Sundial Bridge Section re-opens on the Lower Sac
The much anticipated re-opening of the upper river of the Lower Sacramento River happened on August 1st, 2023. This is the section of river that flows under the Sundial Bridge here in downtown Redding, CA.
Upper-lower-sacramento-river-redding… Confusing isn’t it??? That is if you are not a fan or have never fished this famed tailwater fishery. A river that I would put up against any of the great tailwater trout rivers in the Country. But I’ll save that for another time. Visit my “Water” page on this website and click Lower Sac in the drop down menu to learn more.
*Note: What is considered the Lower Sacramento River or Lower Sac by locals is the river flowing immediately below Shasta Lake Dam and smaller Keswick Dam. This is a giant coldwater tailwater fishery that continues to run many miles south through several counties on its way to the Sacramento Delta and eventually dumps in San Francisco Bay. The Upper Sacramento River is the river immediately above Shasta Dam and that river is a freestone river which is over 35 miles long from its headwaters near Mt. Shasta, a 14,000ft volcano, in Siskiyou County near the border of Oregon and N. California.
Beginning April 1st a four-month fishing closure (to protect winter-run Chinook salmon spawn) goes into effect: From below Keswick Dam (incl. Caldwell Park) downstream to Hwy 44 Bridge. It’s only a couple miles of river here.
When this section of river re-opens we typically see some of the river’s biggest and baddest wild trout that the Lower Sac River produces. And, it’s no surprise that I get booked a year in advance for the first two weeks of August, every year.
This summer season had these fish primed… they were far beyond recovering from past spring spawn. Water temps were super cold (low 50’s) and flows were big at 11k cfs and the trout’s metabolism is on high… couple that with summer caddis hatches and look out!
They have had a several months break to forget about us anglers and the fishing was En Fuego during the prime-times this year.
