Beta

GuidedFloats is in beta. The full site launches March 1, 2027. The mobile app follows.

Guides: claim before March 1, 2027 and your first full season of Premium is free. Claim your founding spot →

Log in List your guide serviceFor guides
Home › Waters › Idaho › Clearwater River
River · North Central Idaho · Idaho

Clearwater River Fishing Guides

Idaho's big-fish steelhead river, running from Orofino and Lewiston to the Snake, home of the B-run steelhead that reach twenty pounds, and a strong summer cutthroat fishery on the forks.

A river running below a distant mountain range in the Rockies

Map of the Clearwater River

24 numbered points: 14 access points, 3 campsites, 1 bait & fly shop, 5 parks and conservation areas, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 15, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (14)
  • Campsite (3)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (1)
  • Park / conservation area (5)
  • USGS gauge (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.

Open the printable map
All 24 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Kooskia Bridge Boat Ramp
Kooskia		Access / boat ramp46.14682, -115.98029Ramp at the top of the main stem, where the Middle Fork and South Fork meet.
2River Junction RV Park
Private		Campsite46.15005, -115.97620RV park at the forks in Kooskia.
3Button Beach Boat Ramp
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.16629, -115.99579Ramp below Kooskia on the first main-stem reach.
4Nez Perce National Historical Park — Heart of the Monster
National Park Service		Park / conservation area46.21266, -116.00605Nez Perce origin site on the river above Kamiah; interpretive stop, not an access.
5Riverfront Park
Kamiah		Park / conservation area46.22947, -116.01857Riverside park in Kamiah beside the city ramp.
6Kamiah City Park Boat Ramp
Kamiah		Access / boat ramp46.23057, -116.01880City ramp at Kamiah — the usual mid-river put-in.
7Long Camp Boat Ramp
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.27666, -116.09778Ramp at Long Camp on the run down to Fivemile.
8Fivemile Access
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.35572, -116.16410Bank and boat access on the Greer reach.
9Zans Access
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.41848, -116.20588Access above Orofino.
10Orofino City Park
Orofino		Park / conservation area46.47859, -116.25662Riverside park in Orofino.
11Ahsahka Access
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.49991, -116.31471Access at Ahsahka, just below the North Fork confluence — the steelhead hole of the lower river.
12Nez Perce National Historical Park — Canoe Camp
National Park Service		Park / conservation area46.50114, -116.33000Where the Corps of Discovery built its canoes; riverside interpretive site, not a ramp.
13Pink House Campground
US Army Corps of Engineers		Campsite46.50340, -116.34754Campground at the Pink House recreation site.
14Pink House Boat Ramp
US Army Corps of Engineers		Access / boat ramp46.50273, -116.35126Ramp at the Pink House site below Ahsahka.
15Harpers Bend Access
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.49133, -116.45029Access on the long bend below Pink House.
16Lenore Rest Area Boat Ramp
Highway 12 rest area		Access / boat ramp46.50888, -116.56326Ramp at the Lenore rest area — easy highway access.
17Cherrylane Boat Ramp
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.51210, -116.68402Ramp at Cherrylane on the lower river.
18McKay's Bend Recreation Site
US Army Corps of Engineers		Campsite46.49757, -116.72731Campground and day-use area on the lower river.
19Gibbs Eddy Boat Ramp
US Army Corps of Engineers		Access / boat ramp46.47944, -116.75331Ramp at Gibbs Eddy below McKay's Bend.
20USGS gauge — Clearwater River at Spalding
Site 13342500		USGS gauge46.44833, -116.82750The lower-river flow reading, below the North Fork and Dworshak releases.
21Upper Hog Boat Ramp
Idaho Fish and Game		Access / boat ramp46.44676, -116.86063Ramp on the reach above Lewiston.
22Steelhead Park Boat Ramp
Lewiston		Access / boat ramp46.43005, -116.98352Ramp at Steelhead Park on the edge of Lewiston.
23Lewiston Levee Park
Lewiston		Park / conservation area46.42153, -117.01604Levee greenbelt along the last mile before the Snake confluence.
24Follett's Mountain Sports
Lewiston		Bait, tackle & fly shop46.42139, -117.02395Tackle and outdoor shop in Lewiston — licences, gear and river information.

Guides on the Clearwater 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.

About the Clearwater River

The Clearwater drains the Bitterroot front in north central Idaho and joins the Snake at Lewiston. Its reputation rests on one thing: the B-run steelhead. These fish spend two years in the ocean instead of one and come back at sizes that no other inland fishery in the lower forty-eight matches, with fish in the mid-teens common in a good year and twenty-pounders a real possibility. Fly anglers swing for them from October into December and again in spring, and the river has become a pilgrimage.

Beyond steelhead, the Clearwater system is excellent trout water. The North Fork below Dworshak Dam is a cold tailwater, and the Lochsa and Selway, which join to form the Middle Fork at Lowell, are among the best westslope cutthroat rivers anywhere: wilderness-quality water along Highway 12 with big cutthroat that eat dry flies all summer. The main stem below Orofino also holds a good smallmouth population that most visitors ignore.

Seasons and rules for steelhead and chinook are set annually from run forecasts and can change or close, so check current regulations rather than assuming last year’s dates apply.

The Spalding gauge reads the whole system near the mouth. This is a big river; flows in the several thousand to tens of thousands of cfs range are normal, with a heavy spring snowmelt peak. Fall steelhead flows are moderate and clear, which is why the swinging season is so well regarded.

Lewiston, Orofino and Kamiah are the towns. Lewiston is the lowest-elevation city in Idaho and has a mild enough climate to make a December steelhead trip pleasant.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Clearwater River.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

Add a photo of this water See the badges

Pioneer badgeUnclaimed

Add a photo of this water

Landscape, not fish — the water itself. Reviewed by hand before it appears. The first one published here earns the Pioneer badge.

Never published. It is how the badge is held for you until member accounts open.

Posting to Clearwater River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. Landscape orientation looks best at the top of the page. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name printed under the photo and on your badge. 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.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Clearwater 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 Clearwater River cfs

Now: 3,090 cfs, read 3:00 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 13342500, CLEARWATER RIVER AT SPALDING ID).

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

Access

Lewiston and the Snake confluence: the bottom of the river, ramps and lodging.
Spalding and the Nez Perce National Historical Park: access near the gauge.
Lenore and Peck: middle river boat ramps in prime steelhead water.
Orofino and the North Fork confluence: access below Dworshak Dam.
Kamiah and Kooskia: upper main stem accesses.
Lowell, Lochsa and Selway: Highway 12 access to the cutthroat forks.
Parts of the river run through the Nez Perce Reservation; tribal rules apply in places.

Seasons

October through December: the main B-run steelhead season, the reason most anglers come.
January through April: spring steelhead as seasons allow; check current rules.
May and June: high snowmelt, chinook seasons in some years.
July through September: prime cutthroat fishing on the Lochsa and Selway, smallmouth on the main stem.

From the water

No logged trips yet. Be the first to put this water on your map.

Log this water

Fished it or cleaned it? Log in or create a free account to log a trip with photos and earn the waterway badge.

Questions

What is the current flow on the Clearwater River?

As of Oct 19, 3:00 am, the USGS gauge CLEARWATER RIVER AT SPALDING ID reads 3,090 cfs, the 26th percentile for this date, with water temperature 52.2 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Clearwater River?

Anglers target Chinook Salmon, Mountain Whitefish, Smallmouth Bass, Steelhead, Westslope Cutthroat Trout on the Clearwater River in Idaho.

Are there fishing guides on the Clearwater River?

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

Where can you access the Clearwater River?

Lewiston and the Snake confluence: the bottom of the river, ramps and lodging. Spalding and the Nez Perce National Historical Park: access near the gauge. Lenore and Peck: middle river boat ramps in prime steelhead water. Orofino and the North Fork confluence: access below Dworshak Dam. Kamiah and Kooskia: upper main stem accesses. Lowell, Lochsa and Selway: Highway 12 access to the cutthroat forks. Parts of the river run through the Nez Perce Reservation; tribal rules apply in places.

When is the best time to fish the Clearwater River?

October through December: the main B-run steelhead season, the reason most anglers come. January through April: spring steelhead as seasons allow; check current rules. May and June: high snowmelt, chinook seasons in some years. July through September: prime cutthroat fishing on the Lochsa and Selway, smallmouth on the main stem.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Clearwater River?

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