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Home › Waters › California › San Joaquin River
Tailwater · Central California below Friant Dam and Millerton Lake, running west from the Sierra Nevada foothills past Fresno and Madera into the San Joaquin Valley · California

San Joaquin River Fishing Guides

A cold tailwater below Friant Dam that has been rebuilt by a court-ordered restoration flow program, with wild rainbows in the upper reach and a long warmwater river below.

A concrete dam releasing water into the river below it

Map of the San Joaquin River

13 numbered points: 1 access point, 2 bait & fly shops, 5 parks and conservation areas, 1 agency office, 2 hazards, 2 USGS gauges. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Oct 23, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (1)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (2)
  • Park / conservation area (5)
  • Agency / conservation office (1)
  • Dam / hazard (2)
  • USGS gauge (2)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 13 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Friant Dam
Head of the tailwater, Millerton Lake above		Dam / hazard37.00055, -119.70511No passage. The restored flow regime on the river below starts with releases from this dam.
2USGS gauge - San Joaquin River below Friant
Site 11251000		USGS gauge36.98439, -119.72431The release gauge for the tailwater; the number to read before fishing or floating the upper reach.
3San Joaquin Hatchery
CDFW hatchery below Friant Dam		Agency / conservation office36.98893, -119.71446State trout hatchery on the north bank a short way below the dam.
4Lost Lake Recreation Area
Fresno County park below Friant Dam		Access / boat ramp36.97416, -119.73154Day-use park and campground on the first river bend below the dam; the usual starting point for the upper tailwater.
5Lost Lake Drive Inn & Tackle Shop
Tackle on the Lost Lake road		Bait, tackle & fly shop36.97431, -119.72518Small tackle counter and drive-in on the approach to Lost Lake, the closest shop to the dam.
6K'uik'ui Ranch (formerly Ball Ranch)
San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust		Park / conservation area36.93849, -119.73859Parkway property with river frontage and trails on the gravel-pit reach.
7Jensen River Ranch
San Joaquin River Conservancy		Park / conservation area36.87606, -119.78434Conservancy river ranch at the Fresno end of the Parkway, with trail and bank access.
8Eaton Trail Park
Fresno County Parks		Park / conservation area36.87984, -119.77984Trailhead park on the bluff above the river, linking the Parkway properties.
9Woodward Park
City of Fresno		Park / conservation area36.86737, -119.78526Large city park on the south bluff; the main parking and trail entry to the Fresno river reach.
10Sportsman's Warehouse
Tackle and licenses, Friant Road		Bait, tackle & fly shop36.85605, -119.78261Nearest full tackle counter to the Parkway, on Friant Road above Woodward Park.
11Mendota Dam
Bottom of the restored reach		Dam / hazard36.78812, -120.37279Diversion dam forming Mendota Pool. No passage; the restoration flows are routed out of the river here.
12Mendota Pool Park
Bank access at Mendota Pool		Park / conservation area36.77953, -120.37336Small public park on the pool above the dam.
13USGS gauge - San Joaquin River near Mendota
Site 11254000		USGS gauge36.81050, -120.37823Lower gauge on the restored reach, above Mendota Dam.

Guides on the San Joaquin River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

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About the San Joaquin River

The San Joaquin below Friant Dam is one of the most closely managed rivers in California, and it fishes better now than it has in most living anglers’ memory. Water leaves the bottom of Millerton Lake cold and clear, and the first several miles below the dam hold a genuine tailwater trout fishery on a river that for decades ran dry a short distance downstream. The San Joaquin River Restoration Program has been putting water back down the channel since 2009 under a settlement that ended nearly twenty years of litigation, and the reach has responded with better insect life, better holding water and better fish.

The upper tailwater is the trout water. Rainbows hold in the riffle corners and the deeper glides in the first eight or ten miles, and they are strong, well fed and used to steady flow rather than seasonal collapse. There are brown trout in the mix. Below the trout reach the river turns warm and slow, and the fishery becomes striped bass, black bass and catfish through the valley bottom. Guided trips split along the same line: fly work and light spinning gear up high, and bass and striper fishing on the lower river.

The gauge sits immediately below Friant Dam and reports discharge, stage and water temperature, which makes it unusually useful here. Restoration releases are scheduled rather than weather-driven, so flow can change sharply on a management calendar with no rain anywhere in the watershed. Read the gauge before driving, and read it again the morning of a trip. Access below the dam is a patchwork of public river parks and private valley farmland, and a great deal of the middle river cannot legally be reached from the bank.

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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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the San Joaquin River cfs

Now: 396 cfs, read 5:30 am CDT, Sat Oct 24, 2026 (USGS 11251000, SAN JOAQUIN R BL FRIANT CA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Lost Lake Recreation Area below Friant Dam - the main public access to the cold tailwater reach.
Winchell Cove and the Millerton Lake south shore - launching for the impoundment above the dam.
Camp Pashayan and the Fresno river parks - bank access along the north Fresno reach.
Highway 41 river access near Lanes Bridge - walk-in water and a common float take-out.
Sycamore Island - fee access to a long stretch of the middle river through private ground.
Skaggs Bridge Park near Kerman - lower-river bank fishing and small-boat launching.
Mendota Pool and Highway 180 - warmwater access on the lower river for stripers and catfish.

Seasons

Spring: strong restoration releases and good trout fishing in the tailwater, with stripers moving up the lower river.
Summer: cold water holds in the upper reach while the valley river warms hard - fish early and high.
Fall: falling releases, clearer water and the best wading conditions of the year below the dam.
Winter: low, stable flows, technical trout fishing up top and a quiet lower river.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the San Joaquin River?

As of Oct 24, 5:30 am, the USGS gauge SAN JOAQUIN R BL FRIANT CA reads 396 cfs, with water temperature 56.7 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the San Joaquin River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Sacramento Pikeminnow, Sacramento Sucker, Smallmouth Bass, Striped Bass on the San Joaquin River in California.

Are there fishing guides on the San Joaquin River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the San Joaquin River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the San Joaquin River?

Lost Lake Recreation Area below Friant Dam - the main public access to the cold tailwater reach. Winchell Cove and the Millerton Lake south shore - launching for the impoundment above the dam. Camp Pashayan and the Fresno river parks - bank access along the north Fresno reach. Highway 41 river access near Lanes Bridge - walk-in water and a common float take-out. Sycamore Island - fee access to a long stretch of the middle river through private ground. Skaggs Bridge Park near Kerman - lower-river bank fishing and small-boat launching. Mendota Pool and Highway 180 - warmwater access on the lower...

When is the best time to fish the San Joaquin River?

Spring: strong restoration releases and good trout fishing in the tailwater, with stripers moving up the lower river. Summer: cold water holds in the upper reach while the valley river warms hard - fish early and high. Fall: falling releases, clearer water and the best wading conditions of the year below the dam. Winter: low, stable flows, technical trout fishing up top and a quiet lower river.

Where are the fishing regulations for the San Joaquin River?

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