2020 Sacramento River Fishing Report
Second fish landed on the Sacramento River King salmon season opener on July 16th below Red Bluff, Ca!
The Sacramento River is open to king salmon fishing and we’re catching fish! We started fishing the Sacramento River on July 16th, 2020 and are very happy to report that the fishing is as good as its been in years and more! We hooked 10 King salmon on opening day of the 2020 season, landing five King salmon to 30+ lbs! It was a great morning for us and with 4 fishing guides in the boat, we really put on a clinic in the “Bamboo Hole” below Red Bluff. The Kings were definitely staged in the hole and as soon as we dropped in, we were hooked up on a big bright King salmon.
A Brads KF-16 plug enticed this Sacramento River King on the 2020 season opener!
After the first light bite, things really slowed down. There were a lot of boats on the river, more than I’ve seen in years. Perhaps it was all the great reports coming from the saltwater charter boats that got a few more heads to turn and interested in fishing the Thursday opener. Just about every boat we saw fishing was back trolling plugs and we were no exception. Our hot plugs for the morning were the Brad’s Killer Fishing Gear KF-15’s and KF-16’s. Pink magic was the hot color and almost all of our fish were hooked on that color pattern.
Captain Jeff Brady with a nice opening day King caught on a Brad’s KF-16 plug!
As is the case most years, the days after the season opener are less productive, especially with lots of boat traffic. Captain Justin Thompson, Captain Jeff Brady, and myself have fished almost every day since the opener and we’ve caught fish on every trip out thus far. This is a great indicator for whats to come in the months ahead and for that, we’re really excited! We’ve been running groups of 2-5 people thus far and we’re averaging about one hook up per rod. Thats a good number for this early season fishery. As we climb closer into the mid August timeframe, we’ll see a constant rise in the production like we normally do. Who knows, with this many salmon in the system already, we could see some bigger numbers sooner than later this season.
Big Sacramento River Kings like these will be common place this year!
We’ve just begun our Sacramento River King salmon fishing season and we’re already running short on available dates. We have over 160 guided salmon fishing trips booked right now and we’re booking one or more trips every day now. September has about 11 more trip dates available, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for tight schedules. Our August schedule is getting booked up steadily, but if you miss out on August or September dates, we have quite a few dates in October left right now. Aside from our fall salmon fishing schedule, our late fall salmon season will run from mid November thru December 31st. We have quite a few available dates for late fall salmon, but if the fishing is as good as the fall run, you can bet that we will run short on late fall salmon trip dates as well.
Early season King salmon is great table fare for both fall and late fall King’s.
We are really excited for this years salmon season on the Sacramento River and we keep telling our clients that this is not a year they want to skip. The King run is strong this year and the salmon are quite a bit bigger than we have seen in 5-6 years. These two points alone should good reason to book this years sacramento River King salmon fishing trip. Jaynie is taking calls daily and can either book your group with one of our great guides, or she can provide you with the information you need to get you headed in the right direction before you decide to come fish with us. Jaynie takes care of the booking process and our guides take care of the catching process during your day of fishing with California’s #1 King salmon fishing guide team!
Thank you!
Capt. Jeff Goodwin
