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Now’s the best time to see salmon at Nimbus Fish Hatchery; trout’s arrival around corner

Rain and storms, while they could wash out fish eggs if the water level changed significantly, are typically good for the chinook salmon and steelhead trout at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Gold River.

Storms feeds cold freshwater to the American River, which encourages fish to swim upriver, and this occurs most often in October and November. The Folsom Dam prevents substantial water level shifts, according to Laura Drath, the interpretive services supervisor for the Sacramento region of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Rain also keeps temperatures cold — the water needs to be less than 60 degrees for salmon and trout eggs to survive.


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The Nimbus Fish Hatchery is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Drath said there are windows in the visitors center to watch the egg takings on Monday and Thursday mornings, and staff are on hand to answer questions. Visitors can feed fish in the raceway ponds; the ponds close at 2:30 p.m. daily.

While the hatchery is not planning any special events for the holidays, the peak of the salmon run began at Thanksgiving and will taper off around Christmas, according to Drath. She said the next week is some of the best times to come out and see the chinook salmon, the largest species of the Pacific genus.

If you happen to miss the salmon, the steelhead trout appears in the fish ladder around the end of the year through March, when that species’ spawning season ends.

The hatchery is located at 2001 Nimbus Road, just off Hazel Avenue and Gold Country Boulevard.