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California Delta Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: over 1,000 miles of navigable waterways where CDFW biologists collect trophy largemouth and striped bass gather to spawn each spring.

5/5
Excellent. Go now.Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
Flow
8,210 cfs
Air / High
60 / 69 F
Wind
NNW 8 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 11313405, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

5/5Excellent. Go now.Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.

California Delta sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The nearest gauge is running 8,210 cfs, on the rise. Today brings cloud cover, wind NNW around 8 mph, falling pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 69. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:15 PM-12:15 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassExcellent

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Striped bassExcellent

Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

Tomorrow: Warmer at 74 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made →

Before you go

California requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $64.54 for residents. What a California licence costs and where to buy it →

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with CDFW before you keep anything. The season dates for California, read off the agency, are on the California seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Old River at Bacon Island.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 11313405.

-12,836-4,5453,7468,210 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp60 F
High / Low69 / 52 F
WindNNW 8-13 mph
Pressure1018.7 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain64% cloud, 8%
Sunrise / Sunset07:23 / 18:17
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish California Delta this week

Today is the pick of the week on California Delta, at 5 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 — Excellent

Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.

Solunar majors
9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:15 PM-12:15 AM
Minor period
4:10 AM-5:10 AM
Sun
07:23 to 18:17
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 12 mph
Rain chance
8%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on California Delta: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Striped bass illustration

Striped bass

Best: spring and fall inland; on the coast, during the seasonal migrations

The largest of the temperate basses, a sea-run fish of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that now also lives in reservoirs across much of the country after hatchery stocking. Inland, it follows schools of shad and herring through open water. Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

When to come: the California Delta calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Striped bass
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks California Delta today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 63 F, wind to 10 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 73 F, wind to 10 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 72 F, wind to 8 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

California requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

California sport fishing license. Check CDFW's current freshwater regulations for Delta striped bass and black bass limits; a striped bass harvest slot of 18 to 30 inches for anadromous inland waters went to the Fish and Game Commission for adoption in October 2025.

Access

Brannan Island State Recreation Area (Highway 160, south of Rio Vista): ten-lane launch ramp, over 140 campsites, bank fishing; open sunrise to one hour after sunset; day-use fees apply.

About this water

The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, California: over 1,000 miles of navigable waterways between the Bay Area and Sacramento.

Fishing California Delta: the full guide

A maze of rivers and sloughs

California State Parks describes the Delta as a maze of rivers and sloughs with over 1,000 miles of navigable waterways. Brannan Island State Recreation Area, near its eastern end on Highway 160 a few miles south of Rio Vista, is one entryway: it sits between the Sacramento River and Three Mile and Seven Mile sloughs, and State Parks rates its fishing as excellent for striped bass, black bass, bluegill and sturgeon.

Largemouth bass

Each January CDFW biologists use electrofishing boats to collect trophy largemouth bass from the Delta, probing tule stands, riprap, sunken boats and submerged limbs, for the demonstration tank at Sacramento's International Sportsmen's Expo. CDFW reported one of those fish at more than 10 pounds, and all of them are returned to the Delta after the show.

Striped bass through the seasons

CDFW's striped bass guide explains that in winter stripers spread from San Francisco Bay through the Delta, and fishing is usually poor because cold fish feed little. Catches improve as water warms in March; in spring most legal fish are spread through the Delta, which, especially the San Joaquin between the Antioch Bridge and the mouth of Middle River, is an important spawning ground. By mid-June most legal-sized bass have returned to the bays. In the Delta, threadfin shad are probably the most common bait, and the sheltered sloughs suit smaller boats.

Rules under review

In 2025 the Fish and Game Commission took up a proposal to let anglers keep only striped bass from 18 to 30 inches in the state's anadromous inland waters, with no change to the bag limit or season; the adoption hearing was scheduled for October 8, 2025. Confirm the rule in force in CDFW's current freshwater regulations before keeping striped bass or black bass. The USGS False River gauge on this page has reported no data since October 1, 2025.

Common questions

Where do I start in the Delta?

One public entry point is Brannan Island State Recreation Area near Rio Vista, with a ten-lane launch ramp, bank fishing and camping. State Parks lists striped bass, black bass, bluegill and sturgeon there.

When is striped bass fishing best in the Delta?

CDFW says fishing improves as the water warms in March and that in spring most legal-sized stripers are spread through the Delta; by mid-June most have moved back to the bays.

Are there big largemouth in the Delta?

CDFW biologists collect dozens of trophy largemouth from the Delta each January for a public display tank, including fish over 10 pounds, and release them afterward.

Is fishing good at California Delta right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.

Nearby waters

Los Vaqueros Reservoir17 miLake Del Valle33 miSan Pablo Reservoir34 miLake Camanche37 miPutah Creek39 miAmerican River40 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 11313405 — Old River at Bacon Island
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 16:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.0578, -121.6289 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 7, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 7, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.