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Home › Waters › Idaho › St. Joe River
River · Idaho Panhandle · Idaho

St. Joe River Fishing Guides

A Wild and Scenic cutthroat river in the Idaho Panhandle, gauged at Calder, floated and waded for wild westslope cutthroat on dry flies all summer.

A freestone river running through a rocky mountain valley in autumn in the Northern Rockies

Map of the St. Joe River

18 numbered points: 4 access points, 8 campsites, 1 bridge, 1 park or conservation area, 1 agency office, 1 regulation section limit, 1 USGS gauge, 1 point of interest. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 15, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (4)
  • Campsite (8)
  • Bridge crossing (1)
  • Park / conservation area (1)
  • Agency / conservation office (1)
  • Regulation section limit (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
  • Point of interest (1)
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.

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All 18 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Heller Creek Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.06519, -115.21787Uppermost Forest Service campground on the St. Joe road, at the top of the drivable river.
2Spruce Tree Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.03808, -115.34777Forest Service campground on the upper river; the St. Joe River Trail crosses just below it.
3Line Creek Stock Camp
Idaho Panhandle NF · stock camp		Campsite47.04397, -115.34968Forest Service stock camp beside the upper river, a little below Spruce Tree.
4Fly Flat Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.11286, -115.39042Forest Service campground on the upper St. Joe River Road.
5Tin Can Flat Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.23026, -115.62231Forest Service campground on the river road above Avery.
6Turner Flat Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.23668, -115.65512Forest Service campground on the river road above Avery.
7Packsaddle Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.23167, -115.73029Forest Service campground a few miles above Avery.
8Upper Landing
Idaho Panhandle NF · picnic site		Access / boat ramp47.25101, -115.78352Riverside picnic area and information board just above Avery. OSM maps it as a picnic site, not a ramp — hand launch.
9Rule boundary — North Fork St. Joe confluence
Idaho Fish and Game section limit		Regulation section limit47.25030, -115.80600Idaho splits the St. Joe here: one section runs from Coeur d'Alene Lake up to and including the North Fork, another from the North Fork upstream. Boundary only — read the current rules before you fish.
10Ruth Lindow Memorial Park
Avery		Park / conservation area47.25050, -115.80610Small riverside park in Avery, at the North Fork confluence.
11Avery Office, Idaho Panhandle National Forests
US Forest Service		Agency / conservation office47.25295, -115.91958Forest Service office on the St. Joe River Road below Avery — road, fire and campground information.
12Huckleberry Campground
Idaho Panhandle NF		Campsite47.26878, -116.08539Forest Service campground on the lower river road above Calder.
13Calder Boat Launch
Calder		Access / boat ramp47.27473, -116.18878Launch at Calder beside the county bridge; the river's USGS gauge sits at the same bend.
14USGS gauge — St. Joe River at Calder
Site 12414500		USGS gauge47.27444, -116.18889The flow reading for the whole St. Joe. Check it before you commit to a float.
15Falls Creek Falls
Falls Creek		Point of interest47.32098, -116.29759Roadside waterfall on Falls Creek just above its mouth — a landmark on the lower river road.
16Boat ramp below Saint Joe City
Unnamed slipway in OpenStreetMap		Access / boat ramp47.32365, -116.39352OSM maps a ramp here with no name; the nearest named road is Saint Joe City Road. Confirm locally before relying on it.
17Highway 3 bridge, St. Maries
St. Maries		Bridge crossing47.31720, -116.56159The last road crossing before the river runs out into Coeur d'Alene Lake.
18Silvertip Landing
Lower river · slackwater		Access / boat ramp47.36157, -116.69267Landing on the slow lower reach where the St. Joe meets Coeur d'Alene Lake.

Guides on the St. Joe 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.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the St. Joe River

The St. Joe rises in the Bitterroot divide country on the Idaho-Montana line and runs west about a hundred and forty miles through the Panhandle to Coeur d’Alene Lake, and the upper half of it is one of the most consistent wild cutthroat fisheries in the interior Northwest. The USGS gauge at Calder sits on the middle river and reports discharge and stage; there is no water temperature series, so summer thermal decisions are made on air temperature and time of day. Above Avery the river carries a Wild and Scenic designation and the character changes to pocket water and boulder gardens.

The fishery is built almost entirely on native westslope cutthroat trout, protected by catch-and-release regulations through most of the river and remarkably willing to eat a dry fly. Fish in the twelve-to-sixteen-inch range are the norm, with larger ones in the deeper canyon pools. Bull trout are present and fully protected, mountain whitefish are abundant and fish through the cold months, and a few rainbow and brook trout appear in the lower reaches. This is not a numbers-and-size river in the tailwater sense; it is a wild-fish river with a long, gentle dry fly season.

Guides run the St. Joe as a raft and drift-boat float from around Avery down through Calder toward St. Maries, with wade trips on the upper river above the floatable water. The road follows much of the corridor, so access is unusually good for a river this remote-feeling, and a great deal of the fishing is done on foot from pullouts. Outfitters in St. Maries, Avery and Coeur d’Alene run the water through a season that generally opens after runoff in late June.

Runoff is the governing factor. The St. Joe is entirely free-flowing and snowmelt-driven, running high and cold well into June in most years and dropping into ideal float and wade condition by early July. Low, warm late-August flows can push anglers to fish mornings only. Idaho licenses are required, the catch-and-release and tackle rules vary by reach, and the state regulations linked below spell out which section carries which.

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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 St. Joe 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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the St. Joe River cfs

Now: 372 cfs, read 7:30 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 12414500, ST JOE RIVER AT CALDER, ID).

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

Access

Calder river access at the USGS gauge - middle river launch and the flow reference.
Avery access - the standard upper put-in for float trips.
Huckleberry and Tumbledown campground accesses - roadside wade points on the middle river.
Marble Creek confluence access - lower float section entry.
St. Maries city access - the bottom of the guided range near the lake.
Forest Road 50 pullouts above Avery - walk-in wading on the Wild and Scenic upper river.
Red Ives area accesses - remote upper river headwater wading.

Seasons

Spring: snowmelt runoff keeps the river high and unfishable through most of May and into June.
Summer: the main season, opening after runoff with dependable dry fly fishing from July through August.
Fall: excellent September fishing as flows steady and cutthroat feed heavily before winter.
Winter: cold and largely inaccessible, with whitefish the only realistic target on open days.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the St. Joe River?

As of Nov 2, 7:30 am, the USGS gauge ST JOE RIVER AT CALDER, ID reads 372 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the St. Joe River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Bull Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Westslope Cutthroat Trout on the St. Joe River in Idaho.

Are there fishing guides on the St. Joe River?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the St. Joe River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the St. Joe River?

Calder river access at the USGS gauge - middle river launch and the flow reference. Avery access - the standard upper put-in for float trips. Huckleberry and Tumbledown campground accesses - roadside wade points on the middle river. Marble Creek confluence access - lower float section entry. St. Maries city access - the bottom of the guided range near the lake. Forest Road 50 pullouts above Avery - walk-in wading on the Wild and Scenic upper river. Red Ives area accesses - remote upper river headwater wading.

When is the best time to fish the St. Joe River?

Spring: snowmelt runoff keeps the river high and unfishable through most of May and into June. Summer: the main season, opening after runoff with dependable dry fly fishing from July through August. Fall: excellent September fishing as flows steady and cutthroat feed heavily before winter. Winter: cold and largely inaccessible, with whitefish the only realistic target on open days.

Where are the fishing regulations for the St. Joe River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Idaho agency site: https://idfg.idaho.gov/rules/fish