Lower Sac

An angler with a wild trout caught near the Sundial Bridge

Guided Float Trips

$600 for 1-2 Anglers

Year-round
Drift Boat Trips

The Lower Sacramento River between Redding and Red Bluff is California´s premier wild trout fishery. It is one of the few destinations where anglers can expect to hook into 18+" fish on a regular basis. Clear, cold, consistent flows coming out of Lake Shasta provide excellent conditions for the aquatic insects that trout eat. The Lower Sac is open to fishing year round. The Confluence Outfitters guide team can get you hooked up with quality wild trout on the Lower Sac at any time of year!

Lower Sac guide trips usually start between 7am and 9am depending on arrangements made with your guide. Most of our Lower Sac guide trips are drift boat trips, although we also do a lot of jet boat trips for folks who want to use Trout Spey techniques. Most of our guests opt for the shuttle-included rate, which means your guide can pick you up at your hotel and then drop you off again at the end of the day. If you opt to not include a shuttle, then plan on following your guide to the river in your own vehicle and assisting with shuttling the guide's vehicle to the take-out. You can hop into the boat in regular street clothes most days - waders are only necessary in inclement weather. Our guides can put more fish in the net by keeping their guests in the boat all day, but will definitely accommodate you if you want to do some wade fishing. Most days we fish nymphs and indicators all day long. Lunch is served on the river and trips usually wrap up by 5:30pm. On any given day you could be on one of six full-day floats - well over 60 miles of river. If fishing is red-hot in one area, our guides will sometimes do the same short float twice in one day.

Dry fly fishing can be very good almost any time of year. Our guides are always on the lookout for splashy rises in shallow riffles and stealthy risers in the flats. The best time for dry fly fishing is usually after lunch when water temperatures are warmer and there is more bug activity. If you have an interest in dry fly fishing please let your guide know so he can plan the day accordingly. The fish don't rise everywhere - you really have to be in the right place at the right time.

Lower Sac Guide Team

Our Lower Sac guide team includes Andrew Harris, Brian Kohlman, Kevin Kay, Luke Geraty, Ben Thompson, Peter Santley, Colin Coogan, Mike Wright, DJ Spivey, and Andreas Fuhrmann.

Recent Lower Sac Fishing Reports

March 16, 2023

Lower Sac Report by Luke Geraty

Conditions were bad... real bad. But due to the schedules, we couldn't move to another day. So we gave it our all and did our best to not get skunked. In that regard, Art and Tom were successful.Water is super muddy on the Lower Sac, but I imagine it will bounce back pretty quick. Though we tried EVERYTHING, we only seemed to manage hooking fish on eggs and a black caddis. Didn't see a lot of bugs. Considering how muddy the river was, I'd say that the half dozen fish we managed to hook was a decent measure of some sort of success. Usually it's hard NOT to hook a dozen plus fish on the Sac, it felt like hooking ANY was above expectations. But fishing hard and keeping a positive attitude surely makes a difference... and that we did!I'm sure the rivers around here will be back in order soon and I'm looking forward to hitting it hard this Spring. Now is a good time to be thinking about getting a day on the books because April is some of our finest fishing! Let's go!

March 6, 2023

Lower Sac Report by Ben Thompson

I spent the last two days on the Lower Sac and fishing was fantastic. My guests caught great numbers of fish, quality fish, and the hatches were absolutely going off in proper spring fashion. There was bwos, pmds, sallies and midges hatching throughout different parts of each day and the fish were on the chew. We saw some rain, some wind and some hail but it did not negatively affect the fishing. Rain often kick certain hatches into higher gear making the fishing even better. We have some more sporatic rain in the forecast for Redding but most days it just here and there, most days are just scattered showers and some overcast and some sun.

February 23, 2023

Lower Sac Report by Luke Geraty

Kathleen and Rich came up to fish the Trinity but we were forced to switch over to the Lower Sac after the weather turned. While we had wanted to chase steelhead, we decided we'd do our best to put some nice fish in the net and make the best out of the weather forecast. Day one fished pretty well and we put a decent amount of really nice fish in the net. There was a REALLY good BWO hatch in the afternoon and we spent about two hours hooking fish after fish. When the Lower Sac is fishing, it is a very impressive fishery. Day two was a different story altogether. But before we talk about the fishing, have you ever heard of graupel? Well apparently snow pellers (or soft hail) have a name! And we got HAMMERED by it, ha ha! The fishing was REALLY tough today, largely due to the significant weather change, but we still made it into a fun adventure and got into fish. Surprisingly there was STILL a decent BWO hatch in the afternoon, so while we were getting pelted by graupel, BWO's were floating down the river. Despite there being mayflies around, the fishing was still pretty tough and it felt like we had to force feed 'em to get 'em to eat! But we kept at it and we ended the day with some beautiful fish in the net and a great story about that one time we were crazy and still went fishing when everyone else got off the river :)

Lower Sac Hatch Chart

Mayflies
March Browns
Baetis
PMD
Callibaetis
Caddisflies
Brachycentrus
Rhyacophila
Hydropsyche
Stoneflies
Golden Stones
Giant Stoneflies
Little Yellow Stones
Other
Salmon Eggs
Steelhead Present

Jan		Feb		Mar		Apr		May		Jun		Jul		Aug		Sep		Oct		Nov		Dec

Lodging Recommendations

The Lower Sac runs right through Redding and Red Bluff. Please visit our Redding Info Page and Red Bluff Info Page for ideas on lodging, logistics, and other activities in the area.