Where the fish are, and how the old hands rig for them

A fish is where its water is. Learn the water and the season and the rig picks itself.

Stocked trout, the every-week fishery

The state plants trout in more than two thousand waters, and the first two weeks after a plant fish hardest. From the bank, float dough bait or an inflated nightcrawler a few feet under a bobber, or slide an egg sinker ahead of it and hold the bait just off the bottom on light line. From a boat, troll a flasher and worm or a small spoon five to twenty-five feet down, and follow the fish deeper as summer warms the top of the lake. The Club 49 map carries every current CDFW stocked water with the species and the plant week.

The salmon runs

The fall Chinook come up the Sacramento, Feather, American, Klamath, Trinity and Smith from late summer into December, and they stack below the hatcheries at Nimbus, Oroville, Lewiston and Iron Gate the way they have for generations. Backbounce or drift cured roe through the holes, or pull a sardine-wrapped plug. Steelhead follow the winter rains, December into March, and the Smith is the crown water of them all. Runs are regulated hard, so check the current rules and closures before you go.

Striped bass

The Delta at Rio Vista is striper country in fall and winter, the spring run pushes up the rivers past Colusa and Verona in April through June, and the landlocked giants live at O'Neill Forebay and San Luis. Soak fresh cut bait on a sliding-sinker rig on the tides, throw swimbaits and topwater at first and last light, or troll deep-diving plugs until you find the school.

Bass, catfish and the panfish

Largemouth hold tight to cover in the warm lakes and the Delta, and the spring spawn is the great equalizer: a Texas-rigged worm or a wacky senko dropped into the beds and the tules. Smallmouth and spots want the clear rocky reservoirs, a drop-shot or a Ned rig worked on the stone. Catfish bite cut bait on the bottom at dusk in the warm months. Bluegill and crappie fill the evenings, a small jig or a worm under a bobber around brush and docks.

Crawdads and the eating rules

Over a thousand recorded crawdad waters carry the invasive red swamp and signal crayfish, legal to trap with a current license, and the native Shasta crayfish is endangered and never taken. Before you eat anything you catch, check the state advisory list: some waters carry mercury or PCB warnings, and the map flags every one of them.