Share your catch
US

Feather River Fishing Report

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

The Oroville tailwater: spring-run salmon, steelhead and the Central Valley's best public access.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
59 / 74 F
Wind
WSW 1 mph

Sources: 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.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Feather River is in transition: bait on the move and predators following. Today brings clear skies, wind WSW around 1 mph, falling pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 74. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

SteelheadExcellent

Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bassExcellent

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown troutExcellent

Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

Tomorrow: Warmer at 80 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

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 β†’

Chasing steelhead 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.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp59 F
High / Low74 / 56 F
WindWSW 1-1 mph
Pressure1019.0 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain10% cloud, 12%
Sunrise / Sunset07:24 / 18:15
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 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 Feather River this week

Today is the pick of the week on Feather River, at 4 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM
Minor period
4:10 AM-5:10 AM
Sun
07:24 to 18:15
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 15 mph
Rain chance
12%

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

Species guide

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

Steelhead illustration

Steelhead

Great Lakes tributaries from fall through spring; West Coast rivers have both summer and winter runs

Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate to the Pacific or the Great Lakes to grow, then return up rivers to spawn; unlike most Pacific salmon they can survive spawning and spawn again. Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

When to come: the Feather River 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
Steelhead
Smallmouth bass
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 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 Feather River today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 67 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Steelhead led the card at excellent. High of 74 F, wind to 13 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 73 F, wind to 7 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
Only used if we need to ask you about your report. No mailing list, no spam.

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

Section-specific salmon/steelhead regs; barbless in anadromous waters. Confirm with CDFW.

Access

Oroville Wildlife Area gravel access; Riverbend Park; Afterbay outlet lots.

About this water

Sacramento tributary through Oroville, Butte County, CA; Low Flow and Afterbay sections define the fishery.

Fishing Feather River: the full guide

The Feather's runs

Below Oroville Dam, the Feather carries real anadromous traffic: fall king salmon stack the riffles, steelhead follow the eggs, and stripers push up from the valley in spring. The Oroville Wildlife Area opens miles of walk-in gravel: rare access for a valley river.

Salmon season logistics

July-October kings stack the Low Flow section and Outlet riffles: drift roe, jigs or twitched flies where legal, and expect company: this is the Valley's most productive salmon water after the Sacramento. Check section-specific rules: they change with run health.

Steelhead and stripers

Winter steelhead (hatchery-supported) hold in the Thermalito Afterbay outlet's oxygen: nymphs and beads under indicators. April-June sends valley stripers up: swimbaits off the gravel bars at dawn. One river, three anadromous seasons.

Two rivers below one dam

The Feather splits below Oroville into the Low Flow (cold, clear, salmon-and-steelhead nursery through downtown Oroville) and the High Flow below the Thermalito outlet (bigger, warmer, shad-and-striper water in early summer). Steelheaders nymph eggs and caddis in the Low Flow all winter; the May-June shad run turns the Afterbay outflow into a hookup-a-cast party. One license, two rivers, one parking lot apart.

Common questions

When do Feather River salmon arrive?

First kings show late June-July, peak September-October: our flow panel plus CDFW counts track the push. Steelhead follow the eggs into winter.

When do shad run the Feather?

May into early July, thickest below the Thermalito Afterbay outlet: dart-and-grub rigs on light spinning gear or sink-tip flies. Evenings out-fish middays: the run stacks by the thousands.

Is fishing good at Feather River right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

Lake Oroville7 miCollins Lake17 miYuba River22 miBullards Bar Reservoir24 miSacramento River51 miLake Almanor55 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 39.5138, -121.5564 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.
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 guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be 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.