Catching Steelhead in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers

Central Valley steelhead were at one time among the most prolific runs of salmonids on planet Earth. These fish had greater variance in life history strategies than just about any other fish. Historically, they had the widest diversity of habitats where rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) live, and numerous options in how they express their life strategy throughout these varied habitat types.

Today, Central Valley steelhead are classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to low numbers compared to historical abundance.

In the past 170 years we have thrown just about every obstacle imaginable at these fish. This includes the loss of more than 95 percent of their historically accessible habitat due to dams, levies, other barriers, and highly altered hydrographs in just about every Central Valley river.

Humans have radically changed the stream temperature profiles in these streams, compared to what these fish are genetically adapted to. We have introduced invasive species capable of competing for resources and/or preying on them.

Despite these challenges, the steelhead endure. It would be an understatement to say these fish are resilient. They have persevered, and efforts are now underway to reverse these harmful trends.

Today, the Central Valley still holds robust populations of steelhead, both hatchery-supported and wild. These fish return to famous tributaries that still bear their Native American names, such as the Mokelumne, Tuolumne, Yuba, and Cosumnes rivers, as well as tributaries with Spanish names, such as the San Joaquin, Calaveras, and Sacramento, and others that hold more colonial names like the American, Feather, Bear, Deer, Antelope, Mill, Battle, and Butte rivers, and Big Chico Creek.

Historic Abuse in California's Central Valley

The Central Valley is the cradle that encompasses the entire central part of California and is the catchment basin for the greater Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds. The Central Valley spans more than 450 miles north to south and up to 60 miles east to west.

Surrounding the Central Valley is one of the most diverse landscapes in the world, from the volcanic flanks of Shasta and Lassen to the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada, to the coastal range and down to the chaparral-covered mountains of Southern California.

Prior to the California Gold Rush, the greater Sacramento/San Joaquin Bay delta ecosystem was one of the most prolific and productive ecosystems on Earth. Millions of birds migrated through the marshlands at all times of year. The early Spanish explorers and white pioneers recounted tales of skies darkened from flocks of birds in the spring. The birds were so loud you had to shout at someone standing right next to you. Bears, elk, deer, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, beavers, otters, minks, and other mammals roamed the landscape. And of course the waterways teemed with fish, including all five species of Pacific salmon, as well as steelhead, sturgeons, Sacramento pikeminnows, Sacramento suckers, and many more.

Gold was discovered in the American River in 1848, and the ensuing years saw an onslaught of what would become one of the most environmentally destructive campaigns in the history of mankind—the California Gold Rush.

During the Gold Rush, humans managed to fill the Delta with millions of cubic tons of sediment washed out from hydraulic mining operations and other destructive land uses. Almost every river flowing into the Central Valley was ground up from bank to bank and down to bedrock from large-scale dredging operations. Since then, we have dammed the rivers flowing into the valley and exploited their waters for power generation, municipalities, and agriculture.

“Progress” has disconnected the rivers from historic floodplains to stabilize land for agriculture and development and to mitigate against floods. We have developed most of the Central Valley’s 18,000 square miles into agricultural operations or industrial and urban landscapes. We have criss-crossed the valley with roads and power lines, and 7.5 million people have made it their home. Today the Central Valley remains one of the most fertile agricultural landscapes in the world.

Finding Steelhead in California's Central Valley

Rainbow trout typically have more options than most other salmonids when it comes to life histories. After hatching, they can choose to stay in the river where they were born, move upstream or to other tributaries to find coldwater seeps and springs, move downstream to the estuary, or head out into the open ocean. Many of these decisions are made based on food availability, temperature, and then water flows, in that order.

Sometimes fishing pressure can also drive migration. But one thing is for certain, all steelhead have to return to a river with good flows, suitable temperatures, and clean gravel to spawn. Often, they return to the river of their birth, but not always. Migrating to the estuary, going through smoltification, heading to the ocean, and then returning to fresh water is what differentiates a steelhead from a regular rainbow trout. If they haven’t been to the ocean, they aren’t steelhead. They are rainbow trout.

Many valley rivers have tailwater conditions so rainbow trout can stay in the river year-round and never have to leave for the ocean to find abundant food resources. Some valley tailwaters can grow really large resident trout, like the fish the lower Sacramento is known for.

Other rivers get too low or warm in the summer months, forcing trout to flee to better conditions. Either way, it can sometimes be difficult to tell a valley steelhead from a big resident trout.

The tell-tale signs are mostly coloration and run timing. Steelhead tend to be gleaming silver when they first return to the rivers from the ocean. They then fade to deeper green and red the longer they remain in fresh water. Resident trout on a spawning run also start to take on those dark red stripes and deeper green backs.

Because Central Valley steelhead had to travel a long way from the ocean to get to their spawning rivers, they are typically already a bit darker, especially compared to a coastal steelhead fresh from the sea. It can often be difficult to tell the difference when you catch one. Sometimes it is super obvious a fish is a steelhead. At other times, it’s hard to tell.

Biologists tend to classify fish over 16 inches that have access to the ocean as steelhead, but that’s not always the truth. The only sure way to tell—in the absence of visual clues—is to take a scale sample and test it in a lab.

In terms of run timing, most wild steelhead in the valley are remnants of what would be considered summer steelhead populations. These fish typically return to the rivers now in the fall. There are, however, still some winter-run fish in the system. A couple of Central Valley rivers even have a semi-secret spring run of steelhead. It is possible to find steelhead in a river in the valley just about any month of the year. However, late fall and early winter see the bulk of the run these days, and this is the best time to target them with any degree of consistency.

In the age of dam-building in the 19th and 20th centuries, fish hatcheries were deemed the best mitigation strategy for the loss of habitat. There are now four main fish hatcheries in the valley that still produce steelhead: the Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River, the Mokelumne River Hatchery, the Feather River Fish Hatchery, and the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek.

The Mokelumne, Feather, and Coleman all produce what would be considered classic Central Valley steelhead. These fish typically range from 16 to 28 inches as adults, with the occasional 30-incher.

The Nimbus propagates a strain brought from the Eel River. These fish are typically measured in pounds, with the average being 2 to 8. There are still numerous fish in that 8- to 12-pound range each year, and even the occasional steelhead over 20 pounds. They also tend to stay brighter longer, like coastal winter steelhead.

Timing Strategies for Central Valley Steelhead

I typically start fishing for steelhead in late September and, depending on rainfall and stream flows, fish all the way through March. Each river has a slightly different season, so be sure to consult the regulations before targeting winter steelhead. For instance, the upper sections of some valley tailwaters close from July or September to December 31. The American, Feather, and Mokelumne rivers are most notable for a Jan. 1 opener. Others, like the Yuba, close from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1 in order for the wild salmon to spawn. Most of the better-known rivers still have sections that are open year-round.

It’s up to you to figure out where and when the starting lines are. Jan. 1 is always a big day for Central Valley steelhead anglers, as a couple of prime locations such as the upper American and the Feather above Highway 70 open up. It was definitely a date I always looked forward to as a kid. These days I tend to avoid crowds on opening week.

A variety of different techniques work for targeting these fish. Central Valley steelhead are known for being “trouty.” This means that once they’ve been in the river for a while, they take on the characteristics of resident trout and feed on insects, different types of forage minnows including sculpins, and even crayfish. Most people employ standard trout tactics such as drifting nymphs under an indicator or stripping streamers on a sink-tip line.

You should remember that every steelhead started as a trout, and those habits are still engrained in their psyches, even though they have been to the ocean and spent time chasing other food sources.

And of course there are always eggs. Steelhead timing typically coincides with the salmon runs, even though the spawn times are different. Since these steelhead were small, salmon eggs have been a favorite food source. Just like anywhere, it’s a pretty rare steelhead that would pass up a well-presented egg pattern. Standard beads and Glo-bugs work well.

My favorite combo in the late fall and early winter is a standard nymph rig with one egg pattern and one nymph. My go-to nymphs are Mercer’s Poxyback Golden Stones, red Copper Johns, and good old Frenchies.

I rig the egg first and the heavy nymph on the bottom to help get it down. Some people like it the other way so the egg is at the end of the tag and swirls around more, or floats slightly above the weighted nymph.

These days I spend much more time swinging flies than I do nymphing. These fish are typically more than happy to grab a swung fly, too. It really depends on the water I’m fishing, but when given the choice, I choose swing runs. There’s lots of great swing water on all the valley rivers. You don’t need the larger setups like those we fish on the coast. My go-to is a 4-weight, 11"6' switch rod.

It’s a super versatile tool. I mix it up between a typical swing setup with a sinking tip or just a floating line with a long leader and heavy fly. The floating line and heavy fly is fun because you can high-stick it, cast up and let it bounce through a run and watch the line for a grab, or swing it through the tailout.

It takes a bit more concentration and skill, but that’s what makes it fun. I’ll take a tight-line take over watching the bobber drop any day.

Central Valley Restoration

Central Valley steelhead were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998. That means these fish merit an extra degree of attention and protection. A Central Valley steelhead recovery plan was written by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and updated in 2014. There are many resulting restoration projects that benefit steelhead that are underway in the valley. Many of the major projects are billed toward salmon restoration, but the two go hand-in-hand. Robust populations of salmon always help support steelhead. Even though they have different

life histories, the two have coevolved symbiotically for centuries. Having more salmon-derived nutrients in any river system significantly increases the food sources for trout and steelhead.

California Trout (caltrout.org) is actively working in many parts of the valley to help implement actions from the recovery plan and advance salmon and steelhead recovery in key tributaries and in the Sacramento River. One of our biggest ongoing initiatives for over a decade has been the Nigiri (salmon over rice) Project, which provides fish food from flooded farm fields.

CalTrout is working with many agricultural producers—mostly rice farmers—to reconnect floodplains and grow more food for juvenile salmon and steelhead. When the farmers flood their rice fields in the winter, vast numbers of small freshwater shrimp and other organisms explode out of the soil, where they’ve lain dormant through the dry season. These critters provide a huge influx of food to the river ecosystem.

Rice growers now flood their fields two to three times in winter for up to a month, then pump the water—and its fish food—back into the Sacramento River. This provides a huge boost for juvenile salmon and steelhead. Efforts are also underway to retool some infrastructure to get wild fish back on and off the floodplains naturally.

Other key initiatives include barrier removal projects. Two of the most notable right now are on Battle Creek and Big Chico Creek—both important tributaries for both steelhead and salmon. On Battle Creek, efforts are underway to remove a number of dams that were built for the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) for hydroelectric projects starting in the 19th century.

In 2020, PG&E gave notice to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that they were not going to renew the license to generate power on Battle Creek. The license officially expires in 2026, rendering most of the old infrastructure outdated and in need of removal.

California Trout previously worked with landowners to remove a large barrier on upper Battle Creek, opening up many miles of quality habitat in the upper watershed in anticipation of these lower dam removals that are underway.

A similar project is ongoing on Big Chico Creek in Iron Canyon, where a series of old cement check dams and a large boulder construction are being removed to allow salmon and steelhead to spawn in high-quality habitat farther up the watershed. This will also allow juvenile steelhead that have been trapped up there for a century to migrate back down to the ocean.

Many of the best genetics left in the system from the native steelhead have been trapped above barriers in remote upper watersheds for many decades. These are fish that have not been polluted with hatchery genetics. Getting those pure genetics back in the gene pool will help rebuild genetically fit and robust populations of steelhead into the future.

Efforts like these ensure that we will have fishing opportunities well into the future. We envision a world where we can coexist with wildlife using modern science and restoration methods to meet the needs of people, fish, and wildlife.

There’s no going back to what the valley was like 200 years ago, but we can use the best available science, engineering, and innovation to reshape our infrastructure in a way that creates better outcomes for people, industry, and the ecosystem. Long live the Central Valley steelhead.

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Michael Wier (@mikowier) grew up in the Sierra foothills, where he split his time between snowboarding and fly fishing. He spent 15 seasons fishing and guiding on the Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers. He also started BURL Productions (burlproductions.com), producing outdoor films such as Trout Bum Diaries 1, Soulfish, and Cali Rush. He is a Patagonia ambassador and outreach coordinator for California Trout.

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