California Fishing Report: November 2026 to February 2027
This is the November 2026 to February 2027 edition at its permanent link. See the current California report.
Salmon fishing came back to California's rivers this year, and it closes in December
Salmon fishing reopened this year on the Klamath, the Trinity and the Central Valley rivers, on the Klamath and the Trinity after three closed years, and November is its last full month. The Sacramento, Feather, American and Mokelumne close on December 16 on most stretches, two fish a day. The Klamath and the Trinity run to December 31, with adult retention subject to local quota closures. The Upper Trinity adult quota closed after October 28; the lower Klamath's adult quota was met in September, so below Weitchpec only jacks may be kept and the spit at the river mouth is closed for the rest of the year. The ocean stays closed to salmon all winter.
The November 7 Dungeness crab opener comes with trap restrictions and a Northern California health closure, detailed below. On January 1 boat fishing for rockfish and lingcod closes statewide until April. South of Point Conception spiny lobster carries the winter through to March.
Inland, steelhead trips depend on CDFW's low-flow decisions. Its November 2 update lists the Russian River and the other Central Coast low-flow waters as closed on November 3 and 4. A rise in measured flow is not permission to fish: wait for the agency's posted reopening.
The state's rules are below under the same headings as every region, written for someone fishing California for the first time: the license and the report cards, bait and gear, the inland limits, ice and the salt water. White sturgeon are catch and release only, trout streams without special regulations turn catch and release on November 16 while the lakes stay open, and golden mussel has brought boat seals and launch limits to Folsom and the other big reservoirs named below.
January 1 takes rockfish and lingcod off every boat until April
On December 31 the boats fish their last day for rockfish and lingcod, the Klamath and Trinity salmon seasons end, and sturgeon fishing closes above the Feather River. From January 1 boat anglers lose groundfish in every management area until March 31, California sheephead until the end of February, and sturgeon in central San Francisco Bay until March 15. The fleet follows the rules: last winter most of the Bay Area boats stopped reporting after December 31, the one that kept going ran crab and sanddab trips, and Port San Luis and Morro Bay went quiet. Anglers on shore, piers and jetties, and spear divers, are exempt from the groundfish closure, so the rockfish winter moves to the rocks.
Dates that change what you may keep
7 of these 10 change a season, a bag limit or a legal method. Every day of the week below was checked against a calendar.
| When | What changes | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sun November 1 | No ocean salmon season is open anywhere in California: the last area, Point Reyes to Pigeon Point, closed after October 31. | CA |
| Sat November 7 | Recreational Dungeness crab opens outside the Cape Mendocino to Ten Mile State Marine Reserve closure. Traps remain prohibited from the Oregon border to Point Conception; hoop nets and snares are not covered by that trap restriction. | CA |
| Sun November 15 | Last day to keep trout on streams and rivers without special regulations, last day of the Crowley Lake season, and last day of Pacific halibut north of Point Arena. | CA |
| Mon November 16 | Streams and rivers without special regulations, the Eastern Sierra's included, turn catch and release for trout until the opener on April 24, with artificial lures and barbless hooks for every species. Lakes and reservoirs stay open at five trout a day. | CA |
| Tue December 1 | Coastal streams in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Monterey counties come under the low-flow closure rules until March 7. Check CDFW's low-flow page before every trip. | CA |
| Tue 15 and Wed December 16 | The Fish and Game Commission meets in Sacramento, with a change to the white seabass minimum size up for discussion. | CA |
| Wed December 16 | The Central Valley salmon season closes on most stretches of the Sacramento, Feather, American and Mokelumne rivers. | CA |
| Thu December 31 | Last day of the Klamath and Trinity salmon seasons, of boat fishing for rockfish and lingcod, of Pacific halibut south of Point Arena, and of sturgeon fishing from the Feather River confluence up to the Highway 162 bridge. | CA |
| Fri January 1 | Boat fishing for rockfish and lingcod closes in every management area until March 31, California sheephead close to boats until the end of February, and sturgeon may not be taken in central San Francisco Bay until March 15. | CA |
| Sun February 28 | Last day of the boat closure for California sheephead. Spiny lobster stays open until Wednesday, March 17. | CA |
Rockfish and lingcod from a boat
The groundfish rules most winter boat trips depend on. They differ either side of Point Conception until New Year, then close everywhere at once.
| Where | November and December | January 1 to March 31 |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon line to Point Conception | Open at all depths | Closed to boats |
| South of Point Conception | Shelf and slope rockfish and lingcod seaward of 50 fathoms only; nearshore rockfish, cabezon and greenlings closed | Closed to boats |
| From shore, piers and jetties, and spear divers | Open, with no depth limit | Open |
Lingcod are two a day of at least 22 inches all year, and quillback and bronzespotted rockfish may never be kept. Beyond three miles off the San Francisco area the federal rule text and CDFW disagree about November; see the state rules below.
Salmon in the rivers, and when it ends
River salmon seasons reopened this year, and these are the dates they close. The ocean is closed to salmon for the whole of this edition.
| Water | Closes | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Klamath above Weitchpec, and the Trinity | December 31, or when the quota is met | 2 a day, only 1 adult over 23 in |
| Klamath below Weitchpec | December 31 | Jacks of 23 in or less only; the river mouth spit is closed |
| Sacramento, Feather, American and Mokelumne | December 16 on most stretches | 2 a day, 4 in possession |
| The ocean | Closed all winter | Opens April 3 south of Cape Mendocino and May 1 in the Klamath zone, unless changed in the spring |
A North Coast Salmon Report Card is needed on the Klamath and the Trinity, and quota status is on CDFW's hotline, (800) 564-6479. Some upper and lower Central Valley stretches close on other dates, listed in section 7.40 of the regulations.
The California report, section by section
The rules, local reports, stocking and the engine outlook for each part of California are on its own page, one section at a time.
The weather and the water from November to February, most years
This part does not change from year to year, which is why it is worth reading before the forecast rather than after it.
- The weather
- This is the wet season, and the wet comes in storms off the Pacific. An atmospheric river can put days of heavy rain on the north and snow on the mountains, then high pressure settles in behind it with clear, cold nights and thick fog in the Central Valley that can sit for a week. The south gets fewer and shorter storms with long dry spells between, and after some of them the Santa Ana wind blows hot and dry off the deserts toward the sea.
- The water
- Rain takes the coastal rivers from low and clear to high and brown and back in a few days, and the river that was unfishable on Monday is the one to fish by Thursday. The Central Valley rivers run on releases from the big dams, so they stay colder and steadier than the rain would make them. The ocean cools through the quarter, coldest on the North Coast and mildest in the south, where the offshore islands and the sheltered southern bight hold the warmest water on the coast.
- How the quarter breaks
- It opens with the tail of the autumn salmon run in the rivers, the first real rain and the start of crab season on the coast, while the high lakes ice over and the streams turn catch and release. The middle is the heart of steelhead time on the coast and below the valley dams, and sturgeon and striped bass time in the Delta. It ends in the south first: by the last weeks the lakes there are warming toward the spawn while the north is still taking storms.
The moon from November to February
| Month | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | Sun, Nov 8 | Tue, Nov 24 |
| December 2026 | Tue, Dec 8 | Wed, Dec 23 |
| January 2027 | Thu, Jan 7 | Fri, Jan 22 |
| February 2027 | Sat, Feb 6 | Sat, Feb 20 |
The U.S. Naval Observatory's dates, on local time.
What our engine expects on the coast, the rivers and the lakes
Everything above this point either happened or happens every winter. This part is a forecast for the two weeks from the date stamped below, scored by the same engine that runs the rest of this site: water temperature, wind, tides or river flow, rain, pressure, cloud, air temperature, UV, humidity and solunar, weighted by species and by season.
A two-week stretch of California winter is storms off the Pacific and the high pressure between them, and each kind of water takes them differently: a storm puts the coastal rivers out for days and they fish best as they drop, while a river below a big dam hardly notices. Our engine sees a coming storm through its rain, wind and pressure. It cannot see the river rise and drop afterwards, because it scores every day of the two weeks on the flow measured the day the outlook was generated. Good hours counts the hours at or above a B-plus, which says how long a day holds, and the water temperature column says whether a thermometer measured the figure or a model produced it.
This is a weather forecast, so it covers two weeks and not the season, and the further out a date sits the less it is worth. The engine knows nothing about a low-flow closure, a delayed crab opener, a quota met or a closed ramp, so check CDFW before you go. We publish a grade, not a promise.
Engine outlook generated November 3, 2026, covering 23 waters.
What this report does not cover
- This is a seasonal guide, not a continuously updated field report. Its engine outlook covers only the dated two-week window. A water temperature quoted in October would be wrong by December, so for current conditions use the publishers named in each section.
- Ocean seasons for groundfish, salmon and Pacific halibut are set with NOAA and can change during the winter, and off San Francisco the federal and state texts disagree. This edition prints the rules published by October 12; check CDFW's groundfish page before a trip offshore.
- Low-flow status changes several times a week and is not in this edition. A river open on the day you read this may be closed on the day you drive to it.
- License and report card prices are not printed; they change every year.
Waters we are not grading in this outlook
Some waters that would otherwise appear in the outlook are left out of it, because the nearest water-temperature station sits on a different water. The ones held back are listed below, each with the station it was reading instead. Most of the Delta's thermometers have been silent for a year.
- Diamond Valley Lake (CA): nearest station is SANTA MARGARITA R NR TEMECULA CA
- Eel River (CA): nearest station is ELK R NR FALK CA
- Feather River (CA): nearest station is BUTTE C NR CHICO CA
- Kern River (CA): nearest station is SF TULE R NR CHOLOLLO CAMPGROUND NR PORTERVILLE CA
- Lake Oroville (CA): nearest station is BUTTE C NR CHICO CA
- Sacramento River at Redding (CA)
- Sacramento River at Rio Vista (CA): nearest station is FIRST MALLARD BRANCH NR FAIRFIELD CA
- Smith River (CA): nearest station is KLAMATH R NR KLAMATH CA
These waters are closed to the species we grade them for on every day of the two weeks, so the engine grades none of their days.
- American River (CA): this reach below Nimbus Hatchery is closed from November 1 and reopens on January 1
We are waiting for a verified reopening before grading these waters.
- Russian River (CA): CDFW lists the Russian River as closed for low flow on November 3 and 4. We are withholding its outlook until reopening is confirmed; later dates are not yet authorized by that status table.