Fishing the confluence at Discovery Park, and where to eat after
Two miles from the Capitol, the American River meets the Sacramento at Discovery Park, and the point where they join fishes stripers in spring and fall, shad in late spring, catfish all summer, and the salmon moving up the American in fall. County parking is $8, the licence is $64.54, and the striper limit is two at 18 inches. A guest guide from Smells Like Fish, ending at three downtown tables a mile away.
Two miles north of the Capitol, the American River comes out of the Sierra and joins the Sacramento at the tip of Discovery Park, a Sacramento County park with a boat ramp, a levee, and a gravel point where the two currents meet. Visit Sacramento lists the park for “salmon, steelhead, and striped bass,” and the anglers who fish it fill in the calendar: American shad on the seams in late spring, stripers in spring and again in fall, catfish through the summer, and the fall-run salmon moving through on their way up the American. Parking is $8. This is the fishing half of a day that never leaves the city limits. The eating half is at the end, downtown, a mile from the park.
I write the guides on Smells Like Fish, a bait and tackle site, and I am a guest here. Top of Sacramento asked for the water. They supplied the tables.
The day, in order
Be on the point at first light with a medium-heavy rod, a slip-sinker rig, and a chunk of cut sardine or a live minnow for the stripers and the catfish, and a light rod with a shad dart if it is May or June. Fish the seam where the clear American meets the slower Sacramento, then the levee edges as the sun gets up. Late morning, drive back through Old Sacramento for lunch. If you want an afternoon, Miller Regional Park, three miles south of downtown on the Sacramento, is free with a big lot and fishes salmon, stripers, and sturgeon by season, or Paradise Beach on the American at Glenn Hall Park is five miles of trout and steelhead gravel bar. In fall, the salmon run up through the park on the 2026 rule the state adopted in May: two a day and four in possession on every reach, the Sacramento here from July 16 to December 16 and the lower American from the SMUD power line at the bottom of Ancil Hoffman Park down to the Jibboom Street Bridge from July 16 to December 31. Dinner is downtown, on K Street.
What is in the water
Striped bass, two a day at an 18-inch minimum under the state code, which counts a striper-white bass hybrid as a striper. They run up in spring and again in fall. American shad in late spring, on darts and small jigs. Channel catfish all summer on the bottom. Chinook salmon in fall, on the reach rules: two a day and four in possession on every reach under the state regulations updated July 10, 2026: the Sacramento from the Highway 113 bridge near Knights Landing to the Carquinez Bridge, which covers the confluence, from July 16 to December 16; the American from the hatchery cable crossing to the SMUD power line July 16 to October 31 with barbless hooks, from the power line to Jibboom Street July 16 to December 31, and from Jibboom Street to the mouth July 16 to December 16. Steelhead and rainbow trout year-round on the American, with the rule that wild fish with an intact adipose fin go back and only clipped hatchery fish may be kept, on barbless hooks. White sturgeon in the deep bends in winter, catch-and-release only, October 1 to June 30, with the state’s sturgeon report card.
Where to fish from shore
- Discovery Park, 2 miles: the confluence point and the levee edges, $8 county parking, $11 on holiday weekends.
- Miller Regional Park, 3 miles: free city park on the Sacramento, salmon, stripers, sturgeon by season.
- Garcia Bend Park and Freeport, 10 miles: the best in-city bank on the Sacramento and the bridge below it; year-round stripers, salmon and shad runs, catfish.
- Paradise Beach and Sutter’s Landing, 5 miles: the lower American gravel bars inside the city for trout, steelhead, and shad.
- Ancil Hoffman, Sailor Bar, and the Nimbus basin, 11 to 19 miles: the American River Parkway trout and steelhead runs, $8, with the hatchery open to visitors at the top.
- Lake Natoma, Nimbus Flat, 20 miles: an accessible pier on a 500-acre, 5-mph afterbay, $10.
Licences, fees, and the limits
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife sells a resident licence for $64.54 a year, a nonresident for $174.14 or $64.54 for ten days, and one- and two-day licences at $21.09 and $32.40, plus $20.26 for a second rod. Under 16 fishes free. Sturgeon anglers need the report card, free for the 2025-26 season and $8.13 from 2026-27. Sacramento County charges $8 a vehicle at Discovery Park and the Parkway lots, $11 on the four summer holiday weekends, $70 a year; Miller Park and Garcia Bend are free; Folsom Lake is $12 at Beals Point and Granite Bay; Rancho Seco, 37 miles out with trout stocked November through March, is $15 a car plus a $5 fishing fee and releases every bass. Fresh water statewide is five trout, no limit on catfish, five bass at 12 inches, and 25 sunfish and crappie combined.
The gear side
Which cut bait the river stripers take, how to rig a shad dart for the seam, what the fin clip on a steelhead means before you decide to keep it, and how to read the Freeport gauge to know when the sturgeon are in: that is my beat, and it does not belong on a restaurant site. The full Sacramento fishing guide on Smells Like Fish has the map of all 14 spots with drive times from downtown, the live Sacramento River temperature and American River flow, the licence and report card links, the 2026 salmon reaches, the Parkway, Folsom, Natoma, Rancho Seco, and the Delta, and the tackle list.
Where to eat after
The Jibboom Street bridge lands you in Old Sacramento, and K Street is four blocks on. These three are on the Top of Sacramento downtown list. The scores are theirs, not mine.
Sources. California Department of Fish and Wildlife licence fees, the striped bass regulation (14 CCR 5.75), the white sturgeon catch-and-release rules and report card, and the 2026 American River salmon reaches; Sacramento County Regional Parks fees; California State Parks, Folsom Lake State Recreation Area; Rocky Mountain Recreation, Rancho Seco; Visit Sacramento and Fishingbooker on Discovery Park, Miller Park, and the seasonal calendar; Sportfishing Report on Garcia Bend. Drive distances computed on OpenStreetMap roads from downtown Sacramento.
Ray Dodson writes for Smells Like Fish. Ray is the pen name of that site's research desk: every recommendation is built from documented angler consensus, state fish and wildlife guidance, and published testing, with sources named in every article. This piece was written for Top of Sacramento.
