Camp Roberts, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the border of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, has one of the only fishable rivers the Central Coast of California has to offer. Look past the bunkers, barbed wire and that tank nicknamed "The Widowmaker," and you'll find the Nacimiento River at Camp Roberts is an extraordinary fishery where the rainbows can rise all season long.
Just be sure to remember there are some limitations when it comes to fishing on a national guard training post:
- it's only open to anglers on weekends and some holidays from April 24-Oct. 24;
- there's an annual fee of $15 for the season;
- fishing is only permitted from Gate 3 to the Twin Bridges; and
- the post may be closed on short notice due to military activities.
But once your waders hit the water, the National Guard activities take a backseat to dancing fish, tiptoeing whitetail, bantering beavers and even an occasional bald eagle soaring overhead.
History lesson
Camp Roberts lies on the flat and once-fertile juncture of the Nacimiento and Salinas rivers. A land that was originally inhabited by the Chumash and Salinan Indian nations, which hunted, fished and collected in the region until Spanish explorers arrived in the 1760s.
The land changed hands numerous times following Mexico's independence from Spain in 1826 and the U.S. took control when California was admitted to the union in 1850.
Nearly 90 years later, with World War II looming, construction of the Camp Nacimiento Replacement Training Center began. The name of the camp was later renamed in honor of Corporal Harold W. Roberts, a tank driver who died trying to save a wounded gunner during the war.
Camp Roberts was eventually closed in 1970 and a year later it was given to the National Guard as a reserve training center. Today, the camp is still used as a national guard training post, although training is at a minimum when the post is open to anglers and hunters.
Hot spots
The Nacimiento is riffle-and-run stream with few deep pools. The runoff from the lake keeps the river cool and swift despite depths of only two to five feet in the late spring and summer, which makes waders are a good idea. Gravel and sandy bottoms provide a good wade-and-walk opportunity for much of the river.
My favorite stretches of the river are some of the easiest to locate. The first is above High Water Bridge, located near check-in Gate No. 3. About a mile upstream, southwest of the entrance, the Low Water Bridge provides deeper pools for bigger fish but also attracts a good chunk of the anglers as well.
Travel two more miles upstream and you'll run into the Twin Bridges, where the California Department of Fish and Game makes most of its plants. Fishing pressure is greatest here, but get downstream and you'll stumble across riffles that are as gentile and genuine as they were for the Chumash.
