Colusa Fishing Guides

Fishing in Colusa, California revolves around the Sacramento River, one of the state’s premier inland fisheries. The town’s riverside location makes it a central launch point for guided trips, with boats often putting in at Colusa State Park or the city’s boat ramp. Most charters run half-day or full-day, focusing on the migratory species that push upriver, but local guides also run catfish and sturgeon trips that stick closer to town.

The Sacramento here is broad and powerful, lined with levees, gravel bars, and deep holes that create prime holding water. Striped bass show up in strong numbers each spring, feeding along current seams and sandbars. Trolling plugs, drifting live bait, and casting swimbaits all take fish. Come late summer into fall, Chinook salmon dominate the scene, with guides backtrolling plugs, drifting roe, or anchoring with bait to intercept fish pushing upstream.

Catfish and sturgeon are year-round residents. Sturgeon prefer the deeper holes and are usually targeted with heavier rigs and cured baits like lamprey or roe. Catfish fishing is steady through the warm months, especially at night when they move shallow onto sand flats. Local captains know the river’s channels and flows well, adjusting runs to chase schools of stripers or holding over prime salmon slots.

Run distances are short. In spring, guides may only run a few miles to intercept stripers staging in town. Salmon trips often cover longer stretches, working from Colusa downriver toward Grimes or upriver toward Butte City, depending on the bite. Water clarity and flow play a big role, with spring snowmelt and fall rains dictating where fish hold.

The Colusa stretch of the Sacramento offers something different each season: stripers in spring, salmon in fall, steady catfish through summer, and the chance at a big white sturgeon any time of year. For freshwater anglers, it’s a river system with options, and guides here have dialed in the seasonal shifts.