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Home › Waters › California › Nacimiento River
Tailwater · Southern Monterey County, the reach below Nacimiento Dam running northeast through oak country to the Salinas River at Bradley · California

Nacimiento River Fishing Guides

A short central-coast tailwater below Nacimiento Dam, running through oak country to the Salinas and fished mainly for bass and catfish on release flows.

A red drift boat on a moss-lined river in the Pacific Northwest
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Nacimiento River

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About the Nacimiento River

The Nacimiento River below Nacimiento Dam is a modest, honest piece of water and worth describing as what it is rather than what a famous tailwater would be. Above the dam the river drains the Santa Lucia Range through steep chaparral country; below it, the reach runs roughly ten miles northeast through oak savanna and gravel bars to join the Salinas River near Bradley. Monterey County operates the dam for water supply and groundwater recharge in the Salinas Valley, which means the reach below it exists on a release schedule set for agriculture rather than for fish.

That schedule shapes the fishing completely. When releases are running, the river is a cool, clear, wadeable stream with genuine pools and riffles and a real warmwater fishery: largemouth and smallmouth bass, spotted bass, bluegill and channel catfish moving up out of the Salinas and holding in the deeper bends. Rainbow trout show below the dam when releases are cold and sustained, though this is not a managed trout tailwater and nobody should plan a trip around them. When releases stop in the dry season, long stretches go to disconnected pools or dry gravel. Access is the other honest caveat: much of the corridor is private ranch land, and the practical public fishing is at the county park below the dam, the bridge crossings and the Salinas confluence area.

The gauge below the dam is the only reliable way to know what you will find, and on this river it is a release readout rather than a weather readout. A flat trace near zero means the reach is not running. A steady elevated trace means the recharge releases are on and the river is worth the drive. Step changes with no rain upstream are dam operations, not storms. There is no temperature sensor at this site, so it tells you whether there is water and nothing about the bite.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Nacimiento River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Lake Nacimiento Resort area below the dam - the practical public access at the top of the reach.
Nacimiento Lake Drive crossings - roadside bank access along the upper reach.
Bradley area bridges - lower river access near the Salinas confluence.
Salinas River confluence at Bradley - walk-in access to the mouth.
Interlake Road crossings - alternate mid-reach access points.
San Antonio Lake vicinity roads - approach access from the adjoining drainage.
County road pullouts above Bradley - limited roadside walk-in fishing.

Seasons

Spring: the best flows of the year and the most reliable fishing on the reach.
Summer: dependent entirely on recharge releases, and dry in stretches when they stop.
Fall: low and often disconnected, with fish held in the deeper pools.
Winter: storm flows can make the river high and off-color for days at a time.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Nacimiento River?

As of Sep 17, 5:00 am, the USGS gauge NACIMIENTO R BL NACIMIENTO DAM NR BRADLEY CA reads 387 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Nacimiento River?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass on the Nacimiento River in California.

Where can you access the Nacimiento River?

Lake Nacimiento Resort area below the dam - the practical public access at the top of the reach. Nacimiento Lake Drive crossings - roadside bank access along the upper reach. Bradley area bridges - lower river access near the Salinas confluence. Salinas River confluence at Bradley - walk-in access to the mouth. Interlake Road crossings - alternate mid-reach access points. San Antonio Lake vicinity roads - approach access from the adjoining drainage. County road pullouts above Bradley - limited roadside walk-in fishing.

When is the best time to fish the Nacimiento River?

Spring: the best flows of the year and the most reliable fishing on the reach. Summer: dependent entirely on recharge releases, and dry in stretches when they stop. Fall: low and often disconnected, with fish held in the deeper pools. Winter: storm flows can make the river high and off-color for days at a time.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Nacimiento River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations