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Lake Berryessa Fishing Report

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

Wine-country bass and kokanee: the two-story lake an hour from the Bay.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Flow
111 cfs
Air / High
64 / 70 F
Wind
N 10 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 11454000, 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.

Lake Berryessa sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The release below the dam is running 111 cfs, falling. Today brings clear skies, wind N around 10 mph, falling pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 70. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:48 AM-11:48 AM and 10:17 PM-12:17 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.

Catfish (blue, channel)Excellent

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

CrappieGood

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

White bassGood

Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

Tomorrow: Warmer at 79 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 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 PUTAH C NR WINTERS CA (outflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 11454000.

166270373111 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp64 F
High / Low70 / 55 F
WindN 10-14 mph
Pressure1018.9 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain14% cloud, 8%
Sunrise / Sunset07:26 / 18:19
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 Lake Berryessa this week

Today is the pick of the week on Lake Berryessa, 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
9:48 AM-11:48 AM and 10:17 PM-12:17 AM
Minor period
4:13 AM-5:13 AM
Sun
07:26 to 18:19
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 15 mph
Rain chance
8%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Berryessa: 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.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

When to come: the Lake Berryessa 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
Crappie
Catfish (blue, channel)
White 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 Lake Berryessa 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 62 F, wind to 6 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

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 76 F, wind to 13 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 73 F, wind to 6 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

Bass 5/day, 12-inch minimum. Kokanee/trout 5 combined: check CDFW.

Access

Markley Cove, Steele Canyon, Capell Cove ramps.

About this water

20,700 acres on Putah Creek, Napa County, CA. Monticello Dam (1957): the Glory Hole spillway lake.

Fishing Lake Berryessa: the full guide

Napa's fishing side

Berryessa pairs a serious black-bass fishery (spots and largemouth on deep structure, big swimbait followers by the dam) with kokanee and trout trolling in the cool layer: a true two-story lake. Spring finds bass herding shad in the arms; fall turns the main body into a bait-ball chase.

Wine-country spots

Berryessa steadily grows some of NorCal's best spotted bass: main-lake points and rock slides at 15-40 ft, drop shots and underspins around bait schools. Winter spoon bites under the birds run all comers: a 100-fish day is a real number here.

Kokanee and king depths

The cold band below 40 ft holds a two-tier salmonid program: kokanee at 30-70 ft for the dodger-and-corn fleet, planted king salmon deeper still. Both peak mid-summer out of Markley Cove: downriggers earn wine-country fish fries.

Common questions

Is the Glory Hole worth seeing?

In wet winters, absolutely: the 72-ft morning-glory spillway swallowing the lake is unforgettable. Fishing near it is prohibited and patrolled: photograph from distance.

The bank angler's Berryessa

No boat still buys real fishing here: the Putah Creek arm's shoreline (Capell Cove and the north-end pullouts) serves bank casters spotted bass on Neds, trout on inflated crawlers in the cold months, and springtime crappie around the flooded willows. The interior coves grow bluegill rafts all summer for the family program. Watch the poison oak and the afternoon canyon wind: both are reliable.

When is trout trolling best at Berryessa?

November-April on top (the lake's rainbows ride the surface band in cold water), then progressively deeper: by July the fleet pulls leadcore or downriggers at 30-60 ft along the Big Island and Skiers Cove lines.

Is fishing good at Lake Berryessa 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

Putah Creek11 miSacramento River36 miLake Sonoma43 miClear Lake44 miAmerican River46 miSan Pablo Reservoir46 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 11454000 β€” PUTAH C NR WINTERS CA (outflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 18:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.5879, -122.2287 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.