Sacramento River Salmon Fishing Returns After Four-Year Closure

Sacramento River salmon fishing is back, and for a lot of California anglers and river-town businesses, that is more than a line on a regulation sheet.

For the first time since 2022, bank anglers can target salmon on the Sacramento River from the Carquinez Bridge east to Woodson Bridge starting July 16. Tackle shops that have watched spinners, FlatFish, Wiggle Warts, and heavy spoons sit on the pegs finally have a reason to stock river salmon gear again. Banks around Benicia, Antioch, Freeport, Walnut Grove, Hood, Garcia Bend, and Discovery Park are expected to see real traffic again.

The main Sacramento had been closed because of extremely poor upper-river salmon returns in 2022. Inland anglers will also have a season on the Feather, American, and Mokelumne rivers, with the Central Valley general fall-run salmon season opening July 16 and closing Dec. 16, though upper and lower river stretches vary. The listed daily bag limit is two fish, with four in possession.

This is what harvest opportunity looks like when it is tied to the resource. When returns collapse, seasons get cut. When managers can reopen, anglers get back on the water and local businesses get some oxygen. Nobody who cares about salmon wants reckless harvest, but nobody should pretend closed seasons do not hit families, guides, bait shops, resorts, and river towns.

Legal fishing belongs in the conservation conversation. Anglers pay, report, follow seasons, and keep pressure on agencies to manage water, habitat, hatcheries, predators, and harvest honestly. A reopened season is good news, but the long-term fight is keeping salmon runs strong enough that these communities do not have to keep living through shutdown after shutdown.