How many Chinook salmon swam up the Stanislaus past Riverbank last fall? A crew from Oakdale counted them. FISHBIO, the fisheries consulting firm with California offices in Oakdale and Chico, recorded more than 7,998 Chinook passing its Stanislaus River weir in 2025. The year before, its 2024 count was 3,486. That works out to about 2.3 times as many fish in a single year, on a river that passes within minutes of downtown Oakdale.
Most people around here know there's a salmon festival at Knights Ferry in November. Fewer think of the run as something that lasts for weeks. Over that time the fish work their way up a long stretch of river, and nearly all of it sits in parks you can drive to after work. The festival on Saturday, November 14 falls right in that window. It's a good first visit, and there's plenty of river to come back to afterward.
A local count with a long track record
FISHBIO's weir near Riverbank has tracked returning salmon every year since the program started in 1993, according to the company's 2026 profile of the river. That's more than three decades of counts from a firm based in town. It's one of the less-known ways Oakdale shows up in California fisheries science.
The 2025 total of 7,998+ is FISHBIO's latest full-year number, published in its 2025 year in review in January 2026. No 2026 total has been released yet, and that's normal in October because the run is still arriving. The 2025 count shows how large a return this river carried as recently as last fall.
Where the festival falls in the run
The most detailed timeline comes from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Its 2022 Stanislaus carcass survey covered about 26 miles of river, from below Goodwin Dam down to Jacob Myers Park in Riverbank. Crews surveyed from October 4, 2022 through January 12, 2023.
That season happened in two overlapping stages:
- Live fish peaked in weeks six through eight of the survey. Counted from the October 4 start, that's roughly the second through fourth weeks of November.
- Redds peaked in weeks eight through ten. Redds are the gravel nests females dig to lay eggs, and their peak ran from late November into early December.
- Surveys went on into January, well after most people had stopped thinking about salmon.
That was one year, and every run keeps its own schedule. Still, the pattern explains the festival date. If 2026 follows anything like it, November 14 lands near the high point for seeing live fish, and nest-building on the gravel bars would continue for a couple of weeks after the booths come down.
River flow is the other thing to keep an eye on. In October 2026, the Goodwin Dam release schedule posted on Dreamflows called for 600 cfs from October 1 through 5 and 700 cfs from October 6 through 20. Dreamflows cautions that these are expected releases, not guarantees, and says a change at the dam takes about four hours to reach Orange Blossom Bridge. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers links to current river level readings from the California Data Exchange Center on its Stanislaus River Parks page, so you can check conditions before you go.
November 14 at Knights Ferry
The 16th annual Stanislaus River Salmon Festival is set for Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Knights Ferry Recreation Area, according to Visit Modesto. The myMotherLode event listing describes it as a free family event with live music, local food and craft vendors, salmon viewing, educational exhibits and hands-on activities.
Organizers haven't posted 2026 details on parking, vendors or the exhibitor list yet. The Visit Modesto listing sends readers to the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District's social media for updates. Earlier coverage in the Escalon Times named the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the East Stanislaus RCD and FISHBIO among the groups behind the festival.
Last year gives a good idea of the format. Here's how the Oakdale Leader described the 2025 festival:
"This free, family-friendly event will feature more than 40 natural resource exhibitors, plus a live bald eagle."
The Leader reported that admission was free in 2025, while parking in the Army Corps lots at Knights Ferry cost $10. Cars displaying a USACE or America the Beautiful pass parked free. The 2025 lineup included Native American drummers, fly-casting demonstrations, pet adoptions, free fish-print T-shirts for kids, and a noon awards ceremony for the festival's calendar art contest for local K-8 students. Calendars sold for $10 each or two for $15, with proceeds going to the festival and the contest. In 2024, the Leader reported more than 50 exhibitors and vendors plus mini guided rafting tours.
All of that describes past years. If parking cost matters to you, plan for the 2025 arrangement but check the RCD's posts that week. A pass on the dashboard is the simplest way to skip the fee if the same rules apply.
Picking a spot along 26 miles of river
The festival is one place to see salmon, and the survey stretch runs from below Goodwin Dam all the way to Riverbank. Most of the public access in between belongs to the Army Corps of Engineers' Stanislaus River Parks. The Oakdale Leader's June 2026 rundown of river access points lists Knights Ferry Recreation Area, Horseshoe Park, Orange Blossom Park, Valley Oak, Oakdale Recreation Area and Jacob Myers Park in Riverbank.
Here's the current status on the Army Corps' recreation listing for the project, going from upriver to down:
- Knights Ferry North and South: open. This is the festival site and the farthest upriver of the group.
- Horseshoe Road: open.
- Orange Blossom: open. It's also the reference point Dreamflows uses for the four-hour lag after a release change at the dam.
- Oakdale Recreation Area: open. It's the closest to town for a quick evening visit.
- Valley Oak: open.
- McHenry: partially open, with the boat ramp marked closed.
Jacob Myers Park in Riverbank marks the bottom of the CDFW survey reach.
Two notes before you pack a picnic. The Corps' fire restriction at Stanislaus River Parks runs through October 31, so until then only white-gas stoves are allowed, with no wood or charcoal fires. And the Knights Ferry Covered Bridge is still listed as closed for repairs. The Corps' most recent detailed notice on the bridge, from December 2022, describes design and construction contracts but gives no reopening date. The recreation area is open, but the bridge isn't part of the walk for now.
Making an afternoon of Knights Ferry
Knights Ferry has a small set of businesses, and several of them have been busy this fall. The Oakdale Leader's October 14 Knights Ferry News column said Knights Ferry Creamery, Knights Ferry Art Studio and Knights Ferry Vintage would be open for the October 17 Knight at the Museum fundraiser. The same column listed a Halloween party at River's Edge Restaurant on October 30. River's Edge also held a sushi-rolling class on October 21, a $40 class the Leader's October 7 column announced.
The Knights Ferry General Store, Saloon and Spoon's Cafe & Deli hosted a Willy Tea Taylor show on October 13, according to JamBase. Hours change with the season out there, so call ahead before you plan lunch around a particular stop.
The rafting outfitters run on a different calendar from the fish. Sunshine Rafting's site says its 2026 season is over and it plans to reopen in June 2027. The salmon arrive after the summer rafting crowd has left.
That's one more reason to come back after the festival. On November 14, Knights Ferry will be busy with exhibitors, food and families. If the 2022 pattern holds, late November into early December is when redds peak along the reach, and Orange Blossom and the Oakdale Recreation Area are both listed as open.
Lisa works with ranchette and acreage buyers across the Oakdale area, so questions about river access and water come with the job. If a fall afternoon at Orange Blossom has you curious about what it's like to own property near the Stanislaus, or about how water and access work on an acreage parcel east of town, reach out to Lisa Vandermeer. Schedule a Free Consultation, and bring your questions about the river along with your questions about the property.
