Your Interactive Guide To The San Joaquin Delta

SAFE BOATING IS NO ACCIDENT

The Delta is home to Bluegill, Readear, Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Striped Bass, Crappie, Bullhead

Catfish, Channel Catfish, and Shad, Salmon, Steelhead, and Sturgeon runs as well as delectable crawdads.

Fishing Derbys are held through out the Delta during the winter and spring offering substantial prizes to

winners, see events for dates. The Striped Bass migrate through the Delta twice a year, usually in November

and May. Though beautiful fish are caught year round. A Crawdad Festival is held in Isleton each year on

Father's Day weekend. With a bounty of delicious crusteans to enjoy. With a thousand miles of waterways to

explore and enjoy its easy to "get away from it all" and enjoy the peace and solitude.

Angler Guide Service | Local Bait Shops | Other Fishing Links | Delta Fish Species (fish list)

CATFISH (Bullhead, Channel, and White)

Channel Catfish Black Bullhead

Bait: Best are clams, anchovies, nightcrawlers, stink baits, dough baits, sardines, chicken or turkey

livers, and bloodworms.

Tackle: Should be reasonably strong, about 15 to 20 pound test line. Striped bass can also take these

baits, so be prepared.

Best Season: Fishing for Catfish is productive all year, but the summer months are usually best.

Best Areas: Almost any place in the Delta produces catfish. Threemile, Sevenmile, Georgianam

Cache, and Miner Sloughs, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, Frank's Track SRA, and Sherman

Lake are good. Equally good are Old and Middle Rivers, White Slough and most other cuts and

sloughs of the Delta.Try a spot for 1/2 hour, no luck, move on.

Depths: About three to twenty feet, deeper in winter.

Regulations:

Season - all year

Bag Limit - none

Minimum size - none

Fishing in the California Delta http://www.sacdelta.com/fishing/

1 of 4 4/20/2016 3:57 PM
Back to Top

BLUEGILL

Best Areas: Bluegills prefer quiet, weedy waters where they can hide and feed. In the

daytime the smaller fish are close to shore in coves under an overhanging limb or

under a dock. The larger prefer the adjacent deeper waters in the daytime but move into

shallow areas in the morning and evening to feed.

Back to Top

STRIPED BASS

Bait: Best are Achovies, threadfin shad, sardines, bloodworms, grass and

ghost shrimp, mudsuckers, sculpins (bull heads), crayfish. When using cut

bait, thread hook so that fresh side is most exposed; some anglers use nylon

netting or thread to keep bait on hook.

Tackle: 3 to 7 inch Rebels and Rapalas are standard lures; check with local bait shops for current

information. Test line should be reasonably strong, about 10 to 30 pound.

Best Season: The spring spawning run up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is probably the best

season in the Delta, but the fall run is also a heavey producer of lunker-size bass, the fall and sppring

runs almost seem to merge, creating good fishing from September to June, and resident stripers are

caught during the summer.

Best Areas: For boat fishing: Sherman Lake when the water depth is less than five feet; the power lines

on the Sacramento River within two hours of low tide and two hours of high tide (fish the incoming

tide); Threemile Slough where it empties into the Sacramento River and where it empties into the San

Joaquin River; Decker Island on the Sacramento River on the west side of the island, on the north end

of the island near the entrance to Threemile Slough, and on the south side of the island near the pilings;

the dairy located approximately a mile and a half north of the Brannan Island SRA park entrance on the

east side of the Sacramento River (look for a sandy beach with some trees - fish about fifty yards

offshore and south of the beach about half to three-quarters of a mile), Franks Tract SRA, Middle and

Old Rivers, San Andreas shoals on the San Joaquin, White Slough, the Mokelumne River from the San

Joaquin to Hwy 12 and near the Cross Delta Channel.

Depths:

Regulations:

Season - all year

Bag Limit - 2 daily (and in possession)

Minimum size - 18 in.

Back to Top

STURGEON

Fishing in the California Delta http://www.sacdelta.com/fishing/

2 of 4 4/20/2016 3:57 PM
Size: White Sturgeon as much as 1300 pounds; green Sturgeon as much

as 350 pounds.

Bait: Ghost and grass shrimp are usually considered best, but sturgeon will also bite on shad minnoes,

crayfish and other baits..

Tackle: A medium to heavy weight rod with a sensitive tip and conventional bait casting reel is

probably most common, though many people use spinning reels. Use a 30 to 50 pound test line with

wire leaders and single or double hooks, and sliding sinker setup. They strike hard!.

Best Season: Usually from the beginning of winter, when the water starts to get muddy and looks like

chocolate syrup, until early summer.

Best Areas: On the Sacramento River, the Decker Island entrance to Threemile Slough, off the old

dairy, the Rio Vista bridge, the Isleton bridge. San Pablo and suisun Bays and the Mothball Fleet are

prime areas; Cache Slough and off Liberty Island are also very good.

Depths: Sturgeon have been caught in water from 14 to 80 feet deep; usually deep holes are best.

Regulations:

Season - all year

Bag Limit - 1daily (and in possession)

Minimum size - 46 in.

Maximum size - 6 ft.

Back to Top

Carp King Salmon Steelhead

Angler Guide Service(s)

Gone Fishing Guide Service, Bass Fishing Guide on the CA / Sac Delta

Delta Fish Species

Acanthogobius flavimanus Alosa sapidissima American shad

Bigscale logperch Black bullhead Black crappie

Fishing in the California Delta http://www.sacdelta.com/fishing/

3 of 4 4/20/2016 3:57 PM
Blue catfish Bluegill Brown bullhead

Brown trout (sea-run) Cagelef topeni Carassius auratus

Carp Chameleon goby Channel catfish

Cyprinus carpio Dorkus molorkus Dorosoma petenense

Fathead minnow Fathead moron Gambusia affinis

Gasterosteus aculaetus Golden shiner Goldfish

Green sunfish H. eymacrena dorkus Ictalurus catus

Ictalurus furcatus Ictalurus melas Ictalurus natalis

Ictalurus nebulosus Ictalurus punctatus Inland silverside

Largemouth bass Lepomis cyanellus Lepomis gulosus

Lepomis macrochirus Lepomis microlophus Lucania parva

Luckbe crappie Macarelena Menidia audena

Micropterus dolomieui Micropterus salmoides Morone saxatilis

Mosquito fish Notemigonus crysoleucas Obnoxi

Perca flavescens Percina macrolepida Pimephales promelas

Pomoxis annularis Pomoxis nigromaculatus Rainwater killifish

Red ear sunfish Rollwaz snakeiz Salmo trutta

Seadoo fish Small mouth bass Striped bass

Sturgeon Threadfin shad Threespine stickleback

Tombroka mediayappalot Tridentiger trigonocephalus Velocitus

Warmouth White bubbafish White catfish

White crappie Yellow bullhead Yellow perch

Yellowfin goby Yellowfinch gobyeby

Other Fishing Links

The National Marine Fisheries Service

(NMFS) or "NOAA Fisheries" is a part of

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA)

Local Bait Shops

Much of the fishing information was provided courtesy of Chuck's Bait & Tackle of Bethel Island, The Trap of Rio Vista, Bob's Bait

Shop, Delta Fish Finders of Isleton, and my good friend Mark Pacini (who left us in 2007).

Fishing in the California Delta http://www.sacdelta.com/fishing/

4 of 4 4/20/2016 3:57 PM