckee's high shelf: Stampede stacks kokanee schools and Lahontan legends over sage flats at the Sierra's eastern gate.
The Calaveras striper pond: New Hogan's deep arms hide a landlocked lineside fishery the Delta crowds never visit.
Wine-country steelhead: the Russian still runs chrome through the redwoods when winter rain opens the mouth.
Fresno’s front-yard reservoir: Millerton’s granite banks trade spotted bass all year and shad boils all summer.
Terminus Dam’s spring flood-pool: when Kaweah fills through the oaks, the bass fishing gets briefly, gloriously stupid.
The Tuolumne’s big blue: Don Pedro pairs a serious kokanee-and-trout troll with bass canyons that swallow whole weekends.
The Bay Area’s wild trout secret: Putah’s tailwater below Monticello Dam grows thick rainbows an hour from Sacramento.
The Merced’s deep reservoir: McClure trades bass on the drowned canyon walls for trout and kokanee over 200 feet of water.
Northern California’s quiet giant: Trinity Lake grows smallmouth, big browns and kokanee under the Trinity Alps.
Southern California’s bass lake: Perris holds Alabama spotted bass and big bluegill in Riverside County.
The Dragon Lake: Nacimiento’s oak-lined arms hold white bass found almost nowhere else in California.
The wind-blown off-stream giant: San Luis holds striped bass and wind that ends fishing days early.
California’s spotted bass record water: Bullards Bar drops deep and green in the Yuba country.
Kings River water: Pine Flat holds spotted bass and trout in a steep Sierra foothill canyon.
San Diego’s big-bass water: Hodges grew a fourteen-pound reputation on Florida-strain largemouth.
San Diego’s biggest reservoir: El Capitan holds bass, catfish and a long trophy tradition in back country.
A clear lake in a national recreation area: Whiskeytown holds kokanee, bass and trout under Shasta Bally.
The Bay Area’s trout lake: San Pablo stocks rainbows heavily and hides sturgeon in its deep water.
A no-body-contact reservoir in the Diablo hills: Los Vaqueros stocks trout and holds striped bass.
A Mokelumne reservoir with two shores: Camanche holds trout, bass and kokanee in Sierra foothill country.
Below Camanche: the Mokelumne runs stocked trout, salmon and steelhead through the Sierra foothills.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear Lake | Reservoir | Lake | USGS | Mar |
| Shasta Lake | Reservoir | Shasta | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Berryessa | Reservoir | Napa | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Oroville | Reservoir | Butte | modeled | Mar |
| Big Bear Lake | Reservoir | San Bernardino | USGS | Apr |
| Feather River | River | Sutter | modeled | Jan |
| American River | River | Sacramento | USGS | Jan |
| Trinity River (CA) | River | Humboldt | USGS | Jan |
| California Delta | Reservoir | USGS | Mar | |
| Pacifica | Coastal | San Mateo | modeled | Mar |
| Newport Beach | Coastal | Orange | modeled | Mar |
| Oceanside | Coastal | San Diego | modeled | Mar |
| Sacramento River | River | Sutter | USGS | Jan |
| Eagle Lake | Lake | Lassen | modeled | Apr |
| Collins Lake | Reservoir | Yuba | modeled | Apr |
| Smith River | River | Del Norte | modeled | Jan |
| Diamond Valley Lake | Reservoir | Riverside | modeled | Mar |
| Folsom Lake | Reservoir | Sacramento | modeled | Mar |
| Castaic Lake | Reservoir | Los Angeles | modeled | Mar |
| Silverwood Lake | Reservoir | San Bernardino | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Almanor | Reservoir | Plumas | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Casitas | Reservoir | Ventura | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Amador | Reservoir | Amador | modeled | Mar |
| Monterey Bay | Coastal | Monterey | modeled | Mar |
| Bodega Bay | Coastal | Sonoma | modeled | Mar |
| New Melones Lake | Reservoir | Calaveras | modeled | Mar |
| Shaver Lake | Reservoir | Fresno | modeled | Mar |
| Mad River | River | Humboldt | USGS | Jan |
| Lake Sonoma | Reservoir | Sonoma | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Isabella | Reservoir | Kern | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Del Valle | Reservoir | Alameda | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Cuyamaca | Reservoir | San Diego | modeled | Apr |
| Kern River | River | Kern | modeled | Apr |
| Yuba River | River | Yuba | USGS | Jan |
| Owens River | River | Inyo | modeled | Apr |
| Caples Lake | Reservoir | Alpine | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Piru | Reservoir | Ventura | modeled | Mar |
| Stampede Reservoir | Reservoir | Sierra | modeled | Mar |
| New Hogan Lake | Reservoir | Calaveras | modeled | Mar |
| Russian River | River | Sonoma | USGS | Jan |
| Millerton Lake | Reservoir | Madera | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Kaweah | Reservoir | Tulare | modeled | Mar |
| Don Pedro Reservoir | Reservoir | Tuolumne | modeled | Mar |
| Putah Creek | River | Yolo | USGS | Apr |
| Lake McClure | Reservoir | Mariposa | modeled | Mar |
| Trinity Lake | Reservoir | Trinity | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Perris | Reservoir | Riverside | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Nacimiento | Reservoir | San Luis Obispo | USGS | Mar |
| San Luis Reservoir | Reservoir | Merced | modeled | Mar |
| Bullards Bar Reservoir | Reservoir | Yuba | modeled | Mar |
| Pine Flat Lake | Reservoir | Fresno | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Hodges | Reservoir | San Diego | modeled | Mar |
| El Capitan Reservoir | Reservoir | San Diego | modeled | Mar |
| Whiskeytown Lake | Reservoir | Shasta | USGS | Mar |
| San Pablo Reservoir | Reservoir | Contra Costa | modeled | Mar |
| Los Vaqueros Reservoir | Reservoir | Contra Costa | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Camanche | Reservoir | Amador | modeled | Mar |
| Mokelumne River | River | Amador | modeled | Apr |
California fishes like five states: Clear Lake and the Delta's tule-lined largemouth factories, the trophy-trout east side (Crowley, the Owens, Eagle Lake), Shasta's spotted-bass depths, steelhead ghosts of the north-coast rivers, and SoCal's deep, clear reservoirs where the biggest bass in history ate stocked trout. The Delta deserves special mention: a thousand miles of sloughs where frog fishing for double digits is a summer religion.
Winter-spring: the big-bass window statewide: Clear Lake's giants stage, SoCal swimbaiting peaks, the Delta pre-spawns. April-June: everything at once: bass spawn, eastern-Sierra trout opener, Shasta topwater. Summer: Delta frogs at dawn, high-Sierra backpacking trout. Fall: Eagle Lake's rainbows, Delta's second wind, and the north-coast rains that call whatever steelhead remain.
For weight per day, yes: SoCal produces individual giants on trout-stocked reservoirs, but Clear Lake produces 30-40 lb five-fish bags with regularity no other US lake matches.