The Striped Bass fishing on both the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers remains stable with both trollers and bait dunkers taking two-fish limits of quality fish averaging 22 to 24 inches in length with several going to 35.5 inches in length. The big fish of the week weighed in at 25 pounds and was caught on a live splittail in the Pittsburg area. Sturgeon showing in the San Joaquin River off Snag Island dunking eel strips. The diamondbacks are ranging in size from 55 to 58 inches in length. Sturgeon are still making an appearance in Suisun Bay as well when the winds are down.

The 71st Annual Rio Vista Bass Derby is the weekend of October 12 - 14 and this is the first big target length event to arrive during the fall season. The Rio Vista Derby will have separate target-length divisions for striped bass and sturgeon with salmon division decided by the heaviest fish. In addition to the oldest derby on the West Coast, the Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce will be holding an entire festival including a parade, food booths, car show and carnival along with many more family events. Information on the upcoming event is available at www.bassfestival.com.

The salmon bite has slowed down due to a rise in water temperatures. There have been only a few salmon showing at Vieira’s near Isleton and the Freeport Bridge. The anticipated cooler weather in the forecast should result in better fishing conditions. Further upstream into the Feather River your chances of hooking up with a quality salmon tossing spinners is the Verona area and the Oroville Outlet Hole where boaters and shoreline anglers are getting into some fair to good action with fish to 24 pounds. The best salmon fishing should take place in October in the inland tributaries. Stay tuned for periodic updates.