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Millerton Lake Fishing Report

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

Fresno’s front-yard reservoir: Millerton’s granite banks trade spotted bass all year and shad boils all summer.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Flow
396 cfs
Air / High
65 / 68 F
Wind
W 7 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 11251000, 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.

Millerton Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The release below the dam is running 396 cfs, steady over the week. Today brings a mixed sky, wind W around 7 mph, falling pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 68. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:38 AM-11:38 AM and 10:06 PM-12:06 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 73 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 San Joaquin River below Friant (outflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 11251000.

382388394396 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp65 F
High / Low68 / 55 F
WindW 7-7 mph
Pressure1016.9 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain38% cloud, 18%
Sunrise / Sunset07:14 / 18:11
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)58 F USGS
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 Millerton Lake this week

Today is the pick of the week on Millerton Lake, at 4 out of 5.

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

Today, Oct 23 — Good

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

Solunar majors
9:38 AM-11:38 AM and 10:06 PM-12:06 AM
Minor period
4:02 AM-5:02 AM
Sun
07:14 to 18:11
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 11 mph
Rain chance
18%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Millerton Lake: 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 Millerton Lake 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 Millerton Lake 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 69 F, wind to 13 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 68 F, wind to 12 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 77 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 license. Standard bass limits: check CDFW. State park day-use fees; boat inspections for mussels in effect.

Access

Friant-side and Winchell Cove ramps in Millerton Lake SRA; bank access along the south shore day-use areas.

About this water

A 4,900-acre reservoir on the San Joaquin River at Friant, Madera/Fresno counties, California, held by Friant Dam since 1942.

Fishing Millerton Lake: the full guide

The San Joaquin’s first stop

Millerton pools the San Joaquin River where it leaves the Sierra foothills north of Fresno: 4,900 acres of clear water over granite, with Friant Dam’s releases feeding the river below. It is a bass lake first: spotted bass colonized the rock and now dominate, with largemouth in the coves and enough shad to keep everything fed. American shad even run into the upper lake in late spring, and the winter months bring a quiet striper bite for those who look.

Spotted bass on granite

The spots school on the main-lake points and bluff walls: work drop-shots, Ned rigs and small swimbaits from 10 to 40 feet by season, following the shad on your graph. Summer mornings bring boils in the big coves off Winchell Bay: keep a walking bait tied. Largemouth prefer the flatter Fine Gold Creek and Temperance Flat ends: flip the flooded brush when the lake is up. Fall turns the whole lake into a chase-the-bait game.

Beyond the bass

Stripers (river-descended) roam in modest numbers: winter trolling near the dam finds them. Crappie stack the few brushy pockets in wet springs. Below the dam, the San Joaquin’s restoration flows have rebuilt a modest trout reach open seasonally: a separate trip worth checking rules for. Summer weekends hand the lake to skiers: fish first light or midweek.

State-park simple

Millerton Lake State Recreation Area wraps the lake: ramps on both shores (Friant side and Winchell Cove), campgrounds, and the historic Millerton courthouse above the north shore. Afternoon wind is reliable: mornings are glass. Fresno sits 25 minutes south: this is the valley’s after-work bass lake, and it fishes like it: pressured but productive.

Common questions

Spots or largemouth: which should I target?

Spots rule the rock and bite year-round: numbers with the occasional four-pounder. Largemouth are the cove specialists: fewer, bigger, cover-oriented.

When are the shad boils?

June through September, early mornings in the main-lake coves: find birds, cast anything that walks or spooks.

Is bank fishing viable?

Yes on the south-shore points at dawn: granite drops fast into fishable depth. Weekday mornings before the heat are the window.

Is fishing good at Millerton Lake 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

Shaver Lake23 miPine Flat Lake23 miLake McClure51 miLake Kaweah57 miDon Pedro Reservoir62 miNew Melones Lake80 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 11251000 — San Joaquin River below Friant (outflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:30 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 37.0115, -119.6724 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.