The Weekly Fishing Report

Name: B. Mello Ag Services
Address: 5771 7th Avenue, Hanford, CA, 93230, US
Telephone: (559) 816-3889
Price range: $$

Wednesday, September 2 – Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Central Valley · Sierra · Eastern Sierra · Delta · Coast | Issue 26-35

FALL SALMON OPENER: 18 OF 22 BOATS LIMITED • 540 KINGS ON 282 RODS, 33-POUNDER AT BODEGA • PINE FLAT UNDER 18%, OFF ANOTHER 5.6 FEET • UPPER KINGS AND KERN BOTH CAME BACK UP • GOODWIN RELEASE CRASHED FROM 1,388 TO 202 CFS • MINUS TIDES SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY — FISH THE BACK HALF • NO CDFW PLANTS IN FRESNO, KINGS, MADERA OR MONO

All Fishing Reports

The fall salmon season opened Tuesday and the fleet emptied the ocean into the fish boxes. Twenty-two boats posted salmon trips between Bodega Bay and San Jose. Eighteen of them came in at exactly two a rod — full limits. Add it up and it is 540 kings on 282 anglers, 1.9 a rod, which is ninety-six percent of a perfect limit day across an entire fleet. We have not printed a number like that all year.

The grade was there too. Surf Scooter out of Bodega had a 33-pounder, Lovely Martha out of San Francisco a 32, Outer Limits out of Sausalito a 30. Jared Davis on the Salty Lady posted the line of the day: “But I thought Salmon season was over.” Fish Emeryville called it “an absolutely lights out day for the fleet.”

One consequence worth naming: the northern fleet stopped fishing the bottom. Last week we led with rockfish going sixteen for seventeen at limits. On Tuesday, out of twenty-two northern trips, we count two rockfish and four lingcod, total, all of them incidental to a salmon trip. The boats did not lose the rockfish bite. They left it. If you want a sack instead of a king, you will have most of that reef to yourself for a few weeks.

Inland, two rivers reversed and one collapsed. The upper Kings and the Kern at Kernville both came up this week after weeks of falling — the first good news that section has had since July. Meanwhile the Goodwin release dropped from 1,388 cfs to 202, a seven-fold cut in a week on the lower Stanislaus. And Pine Flat is under eighteen percent. Details in Water Watch.

◉ This Week’s Best Bets

● No. 1 — Salmon

The Opener Limited Out

Tuesday: California Dawn II 50 kings on 25 rods. Outer Limits 46 on 23. Lovely Martha 42 on 21, limits by 11:15 a.m. Hog Heaven 38 on 19. Pacific Pearl 36 on 18. Eighteen of twenty-two boats at exactly two a rod. Book now — the fall guideline is 20,000 fish shared across both open areas and a bite like this eats it fast.

● No. 2 — San Diego

294 Fish on Twenty Rods

The Highliner came off a 1.5-day out of Seaforth with 150 yellowfin and 141 dorado for twenty anglers — 14.7 fish a rod for the trip. The Aztec put 84 bluefin on 21 rods over two days; the New Lo-An 57 bluefin to 80 pounds on 24. Nine hours from Fresno, and this is the week that drive pencils out.

● No. 3 — Rivers

The Kern and the Upper Kings Turned

First reversal we have printed in that column since July. Kings natural flow into Pine Flat is back to 293.3 cfs from 185.5 — up 58% in seven days. The Kern at Kernville is 189.3, up from 176.7. Below the North Fork near Trimmer is 285.9, up from 236.4. Kernville is still the friendliest wading water on our list and it just got a little friendlier.

● No. 4 — Moon & Tide

Fish the Back Half This Time

Exact opposite of last week. The moon goes dark toward a new moon on September 11, and the minus tides arrive Sunday and deepen every day. The biggest drain of the window is Labor Day night into Tuesday morning — 6.36 ft down to −0.51 at the Gate, a 6.9-foot fall. Wait for it.

⚠ Water Watch

Pine Flat: another 5.6 feet gone, and it is now under eighteen percent. From 754.08 ft and 186,532 acre-feet a week ago to 748.45 ft and 173,138 acre-feet at midnight Tuesday. That is 13,394 acre-feet in seven days and it puts the lake at 17.3% of gross pool, down from 18.7% last week and 20.2% three weeks ago. The drawdown has now taken twenty-two feet off this lake in twenty-two days.

Two rivers reversed, and we want to be careful about how we say it. Kings natural flow above the lake is 293.3 cfs against 185.5 last week — up 58%. The Kern at Kernville is 189.3 against 176.7, its first rise in three weeks. Kaweah at Three Rivers is 46.0, up from 40.8. Both Tule gages held. These are real and they are measured, but a one-week rise in early September is not a trend — it is usually an operations change upstream, not weather. Enjoy it, do not plan a month around it.

The Goodwin release collapsed. 1,388 cfs last week, 202 cfs this morning. That is a seven-fold cut on the lower Stanislaus in seven days, and it is the single biggest change on this page. Last week we told you the jump up was what catches waders out. The drop back down is the same problem in reverse — different channel, different holes, different wading. Look at it before you step in, and understand it can go back the other way just as fast.

Pine Flat’s own release is easing. 1,742 cfs, down from 1,884 last week and 2,174 the week before. Over six weeks that line reads 4,226, 3,071, 2,003, 2,174, 1,884, 1,742. It is grinding down. It is still not a wading flow. Bank or boat below the dam.

The Section 7 sheet is thin again, but we found part of it elsewhere. Don Pedro and New Exchequer both came back “No Project Data Available at this Time” for the second straight week, and Shaver, Huntington, Florence, Edison and flow below McSwain are all “-NR-”. This week we went to the state’s CDEC database and recovered Don Pedro, McClure and Shaver at midnight August 31 — two days old, from a different agency, and marked as such in the table. Huntington, Florence, Edison and McSwain we still do not have.

And one small loss. Bear Creek at McKee Road fell to 113.1 cfs from 190.4, and Kaweah at McKay Point slipped to 13.0 from 14.0. The Fresno River above Hensley is zero for the sixth straight week. Mill Creek near Piedra is dry.

◉ Lakes & Reservoirs

Reservoir Levels

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District, data ending midnight September 1. Corps sheet generated this morning at 08:00, Section 7 sheet at 08:01 — both current. Rows marked †† are from the state’s CDEC database at midnight August 31, not the Corps, because the Corps did not publish them. Percent full is against gross pool.

Water

Elev (ft)

Storage (AF)

% Full

Trend

Pine Flat

748.45

173,138

17.3%

↓ 1,965 AF/day

Millerton (Friant)

—

239,737

46.1%

↓ 1,732 AF/day

Kaweah (Terminus)

604.93

23,245

12.5%

↓ 212 AF/day

Success (Schafer)†

605.73

16,085

19.5%

↓ 154 AF/day

Isabella

2,560.81

172,342

30.3%

↓ 967 AF/day

Eastman (Buchanan)

466.62

10,451

7.0%

Outflow 0 — near flat

Hensley (Hidden)

453.83

6,801

7.6%

↓ 4 AF/day — flat

New Hogan

671.07

166,271

—

↓ 479 AF/day

New Melones

—

1,560,772

65.0%

Change 0 — flat

Bass Lake (Crane Valley)

—

37,943

83.6%

Fullest water on this page

Tulloch

—

65,511

—

Change 0 — flat

Don Pedro††

—

1,609,590

79.3%‡

CDEC, Aug 31 — not Corps

McClure (New Exchequer)††

—

606,005

59.1%‡

CDEC, Aug 31 — not Corps

Shaver††

—

87,655

64.8%

CDEC, Aug 31 — not Corps

Huntington · Florence · Edison · Mammoth Pool · McSwain

Still nothing. All returned “-NR-” on the Section 7 sheet and we could not recover them from CDEC either. No current figures published anywhere we can reach. Call the operating agency before you tow.

† Success shown against an 82,300 AF gross pool. A dam raise may have added roughly 28,000 AF — verify with the Corps before quoting the percentage.
†† California Data Exchange Center daily storage, midnight Aug 31. Two days older than the Corps rows and from a different agency. We print it because a two-day-old measured number beats a blank row, but do not treat these three as same-day figures.
‡ Don Pedro and McClure percentages are our own arithmetic against 2,030,000 AF and 1,024,600 AF gross pool. Neither figure is printed by the Corps or CDEC.
Week-over-week, off the same Corps sheet: Pine Flat −13,394 AF · Isabella −8,578 · New Melones −8,680 · New Hogan −2,834 · Millerton −1,543 · Success −1,003 · Kaweah −468 · Bass Lake −165 · Hensley −35.
The conflicting-numbers note stands. A widely read regional column publishes materially different elevations and percentages for most of these waters. Those do not reconcile with the Corps daily sheet, which is what we print and which is internally consistent week to week. We are telling you both exist and that ours comes straight off the USACE report.

Central Coast

Read the metric column. Percent of normal is the historical average for the date — NOT percent of capacity. The two are not comparable and 148% would not mean over-full.

Water

Storage (AF)

Metric

As of

Lopez Lake

39,841

81.0% of capacity‡

Sep 1

Nacimiento

No reading recovered this week. CDEC returned nothing for this station and we did not reach a county source. Last figure we carried was 285,131 AF on Aug 26 — a week old, and we flagged that one as suspect at the time. We are not reprinting it.

San Antonio

No reading recovered. Last figure we carried was stamped Aug 2, now five weeks old.

Santa Margarita

Fourth straight week with no storage, no elevation and no percent of normal. Call San Luis Obispo County Parks before you tow a boat.

‡ Lopez storage is CDEC daily, Sep 1 — a genuinely current number and the only one on this block. The percentage is our arithmetic against a 49,200 AF capacity, and it is percent of capacity, not percent of normal. Lopez has drifted down 88 acre-feet over the three days we pulled — 39,929 on Aug 30, 39,905 on Aug 31, 39,841 on Sep 1. Flat, in other words.
Being straight about this block: it got thinner this week, not better. Last week we had a fresh Nacimiento and stale everything else. This week we have a fresh Lopez and nothing else. Three of these four waters have events permitted on them this month. Call ahead.

Bite Report

Same disclosure as last week, and it is the same reason: the regional feeds we track filed no reports at all for Central California, Central Sierra, Sierra Foothills or the Delta inside this window. The weekly aggregator literally reads “No reports for this week” for four of the regions on this page. Everything in the Conditions column is measured water off this morning’s sheets. The Pattern column is standing seasonal pattern and permitted-event fact. We have not recycled quotes.

Water

Conditions (measured)

Pattern to Work

Kings & Tulare Basin

Pine Flat

17.3% full at 748.45 ft, off 5.6 ft in seven days. Releasing 1,742 cfs against 770 cfs inflow.

Under eighteen percent and still dropping about 2,000 acre-feet a day. River arm above Sycamore stays the percentage play — shaky head, Texas rig, finesse jigs on the bottom. BASS 101 is on it Saturday and Sunday, Sep 5–6, over the holiday weekend. Every waypoint you set in July is wrong and most of the ones you set in August are too.

Kaweah

12.5% full at 604.93 ft, off 212 AF/day. Three Rivers up to 46.0 cfs from 40.8; McKay Point 13.0.

A puddle, and a slightly smaller one than last week. Whatever structure is left holds everything on it. Early and late only, catfish after dark. Verify ramp access by phone before you tow.

Success

19.5% full at 605.73 ft, off 154 AF/day. Both Tule gages holding — 4.8 cfs near Success, 9.9 near Springville.

Dropped under twenty percent this week. Low and warm. Bass scattered and suspended off main-lake points; work slow on the bottom. Catfish in the deeper holes is the honest recommendation. Golden Empire Bass Club fishes it Sep 19.

Isabella

30.3% full at 2,560.81 ft, off 967 AF/day. Kern at Kernville up to 189.3 cfs from 176.7.

Still the biggest steady drawdown on this page, but the daily rate eased from 1,496 to 967 acre-feet. The river above it is the better bet and it came up this week — the best wading news in the issue. American Bass has the lake Sep 19.

San Joaquin & Madera

Millerton

46.1% of gross pool, 239,737 AF, off 1,732 AF/day. Friant-Kern Canal, Madera Canal and San Joaquin-below-Friant all “-NR-” again.

Second week under half full. Small spotted bass on plastics down 20 to 40 feet in the channels, and bank catfishing is the better use of a hot afternoon. Sycamore Island open 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. BASS 101 fishes it Oct 4; Kerman Bass Club Nov 7.

Eastman

7.0% of gross pool at 466.62 ft, outflow held at 0 cfs, off 13 AF/day.

Still the numbers water. Shallow crankbaits, drop-shot worms, watermelon-red creature baits on a Texas rig, jigs over the rockpiles. Go for the bend, not the weight — the ratio of dinks to a three-pounder here is brutal.

Hensley

7.6% of gross pool at 453.83 ft, off 4 AF/day. Fresno River above: 0.0 cfs, sixth straight week.

Thin water, concentrated fish, no inflow at all. Bass on the rockpiles and small. Catfish and carp are the solid bet. Boat access is the real question — call the Corps at Hidden Dam first.

Bass Lake

83.6% and 37,943 AF — fullest water on this page and a current Corps figure.

Labor Day weekend is the worst weekend of the year here. Recreational traffic owns this lake from mid-morning, and this weekend it will own it from eight. Troll window is first light to about 9 a.m. and the last hour before sunset, or skip it until Tuesday. Spotted bass down 12 to 15 feet on the drop-shot. Kerman Bass Club Oct 10.

Foothill & High Country

New Melones

65.0% full, 1,560,772 AF, storage change 0. Stanislaus natural flow 244 cfs, steady.

Kokanee water, and they are deep and coloring up. September fish hug the bottom and the males turn. Stick weights and slow speeds. Night catfishing on cut bait is the underrated second option. Note the 30-day golden mussel quarantine or decontamination requirement before you launch, and check ramp hours — restricted Monday through Thursday.

Don Pedro

1,609,590 AF, roughly 79% — but that is CDEC at midnight Aug 31, not the Corps, and it is two days old. Tuolumne natural flow still “-NR-”.

Kokanee and kings deep behind big dodgers is the standing pattern, with a topwater window at both ends of the day for bass. Fullest big foothill lake on the list. Bass Angler Inc. runs Sep 18–20, All American Bass Sep 19, Sierra Bass Club Sep 26–27.

McClure & McSwain

McClure 606,005 AF, roughly 59% — CDEC, Aug 31. Flow below McSwain still “-NR-”; no McSwain figure at all.

McSwain is the bank-trout water of the pair — Power Bait or nightcrawlers at the brush pile, the handicapped docks or the peninsula — but we have no measured level or flow for it. McClure itself runs small; bass suspended deep over humps. Sonora Bass Anglers Sep 19, 17-90 Bass Club Sep 26, River Bank Oct 17–18.

Shaver & Huntington

Shaver 87,655 AF, 64.8% — CDEC, Aug 31. Huntington still “-NR-”.

Kokanee are migrating toward the marina to spawn — the pattern that ends the season here. Pink and purple hardware tipped with corn behind dodgers, and the fish keep sliding deeper. Huntington is loaded with small kokanee starting to color. Kokanee Power was permitted at Shaver Sep 9–12 in last week’s database pull — see the tournament note before you plan around it.

Wishon & Courtright

No USACE reporting — PG&E projects. No CDEC figure either.

Trollers have the upper hand at both: blade-and-crawler at three to four colors of lead core for rainbows and browns in the 13- to 14-inch class. Levels fluctuate daily. Courtright is still being drawn down into Wishon for dam and gate work. No CDFW plants anywhere on the Kaiser Pass road this week — last week’s Portal Forebay and Mono Creek fish are what is up there.

Edison, Florence & Mammoth Pool

All “-NR-” again. No storage published, second straight week.

Edison remains the best of the Kaiser Pass lakes for bank anglers and trollers both. Fire danger is extreme in the high country — check the High Sierra Ranger Station at (559) 855-5355 for road and fire status before you leave, and expect holiday-weekend traffic on a one-lane road.

Central Coast

Lopez

39,841 AF, stamped Sep 1 — the only current Central Coast number we have. Flat over three days.

Good water and a fresh reading, which is more than we can say for the rest of this block. Deep summer pattern. Kern County Bassmasters Sep 19.

Nacimiento

No reading this week.

Local advocacy groups put the practical recreation floor near 780 ft with many ramps unusable below 760 — and we cannot tell you where it is. Gilroy Bassmasters Oct 17, Golden Empire Nov 7. Phone call required.

San Antonio

No reading. Last one was Aug 2.

Historically the biggest and healthiest water on the Central Coast list, on a reading that is now five weeks old. Nothing permitted on it in our window.

Santa Margarita

No level available. Fourth week running.

Busy September ahead — Orange County Bass Club Sep 19–20, permitted and approved. Still unmeasured as far as we can tell. Call the park.

◉ Eastern Sierra

From Fresno it is roughly five hours over Tioga Pass to the June Lake Loop, six to Bridgeport. Last week was the best stocking week Mono County had in a month. This week there are no Mono County plants at all. CDFW’s list for the week of August 30 through September 5 has nothing east of the crest — no Twin Lakes, no Virginia Lakes, no Owens, no Rock Creek, no West Walker. What is over there is last week’s fish, which by now have spread out and wised up. And no new fish counts were filed from the region inside this window either.

That combination — no fresh plants, no fresh counts, and a holiday weekend — is the honest case for staying home this week. If you were going to make the drive in September, the weekend after Labor Day is the better call.

June Lake Loop & Mono Basin

Water

Latest

What’s Working

June Lake

No plant, no report

About 320 acres, one of the few natural lakes in the region, and the best trolling water on the Loop. Fish the inlet early. Nothing dated inside this window.

Silver & Gull Lakes

No plant, no report

Both hold trophy rainbows that go deep once the surface warms. Intermediate sinking lines, leech and scud patterns. Gull is the smallest of the four at about 60 acres with the easiest shoreline access.

Grant Lake

No plant, no report

Largest and lowest of the Loop lakes, best trolled. Cutthroat and browns are the draw here rather than planters — which makes it the least plant-dependent water on the Loop and therefore the sensible pick in a week like this one.

Trumbull Lake

Planted last week

On the CDFW list for Aug 23–29, not this week. Small, cold, high and right off the Virginia Lakes road. Last week’s fish will still be in there; they will not be naive.

Rush Creek

—

Connects the whole Loop and drains to Mono Lake. A genuine trophy-brown fishery, low, clear and technical in early September — small flies, long leaders, early light. Never planted, so this week costs it nothing.

Crowley, Owens & the Mammoth Side

Water

Latest

What’s Working

Crowley Lake

No new report

The standout water in the region, but nothing new filed in the feeds we track. Read the regs box below before you go — the rules here catch valley anglers out every single year, and September brings its own changes.

Owens River Section 2

Planted last week

Planted the weeks of Aug 16–22 and Aug 23–29, but not this week. Easy access, catchable trout, good water for kids and a sensible first stop coming over the hill. Two weeks of fish are in there.

Rock Creek (Sections 1 & 2)

Planted last week

Both sections were on the Mono County list Aug 23–29 and neither is on it now. Roadside pocket water off Highway 395 south of Tom’s Place, and it fishes well with a short rod and a small spinner.

Bridgeport & the Walkers

Water

Latest

What’s Working

Twin Lakes (Bridgeport)

Planted last week

Both Upper and Lower got CDFW rainbows the week of Aug 23–29 and neither is on this week’s list. Those fish have had a week to settle, which usually means the bank bite is better now than it was the day they went in. Trollers still need lead core or downriggers.

Virginia Lakes

Planted last week

Big Virginia and Little Virginia both planted Aug 23–29, nothing new this week. High, cold and reliable. Still the strongest Eastern Sierra recommendation we have, on the strength of last week’s fish rather than this week’s.

Robinson Creek

Planted last week

The creek below Twin Lakes, on last week’s list and not this one. Small water, easy access from the Twin Lakes road, and a good place to put a kid on a fish.

Bridgeport Reservoir

No new report

Not planted either week and nothing newly filed. The tagged trophy trout program is running and the boats work the channels in the East Walker, Buckeye and Robinson arms.

West Walker River (Section 2)

Planted last week

On the Mono County list for Aug 23–29, off it now. Roadside water along 395 through Walker Canyon.

East Walker River

No flow reading

Not planted, and we still have no flow reading — the Corps sheet does not carry it and CDEC did not give us one either. Call Ken’s Sporting Goods in Bridgeport before you commit.

⚠ Before You Drive Over — Different Rulebook

Special regulations are the norm over there, not the exception. Individual Eastern Sierra waters carry their own gear restrictions, size limits, reduced bag limits and seasonal closures. Several run barbless-only or catch-and-release stretches, and Crowley in particular fishes under tighter rules than the statewide standard — restricted baits and a reduced limit with a size minimum, and the rules change with the calendar. Look up the specific water in the current CDFW freshwater regulations before you launch. Do not assume the five-fish valley rulebook travels with you.

Getting there from the valley: Tioga Pass (Highway 120) is the direct route to the June Lake Loop and it is a seasonal road — open now, but check Caltrans before an early start. Figure roughly five hours from Fresno to June Lake, six to Bridgeport. Sonora Pass (108) and Monitor Pass (89) are the northern alternatives.

Labor Day is Monday, September 7 — inside this window. Bridgeport, Twin Lakes and the June Loop fill to the edges, campgrounds go first-come-full, and 395 backs up both directions. With no fresh plants over there this week, we would rather send you Tuesday the 8th than Saturday the 5th.

◉ Delta, Rivers & Aqueduct

The Delta — Fish the Tide, Because That Is What We Can Measure

Honest accounting, second week running. The weekly aggregator we track filed “No reports for this week” under Delta. The fall striped bass run is still on — nothing has happened to reverse it and it normally builds right through September — but no new guide report was filed inside this window, so what follows is the standing pattern plus this week’s measured tide. We are not putting fresh dates on old quotes.

The tide is the actionable part, and this week it runs backwards from last week. Port Chicago starts soft and finishes hard. Today’s low is 0.8 ft at 12:16 a.m. and the daily swing is modest. Then the lows fall every single day — 0.8, 0.7, 0.6, 0.3, 0.1 — and on Tuesday the 8th Port Chicago goes minus for the first time in weeks, −0.1 ft at 7:12 a.m., and again Wednesday at 7:53 a.m. Pair that with the 4.3 ft high at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday and you have the strongest moving water in the west Delta of the whole window, on the two days after the holiday.

The general rule stands: two hours before the high into the peak, blood worms, pile worms or fresh shad, with the better fish on shad. For largemouth, the early-September pattern is wood and moving water — flip and punch the tule edges where there is current, big profiles on the high tide, reaction baits when it blows. Small bass dominate the numbers. If the wind lays flat, prop baits with long pauses.

Sturgeon status, unchanged and still not law. The Fish and Game Commission voted 3–2 on August 15 to allow catch-and-release only for white sturgeon, with no harvest. As of this morning we have seen nothing confirming the Office of Administrative Law has acted, and no opening date has been published. Three weeks on, that is still the whole story. Do not put a card in your pocket on the strength of this paragraph. Confirm with CDFW that the regulation is actually in effect before you fish.

California Aqueduct, San Luis & O’Neill Forebay

San Luis and O’Neill are Reclamation and DWR facilities and appear on neither Corps sheet, so we still have no independently measured storage here — that has been true every week we have published. The standing pattern: bank stripers around Dinosaur Point on jumbo minnows, anchovies or blood worms; the forebay slowed by thick grass limiting access; trollers grinding between wind windows for a handful of fish and the occasional very large one.

Two things to know before you go. Boat inspections are required on exit at San Luis, O’Neill Forebay and Los Banos Creek — golden mussels were detected at the forebay, and boats leaving will not get a clean-boat tag. And in the south aqueduct in Kern County, cooler water has kept striper action honest on cut sardines, anchovies or jumbo minnows, with catfish steady on dip bait in the calm water below check gates.

The state publishes a map of the 16 designated aqueduct fishing locations through the Department of Water Resources recreation pages. Worth having on your phone — access is not legal everywhere along that ditch.

Rivers — Measured Flows

River / Gage

Flow (cfs)

Read

Kings — Pine Flat natural flow (above the lake)

293.3

Up from 185.5 — a 58% rise. First increase since July. The upper Kings is back in play for the hike-in water.

Kings — below North Fork nr Trimmer

285.9

Up from 236.4. Fishable and improving.

Kings — Pine Flat release (lower Kings)

1,742

Down from 1,884. Sixth straight week of easing. Still not a wading flow. Bank or boat below the dam.

Mill Creek nr Piedra

0.0

Dry.

Kaweah at Three Rivers

46.0

Up from 40.8. Still early morning only.

Kaweah at McKay Point

13.0

Off from 14.0. Still reporting, which is the news.

Kern at Kernville

189.3

Up from 176.7 — first rise in three weeks. Best wading water on this list.

Tule — S.F. near Success

4.8

Up from 3.3. Holding.

Tule — near Springville

9.9

Up from 9.5. Holding.

Fresno River above Hensley

0.0

Zero. Sixth straight week.

Stanislaus natural flow at New Melones

244

Steady against 247 last week.

Goodwin release to river

202

Down from 1,388 — a seven-fold cut. Biggest single change in this issue. Look at the lower Stanislaus before you wade or launch.

Bear Creek at McKee Road

113.1

Down hard from 190.4.

Duck Creek at Farmington

143.4

Reporting.

Morman Slough at Bellota

34.2

Reporting.

Sacramento River — lower, top end

8,000

Per The Fly Shop, Redding, updated Sep 1. Not a Corps gage.

Trinity River

1,200

The Fly Shop reports this flow continues through September 21. Not a Corps gage.

Tuolumne nat. flow · Merced below McSwain · San Joaquin below Friant · Friant-Kern · Madera Canal

—

All “-NR-” on this cycle’s Section 7 sheet, second week running. No current figures published.

Dry Creek nr Lemoncove · Yokohl Creek · Cross Creek · Deer Creek at Trenton Weir

—

Not reporting, or reporting zero. Deer Creek at Trenton Weir reads 0.0.

East Walker at Bridgeport (Eastern Sierra)

—

Not carried on the Corps sheet and not recovered from CDEC. Call Ken’s Sporting Goods.

USACE Sacramento District unless noted. Gages read at 0700 Sep 2 or as the Sep 1 daily value. Natural-flow figures are computed values, not direct gage readings. The two river lines credited to The Fly Shop are guide-shop reports carried through the NorCalFishReports weekly feed, not agency gages — we label them because they are a different kind of number.

◉ Ocean Report & Charters

Dock Totals — Boat by Boat

This week is a one-day table, and there is a reason. Tuesday September 1 was the fall salmon opener, and it is the only day in this window with meaningful counts anywhere. Monday the northern fleet did not sail — Fish Emeryville’s own Monday post reads “No trips to report today… salmon starts tomorrow.” So every row below is Tuesday, September 1, north and south. Fish-per-rod is calculated from reported angler counts — on multi-day trips it is per angler for the whole trip, not per day.

Boat / Landing

Anglers

Score

Per Rod

★ F A L L S A L M O N O P E N E R — T U E S E P 1 ★

California Dawn II — Berkeley

50 king salmon to 29 lb

2.0 — limits

Outer Limits — Big C’s, Sausalito

46 kings to 30 lb

2.0 — limits

Lovely Martha — San Francisco

42 kings to 32 lb — limits by 11:15 a.m.

2.0 — limits

New Easy Rider — Berkeley Charter Boats

40 kings to 28 lb

2.0 — limits

Hog Heaven — Sausalito

38 kings to 25 lb

2.0 — limits

Pacific Pearl — Fish Emeryville

36 king salmon

2.0 — limits

Oakland Anglers II — Fish Emeryville

34 king salmon

2.0 — limits

TigerFish — Fish Emeryville

32 kings to 22 lb

2.0 — limits

Bass-Tub — San Francisco

24 king salmon — “limits of iced down jumbo salmon”

2.0 — limits

Lady K — Fish Emeryville

18 kings, 1 lingcod

2.0 — limits

Dragonfly — Reel Obsession, Bodega Bay

12 king salmon

2.0 — limits

Reel Addiction 1 — Berkeley

12 king salmon

2.0 — limits

Reel Addiction 2 — Berkeley

12 king salmon

2.0 — limits

Chasin Crustacean — Big C’s, Sausalito

12 king salmon

2.0 — limits

Diamond — Fish Emeryville

12 kings, 1 white seabass

2.0 — limits

Scallywag — Fish Emeryville (1/2 day AM)

12 king salmon — on a half day

2.0 — limits

Here We Go — Fish Emeryville (1/2 day AM)

8 king salmon — on a half day

2.0 — limits

Sara Bella — Fish On Sportfishing, San Jose

8 kings to 22 lb

2.0 — limits

Surf Scooter — Bodega Bay Sportfishing

24 kings — up to 33 lb, biggest fish of the day

1.8

C Gull II — Fish Emeryville

28 kings, 1 halibut, 3 lingcod, 2 rockfish

1.8 kings

Queen of Hearts — Half Moon Bay Sportfishing

18 kings to 29 lb

1.6

Salty Lady — Sausalito

22 kings to 27 lb — “But I thought salmon season was over… Epic.”

1.2

Twenty-two trips, 540 kings on 282 rods — 1.9 a rod, and eighteen boats at full limits. A perfect fleet-wide limit day would have been 564 fish. They caught 96% of it. Every single northern port that sailed put fish on the dock.

What the Northern Fleet Did Not Catch

Across all twenty-two northern trips Tuesday: 2 rockfish, 4 lingcod, 1 halibut, 1 white seabass — eight fish. That is the entire non-salmon catch of the northern fleet. Last week we printed twenty-six rockfish trips with twenty-four at full limits. The bite did not die — the boats left it for the salmon. If you want a sack of rockcod, the reef is quieter than it has been since spring.

▼ C E N T R A L C O A S T ▼ Tue Sep 1

Endeavor — Morro Bay Landing (3/4 day)

95 rockfish, 35 bocaccio, 25 red rockfish, 5 copper, 5 lingcod

6.3 – 10.7§

Patriot — Patriot Sportfishing, Avila Beach (3/4 day, out front)

102 bolina, 30 rockcod, 13 cabezon, 3 red rockcod, 2 copper

9.1 rockfish

§ A counting problem worth flagging. If you add every rockfish-family line on the Endeavor — rockfish, bocaccio, red rockfish and copper — you get 160 fish on 15 rods, which is 10.7 a rod against a 10-fish aggregate limit. That cannot be right, so the feed’s categories almost certainly overlap: the 95 “rockfish” likely already contains the sub-species lines. Read it as 6.3 a rod if the 95 is the total, 10.7 if the lines are additive. We are not going to pretend we know which. Two boats is again the entire Central Coast feed for the day.

▼ S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A ▼ Tue Sep 1

The count feeds report by home port, not by island. Where a trip is island-attributed we say which island. See the Catalina block below for what the skippers said in their own words.

Freedom — 22nd Street, San Pedro (overnight)

29 bluefin tuna, 20–75 lb on live bait, 2 calico

1.6 bluefin

Victory — Long Beach Sportfishing (3/4 day)

51 yellowtail, 43 bonito, 27 sand bass, 8 calico

1.6 yellowtail

Native Sun — 22nd Street, San Pedro (3/4 day)

31 bonito, 19 yellowtail, 5 sand bass, 1 dorado, 1 halibut, 1 barracuda, 2 calico

0.8 bonito

Monte Carlo — 22nd Street, San Pedro (1/2 day AM)

88 barracuda, 52 bonito, 21 calico, 9 sand bass, 5 whitefish, 6 yellowtail, 2 sculpin

2.8 barracuda

Speed Twin — Channel Islands, Oxnard (1/2 day AM)

123 bonito, 66 calico, 23 yellowtail, 4 barracuda

4.4 bonito

Aloha Spirit — Channel Islands, Oxnard (full day)

70 calico, 25 bonito, 21 yellowtail, 6 sand bass, 1 barracuda, 1 sheephead

2.8 calico

Island Fox — Channel Islands, Oxnard (3/4 day)

50 calico, 50 bonito, 12 whitefish, 1 yellowtail

5.0 calico

Graylight — Channel Islands, Oxnard (full day)

10 yellowtail, 5 calico, 5 bonito — on a single angler

10.0 yellowtail

Freelance — Davey’s Locker, Newport (3/4, coastal)

219 bonito, 47 sand bass, 38 barracuda, 8 calico, 3 sculpin, 2 bullet tuna, 2 whitefish, 1 sheephead, 1 yellowtail

4.6 bonito

Western Pride — Davey’s Locker (1/2 day AM, coastal)

185 bonito — and nothing else

5.0 bonito

Patriot — Newport Landing (3/4 day)

110 bonito, 14 yellowtail, 12 sand bass, 2 calico

5.0 bonito

Western Pride — Davey’s Locker (1/2 day PM, coastal)

32 calico, 15 sand bass, 4 bonito, 2 sheephead, 1 cabezon, 1 black seabass released

1.5 calico

Blackfish — Davey’s Locker, Newport (full day, coastal)

50 bonito, 12 yellowtail

2.4 yellowtail

Clemente — Dana Wharf, Dana Point (1/2 day AM)

150 bonito, 8 skipjack, 4 calico, 1 yellowtail, 10 calico released

5.6 bonito

Sum Fun — Dana Wharf, Dana Point (3/4 day)

31 bonito, 15 calico, 7 yellowtail, 3 sand bass, 1 dorado, 1 skipjack, 60 released

1.3 bonito

▼ S A N D I E G O ▼ Tue Sep 1

Fleet totals Tuesday: 418 bonito, 359 yellowfin, 234 yellowtail, 188 sand bass, 157 bluefin, 156 dorado, 108 calico, 54 skipjack. Yellowfin and dorado are the story now — both were minor lines a week ago.

Highliner — Seaforth (1.5 day)

150 yellowfin, 141 dorado, 3 skipjack — 294 fish

14.7 for the trip

Aztec — Seaforth (2 day)

84 bluefin tuna, 2 dorado

4.0 bluefin

Old Glory — H&M Landing (overnight)

65 yellowfin, 8 skipjack, 1 dorado, 1 yellowtail

5.0 yellowfin

Malihini — H&M Landing (full day)

100 bonito, 14 calico, 12 yellowtail, 4 sand bass, 1 bullet tuna

4.8 bonito

Grande — H&M Landing (full day offshore)

95 yellowfin, 14 skipjack, 3 yellowtail, 2 dorado

3.0 yellowfin

Point Loma — Point Loma Sportfishing (full day)

45 yellowtail, 21 bonito, 16 barred sand bass, 1 calico, 1 barracuda

3.0 yellowtail

Mission Belle — Point Loma (full day, Coronado Islands)

76 yellowtail, 18 bonito, 16 calico, 1 white seabass

2.5 yellowtail

New Lo-An — Point Loma (2 day)

57 bluefin tuna, up to 80 lb, 5 dorado

2.4 bluefin

Dolphin — Fisherman’s Landing (1/2 day PM)

60 bonito, 35 sand bass, 9 yellowtail

1.5 bonito

San Diego — Seaforth (full day)

71 sand bass, 56 yellowtail, 56 bonito

1.6 yellowtail

Dolphin — Fisherman’s Landing (1/2 day PM, second load)

49 sand bass, 31 bonito, 11 yellowtail

1.3 sand bass

Tribute — Seaforth (overnight)

37 yellowfin, 7 skipjack

1.2 yellowfin

Sea Watch — Seaforth (3/4 day)

29 bonito, 6 yellowtail, 4 calico

3.2 bonito

New Seaforth — Seaforth (1/2 day AM)

34 bonito, 26 calico, 9 barracuda, 1 yellowtail

0.9 bonito

New Seaforth — Seaforth (1/2 day twilight)

26 bonito, 17 calico, 4 rockfish, 1 barracuda, 1 sculpin, 1 whitefish

1.1 bonito

New Seaforth — Seaforth (1/2 day PM)

13 bonito, 9 yellowtail, 3 calico, 1 sand bass

0.4 bonito

Producer — H&M Landing (overnight)

20 skipjack, 12 yellowfin, 2 dorado

0.4 yellowfin

Horizon — H&M Landing (1.5 day)

16 bluefin, 2 dorado

0.6 bluefin

Southern Cal — Oceanside Sea Center (1/2 day AM)

30 bonito, 7 calico, 5 whitefish, 2 sand bass, 1 sheephead, 30 released

1.4 bonito

Blue Horizon — Oceanside Sea Center (full day)

5 yellowtail, 2 skipjack, 1 dorado

0.4 yellowtail

Catalina & the Island Boats

Third week with the same answer, and we will keep giving it until it changes: we cannot verify a Catalina-attributed count inside this reporting window. Not one skipper post dated September 1 or 2 names the island. Here is exactly what the landings themselves posted.

Boat / Landing

Date

What the skipper actually said

Freedom — 22nd Street, San Pedro

Sep 1

Newest post on the page and the only one inside our window. “29 bluefin tuna ranging anywhere from 20–75 pounds caught on live bait, and a few yellowfin tuna on today’s overnight trip.” Offshore. No island named.

Freedom — 22nd Street, San Pedro

Aug 26

“Great day of island fishing, nice wack on the yellowtail and calico bass with lots of taco meat to go.” The most recent island-attributed post on the page — and it predates this window by seven days. Says “island,” not Catalina.

Pursuit — 22nd Street, San Pedro

Aug 20

Gus Gutierrez: “Split the day between the local fishing and the island once again… Had a steady yellowtail bite for about three hours, hooking close to 70 fish and landing 24.” Thirteen days old now. Still the most specific island report we have ever been able to quote.

Mission Belle — Point Loma

Sep 1

Explicitly logged to the Coronado Islands — a different island, 250 miles south. 76 yellowtail, 16 calico, 18 bonito and a white seabass on 30 rods, and the best island-attributed score of the day anywhere.

What we can say honestly: boats working island and near-island water are on yellowtail, calico, barracuda and bonito, the yellowtail grade is good, and the only island actually named by a source inside this window is the Coronados. San Clemente, which we could attribute last week, has no dated trip this week. If you want Catalina specifically, call 22nd Street or Pierpoint and ask where the boat is going — do not book off a count sheet, because the count sheets do not carry the island. Sources checked Sep 2: 22ndstreet.com fish reports, daveyslocker.com daily fish count, SoCalFishReports.com and SanDiegoFishReports.com boat-by-boat counts.

What the numbers say. Up north it is one story and it is enormous: the fall opener produced 540 kings on 282 rods with eighteen of twenty-two boats at full limits, and the entire rest of the northern catch was eight fish. The 20,000-Chinook fall guideline is shared across both open areas, and a fleet-wide limit day is roughly three percent of it. Do the arithmetic before you assume October 31 is a real date.

Down south it flipped from yellowtail to tuna. Last week San Diego posted 844 yellowtail in a day; Tuesday it was 234, while yellowfin went to 359 and dorado to 156. The Highliner’s 150 yellowfin and 141 dorado on twenty rods is the single best score in this issue by fish-per-rod, and the New Lo-An’s bluefin to 80 pounds is the best grade. The Coronados day boats are still the reliable yellowtail play.

Three source notes. The Excalibur out of H&M posted a 1.5-day trip with 25 anglers and no count at all — we have left it out rather than guess. The Graylight’s ten yellowtail is real but it is one angler, so treat “10.0 a rod” as a curiosity, not a fleet signal. And the Endeavor’s rockfish arithmetic is explained in the Central Coast note above — we have printed a range rather than pick a number we cannot defend.

⏰ The Season Clock — Verify Before Every Trip

Ocean Salmon — Recreational, Fall Season

Area

Status

Harvest Guideline

38°02′N (near Point Reyes) – Pigeon Point

OPEN — 60 days left

20,000 Chinook shared

Pigeon Point – U.S./Mexico border

OPEN — 29 days left

20,000 Chinook shared

Point Arena – 38°02′N

Not in a fall area

Summer guideline spent

40°10′ – Point Arena (Fort Bragg)

CLOSED — concluded for 2026

5,100 Chinook, attained

OR/CA border – 40°10′ (KMZ)

CLOSED — concluded for 2026

3,900 Chinook, attained

Counting inclusively from today: the Point Reyes–Pigeon Point area has 60 days to October 31; Pigeon Point south has 29 days to September 30. Both numbers assume the guideline holds, and it very well may not. One fleet-wide limit day like Tuesday is roughly 3% of a 20,000-fish guideline shared between two areas, and there is no separate allocation — whichever area burns it, both close.
Bag limit 2 salmon, no coho. Minimum size 20 inches. Two barbless single-point single-shank hooks north of Point Conception; barbless circle hooks required when fishing bait by any means other than trolling between 40°10′ and Point Conception. No filleting on the boat.
Sport fishing north of Point Arena has concluded for 2026. Commercial reopened in September for the 38°02′N to Pigeon Point subarea with its own 20,000-fish fall limit.
Salmon hotline: (707) 576-3429. Call it the morning you go. Two weeks ago an inseason action wiped out a week of San Francisco season with four days’ notice. The same machinery is pointed at this season.

Rockfish — North of Point Conception

10 fish per day aggregate. Within that: canary rockfish 2, copper rockfish 1, vermilion rockfish 4.
No retention: quillback, cowcod, yelloweye, bronzespotted. The northern fleet has walked away from the bottom for salmon, which means the reef is uncrowded — but the sub-limits are still what will bite you. Know copper and vermilion on sight before you drop. Depth restrictions apply and vary by management area; check the current groundfish regulations for the water you are fishing.

◉ Tide Tables — Sep 2 – Sep 9

Pulled directly from the NOAA CO-OPS data API this week — harmonic predictions, MLLW datum, local time, no intermediary. Minus lows in red. Predictions run about ±10 minutes and ±0.5 ft; sustained wind and river flow move them further. Some days carry only three entries because the fourth falls across midnight into the next row — that is the source’s own structure, not a gap.

San Francisco / Golden Gate — Station 9414290

Date

High 1

High 2

Low 1

Low 2

Wed 2

4:06a — 4.3

3:32p — 6.1

8:54a — 2.4

10:23p — 0.5

Thu 3

5:34a — 4.0

4:23p — 6.1

9:45a — 3.0

11:37p — 0.4

Fri 4

7:17a — 4.0

5:27p — 6.1

10:57a — 3.4

—

Sat 5

8:42a — 4.3

6:41p — 6.2

12:56a — 0.1

12:29p — 3.5

Sun 6

9:38a — 4.6

7:53p — 6.3

2:07a — −0.1

1:52p — 3.3

Mon 7

10:22a — 4.9

9:00p — 6.4

3:06a — −0.4

2:58p — 2.9

Tue 8

10:59a — 5.2

9:59p — 6.4

3:56a — −0.5

3:54p — 2.3

Wed 9

11:34a — 5.4

10:54p — 6.3

4:39a — −0.5

4:45p — 1.8

Friday carries only one low — the next one falls at 12:56 a.m. Saturday and is shown on Saturday’s row. The single biggest drain of the window is Monday night’s 6.4 ft high at 9:00 p.m. falling to −0.5 at 3:56 a.m. Tuesday — a 6.9-foot drop in seven hours. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning is 6.85 ft, essentially the same.

Port Chicago / West Delta — Station 9415144

Date

High 1

High 2

Low 1

Low 2

Wed 2

6:31a — 3.6

5:40p — 5.4

12:16a — 0.8

11:43a — 1.4

Thu 3

7:59a — 3.4

6:30p — 5.4

1:29a — 0.8

12:33p — 1.8

Fri 4

9:28a — 3.4

7:32p — 5.3

3:01a — 0.7

1:37p — 2.2

Sat 5

10:43a — 3.6

8:47p — 5.2

4:23a — 0.6

2:57p — 2.3

Sun 6

11:44a — 3.8

10:10p — 5.2

5:30a — 0.3

4:23p — 2.3

Mon 7

12:35p — 4.1

11:25p — 5.2

6:25a — 0.1

5:37p — 2.0

Tue 8

1:20p — 4.3

—

7:12a — −0.1

6:41p — 1.6

Wed 9

12:27a — 5.2

2:00p — 4.4

7:53a — −0.1

7:38p — 1.3

Tuesday’s second high falls at 12:27 a.m. Wednesday and is shown on Wednesday’s row. Port Chicago goes minus on Tuesday and Wednesday — the first minus lows in the west Delta in weeks, and the reason the back half of this window is the half to fish.

Monterey — Station 9413450

Date

High 1

High 2

Low 1

Low 2

Wed 2

2:57a — 3.6

2:23p — 5.6

7:48a — 2.3

9:56p — 0.7

Thu 3

4:38a — 3.3

3:17p — 5.7

8:26a — 2.8

11:17p — 0.4

Fri 4

6:38a — 3.3

4:24p — 5.7

9:27a — 3.1

—

Sat 5

8:02a — 3.6

5:39p — 5.8

12:34a — 0.1

11:08a — 3.3

Sun 6

8:49a — 3.8

6:52p — 5.9

1:38a — −0.3

12:42p — 3.1

Mon 7

9:23a — 4.1

7:56p — 6.0

2:31a — −0.5

1:54p — 2.7

Tue 8

9:55a — 4.4

8:54p — 6.0

3:16a — −0.6

2:53p — 2.2

Wed 9

10:25a — 4.6

9:47p — 5.9

3:57a — −0.5

3:47p — 1.8

Port San Luis / Avila & Morro Bay — Station 9412110

Date

High 1

High 2

Low 1

Low 2

Wed 2

2:20a — 3.5

1:52p — 5.5

7:12a — 2.3

9:30p — 0.8

Thu 3

4:09a — 3.2

2:48p — 5.5

7:46a — 2.7

10:58p — 0.5

Fri 4

6:22a — 3.2

4:02p — 5.6

8:50a — 3.1

—

Sat 5

7:45a — 3.5

5:22p — 5.7

12:16a — 0.1

10:53a — 3.3

Sun 6

8:25a — 3.8

6:35p — 5.9

1:19a — −0.3

12:26p — 3.0

Mon 7

8:57a — 4.1

7:38p — 6.1

2:10a — −0.5

1:35p — 2.6

Tue 8

9:26a — 4.4

8:33p — 6.1

2:54a — −0.6

2:31p — 2.1

Wed 9

9:56a — 4.7

9:23p — 6.0

3:32a — −0.6

3:21p — 1.6

Port San Luis has the deepest minus tides in the state this week — −0.64 ft Tuesday morning and −0.56 Wednesday, both around 3 a.m. If you clam, Monday through Wednesday mornings are the run. Check the current CDFW invertebrate regulations and any local health advisories before you dig; the annual mussel quarantine and shellfish biotoxin rules are separate from the fishing regs and they change.

◉ Moon Phase & Best Days

Phase computed from a 29.530588853-day synodic month against the January 6, 2000 reference new moon. Last quarter falls early Friday morning, September 4, and the new moon is Friday, September 11 — two days after this window closes. The almanac convention brackets the new and full moon, so the ratings build across these eight days instead of decaying. That lines up exactly with the tide: the minus lows start Sunday and deepen through Wednesday. Last week we said go now. This week we are saying wait.

Date

Illumination

Rating

Notes — Solunar Majors vs. Sunrise & Tide

Wed 2

64% waning

★★☆☆☆ Fair

Smallest swing of the window at the Gate — 6.1 ft high at 3:32 p.m. against a 0.5 ft low at 10:23 p.m., a 5.6-foot range. Majors near 5:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m., so the morning major does land near sunrise. Fish it if you are already going; do not plan around it.

Thu 3

54% waning

★★☆☆☆ Fair

5.8-foot range. The morning high slides to 5:34 a.m. and the useful drain is the long afternoon fall into an 11:37 p.m. low of 0.4. Majors near 6:34 a.m. and 6:34 p.m. Evening is the better half.

Fri 4

43% waning

★★★☆☆ Good

Last quarter, about 4 a.m. Only one low on the Gate row — the 5:27 p.m. high at 6.1 ft falls all the way to 0.1 ft at 12:56 a.m. Saturday, a 6.0-foot overnight drain. Majors near 7:22 a.m. and 7:22 p.m. Start of the holiday weekend; ramps get busy Friday afternoon.

Sat 5

33% waning

★★★☆☆ Good

6.0-foot range and building. 6.2 ft high at 6:41 p.m. Majors near 8:10 a.m. and 8:10 p.m. Busiest inland Saturday of the window — BASS 101 on Pine Flat, Manteca on New Hogan, High Sierra on Clear Lake. Ramps full before daylight.

Sun 6

23% waning

★★★★☆ Very Good

First minus tide of the run — −0.1 ft at 2:07 a.m., with a 6.3 ft high at 7:53 p.m. behind it. 6.4-foot range. Majors near 8:58 a.m. and 8:58 p.m., putting the morning major well after sunrise and into the incoming. It turns on today.

Mon 7

15% waning

★★★★☆ Very Good

Labor Day. −0.4 ft at 3:06 a.m. and a 6.4 ft high at 9:00 p.m. — 6.7-foot range, and the evening high sets up the biggest overnight drain of the week. Majors near 9:46 a.m. and 9:46 p.m. Great water, worst crowds. Fish early or fish the evening major.

Tue 8

8% waning

★★★★★ Best

Best day of the window. −0.5 ft at 3:56 a.m. at the Gate — the biggest minus — against a 6.4 ft high at 9:59 p.m. That is a 6.9-foot range, the widest in these eight days. Port Chicago goes minus for the first time in weeks. Port San Luis hits −0.64. Majors near 10:34 a.m. and 10:34 p.m. The holiday crowd is home. This is the day.

Wed 9

3% waning

★★★★★ Best

Nearly dark moon, two days off new. −0.5 ft at 4:39 a.m., 6.3 ft high at 10:54 p.m., 6.75-foot range — a hair behind Tuesday and functionally the same day. Majors near 11:22 a.m. and 11:22 p.m. If you can only take one weekday off, take one of these two.

Sunrise at the Gate runs about 6:41 a.m. Sep 2 to 6:47 a.m. Sep 9; sunset 7:37 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. Central Valley times run a few minutes earlier at sunrise and later at sunset. Illumination is the mean-synodic value at evening and can differ two or three points from published almanacs. Solunar major timing is estimated from lunar transit, not measured — treat the times as approximate and the rating as a tiebreaker, not a guarantee. Tide ranges quoted are highest high to lowest low across the calendar day at station 9414290.

◉ Fish Stocking Report

This is the thinnest stocking week we have printed, and it is a hard reversal from last week. Last week CDFW planted the Kings River below Pine Flat, the San Joaquin South Fork across six counties, Mono Creek, Portal Forebay and ten Mono County waters. This week there is nothing in Fresno, nothing in Kings, nothing in Madera and nothing in Mono. Twelve counties total, and the entire list is cold tailwater and high country — the Stanislaus Middle Fork, the Trinity forks, Pinecrest, Coffee Creek, Deer Creek. The standing August rule now applies to September too: CDFW does not put catchable trout in valley-floor lakes while the water will not keep them alive. Last week was the exception. This is the rule.

CDFW posts plants as week ranges, not specific dates. Week of Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2026. All rainbow trout. Pound totals were not published for any water on this week’s list. The following week’s list is not posted yet.

County

Waters Planted

Species

Tulare

Deer Creek

Rainbow trout

Tuolumne

Pinecrest Lake · Stanislaus River Middle Fork

Rainbow trout

Alpine · Calaveras · San Joaquin · Stanislaus

Stanislaus River Middle Fork

Rainbow trout

Trinity

Carrville Dredge Pond · Coffee Creek · Trinity River above Clair Engle, East Fork & Stuart Fork

Rainbow trout

Humboldt

Trinity River above Clair Engle, East Fork & Stuart Fork

Rainbow trout

Shasta

Nora Lake

Rainbow trout

Tehama · Contra Costa

Deer Creek

Rainbow trout

Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mono and Kern: no plants reported this week. The Kings below Pine Flat, planted last week, is the freshest valley-adjacent water — those fish are now eight to fourteen days in.

CDFW regional plant lines:
Central Region — (559) 243-4005 ext. 151
North Central Region — (916) 351-0832
Bay Delta Region — (707) 944-5581

◉ Tournament Board

This Coverage Window — Sep 2 through Sep 9

Date

Water

Host

Sep 5–6

Pine Flat Lake

BASS 101 — two days, holiday weekend

Sat Sep 5

New Hogan Lake

Manteca Bassin’ Buddies

Sat Sep 5

Clear Lake (Lake Co.)

High Sierra Bass Club

Sun Sep 6

Clear Lake (Lake Co.)

Best Bass Tournaments

A quiet tournament week, and that is unusual for a holiday weekend. Four permitted black-bass events, only one of them on water we cover closely — but that one is Pine Flat on Saturday and Sunday, on a lake that is under eighteen percent with ramps ending in dirt. If you are fishing Pine Flat this weekend and you are not in the BASS 101 event, go somewhere else or go very early. Everything above is Approved status in the CDFW permit database. Permits get amended and cancelled — confirm with the host club before you tow a boat anywhere.

📅 Mark the Calendar — Central Valley & Central Coast

Date

Water

Host

Sep 12–13

Delta (San Joaquin Co.)

NorCal Bass

Sep 12–13

Delta (Contra Costa Co.)

Best Bass Tournament

Sep 18–20

Don Pedro Reservoir

Bass Angler Inc. — three days

Sep 19

Lake Success

Golden Empire Bass Club

Sep 19

Lopez Lake

Kern County Bassmasters

Sep 19

Isabella Lake

American Bass

Sep 19

Lake McClure

Sonora Bass Anglers

Sep 19

Don Pedro Reservoir

All American Bass Club

Sep 19

Delta (Sacramento Co.)

Fresno Bass Club · Great Basin Bassers · Sacramento Bass Wranglers

Sep 19–20

Santa Margarita Lake

Orange County Bass Club

Sep 26

Lake McClure

17-90 Bass Club

Sep 26–27

Don Pedro Reservoir

Sierra Bass Club

Sep 26–27

Delta (Sacramento Co.)

Cen Cal Elite Bass Tournaments

Oct 3

Pine Flat Lake

BASS 101

Oct 4

Millerton Lake

BASS 101

Oct 10

Pine Flat Lake

Golden Empire Bass Club

Oct 10

Bass Lake (Madera Co.)

Kerman Bass Club

Oct 17

Lake Nacimiento

Gilroy Bassmasters

Oct 17–18

Lake McClure

River Bank Bass Anglers

Nov 7

Millerton Lake

Kerman Bass Club

Nov 7–8

Lake Nacimiento

Golden Empire Bass Club

Dec 5

Pine Flat Lake

Kerman Bass Club

Dec 12–13

Pine Flat Lake

Sierra Bass Club

Source: CDFW Fishing Contest permit database, pulled Sep 2, black bass category only. All events shown are Approved status. Two honest caveats. First, because we queried black bass, this list does not include kokanee, trout or catfish events — the Kokanee Power event at Shaver, Sep 9–12, came from last week’s pull under a different category and we did not re-verify it this week, so confirm it with the club. Second, a handful of events we carried last week do not appear in this week’s black-bass pull. That may be a category difference or an amendment; we print what today’s query returned rather than merge two pulls into a list that matches neither. Permits get amended and cancelled — call before you tow.

Did We Miss Your Water?

Tell us about water we are not covering. The Eastern Sierra section and the Southern California dock totals — San Pedro, Long Beach, Newport, Dana Point, San Diego — are here because readers wrote in and asked. Say the word and yours could be next.

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⚠ Heat & Water Safety — Labor Day Weekend

Pine Flat is at 17.3% and has dropped twenty-two feet in twenty-two days. That is still the most dangerous number in this issue, and there is a two-day tournament on it this weekend. Rock, stump and old roadbed that were well under your hull a month ago are at prop depth now, and the ramps are ending in dirt. Idle in, watch the sounder, and throw out every waypoint you set before August.

The Goodwin release fell from 1,388 cfs to 202 in one week. A drop is not automatically safer than a rise — it moves the channel, exposes gravel that was swimmable last weekend, and strands boats that launched on the old flow. And it can go back up just as fast as it came down. Look at the lower Stanislaus with your own eyes before you commit.

The lower Kings is at 1,742 cfs. Easing for six straight weeks and still not a wading flow. Bank or boat below the dam, and wear the vest.

Labor Day is the busiest water weekend of the fall. Every ramp on this page will be full, the Kaiser Pass road is one lane in places, and Bass Lake and the June Loop will be at capacity. More boats means more wakes, more inexperienced operators and slower emergency response. If your trip can move to Tuesday the 8th, move it — that is also the best tide of the window.

Fire danger is extreme in the high country. That is the ranger district’s wording, not ours. If you are headed to Edison, Florence, Mammoth Pool, Wishon, Courtright or Portal Forebay, check road and fire status before you leave and know your second way out. Holiday traffic makes a single closed road a much bigger problem.

Heat, and the water itself. Valley afternoons are still the real risk on this list — off the water by mid-morning or fish the evening, and take water, shade, a hat and somebody who knows where you went. On the coast, those deep minus tides Monday through Wednesday put people out on rock and reef that the ocean takes back fast. Watch the flood, and never turn your back on it.

Two things to act on. First: if you want a king off a party boat, book it now. The fall season opened with eighteen of twenty-two boats at full limits, and the entire fall allocation is 20,000 fish shared between the two open areas. A day like Tuesday burns roughly three percent of it. The calendar says October 31 for the Point Reyes-to-Pigeon Point water and September 30 south of there. The arithmetic says do not count on either.

Second, and this is the opposite of what we told you last week: wait. The moon goes dark toward a new moon on the 11th and the minus tides deepen every day from Sunday on. The best water of these eight days is Tuesday the 8th and Wednesday the 9th — after the holiday, after the crowds go home, on the widest tidal swing of the window. If you have a day to spend, spend it then.

Tight lines,

Bryan Mello
B Mello Ag Services · Central Valley, California

Every issue we have ever published is free at bmelloag.com/reports — field conditions, ag crime, markets, fuel and fishing.

(559) 816-3889
bryan@bmelloag.com

Sources used for this issue: Tide predictions came directly from the NOAA CO-OPS data API this week — stations 9414290 San Francisco, 9415144 Port Chicago, 9413450 Monterey and 9412110 Port San Luis, MLLW datum, high/low interval, local time. Unlike the last several issues these are first-hand API pulls, not the US Harbors tables · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District daily reservoir reports, Corps and Section 7, data ending midnight Sep 1, both generated Sep 2 at 08:00 and 08:01 · California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) daily storage for Don Pedro, McClure, Shaver and Lopez, used only where the Corps published nothing and labeled with its own Aug 31 or Sep 1 date · NorCalFishReports.com boat-by-boat dock totals for Sep 1 · SoCalFishReports.com dock totals for Sep 1 · SanDiegoFishReports.com boat-by-boat counts for Sep 1 · NorCalFishReports.com weekly report for the week of Aug 31, source of the skipper quotes and the Sacramento and Trinity river flows · landing-level skipper reports from 22ndstreet.com and daveyslocker.com for the Catalina block, read Sep 2 · CDFW Marine Management News, “Inseason Ocean Salmon Changes Announced for August,” published Aug 21, 2026 — the most recent salmon post and the source for the fall season areas, dates and the 20,000-Chinook shared guideline · CDFW fish plant listings for the week of Aug 30 – Sep 5 · CDFW Fishing Contest permit database, pulled Sep 2, black bass category (upcoming events only — we do not carry a results table, because host clubs do not publish weights on any schedule we can verify). Moon phase computed from the synodic month against the Jan 6, 2000 reference new moon. No fresh regional freshwater column was available inside this window — the weekly aggregator filed “no reports” for Central California, Central Sierra, Sierra Foothills and the Delta, and we did not reuse last week’s quotes.

Please read: Conditions, seasons, bag limits and closures change — sometimes with a single day’s notice. Two weeks ago federal inseason action closed San Francisco salmon a week early, and the same mechanism applies to the fall season described above. The 20,000-Chinook fall guideline is shared between both open areas and either can close early. Eastern Sierra waters carry their own special regulations that differ from statewide rules, and the white sturgeon catch-and-release decision described above is not in effect until the Office of Administrative Law acts. Everything here is a snapshot of what the public data said when this was written on Wednesday morning. Confirm current regulations with CDFW at wildlife.ca.gov, call the salmon hotline at (707) 576-3429 before an ocean trip, and verify ramp access and lake levels with the operating agency before you travel. Where a figure was stale, missing, from a second agency or in conflict with another published source, we said so and date-stamped it rather than guessing.