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Home › Waters › South Carolina › Saluda River
Tailwater · Midlands · South Carolina

Saluda River Fishing Guides

Ten miles of cold tailwater below Lake Murray Dam through Columbia, an improbable trout river in the South Carolina Midlands with striped bass in the same runs.

A river bending away below forested hills in the Appalachians
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Saluda 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 Saluda River

The Lower Saluda should not have trout in it. It runs through Columbia, in the middle of South Carolina, where summer air temperatures sit in the nineties for weeks. But the bottom release from Lake Murray comes out cold, and the ten miles from the dam to the confluence with the Broad at Columbia hold stocked brown and rainbow trout year-round, along with striped bass, largemouth and catfish. It is one of the strangest and most convenient fisheries in the Southeast.

The river above the I-26 bridge is the coldest water and the most trout-focused, fished from drift boats and from the bank at Saluda Shoals Park. Downstream the water warms slightly and the striper fishing takes over, especially in summer when fish stack below the dam in the cold plume. Whitewater kayakers use the same water, and the lower section through Columbia has genuine class III rapids at higher generation.

Generation from Lake Murray drives everything. Low flow means wadeable shoals and clear water; a full generation release turns the river into fast, deep, brown current within about an hour of the dam opening. The gauge below the dam is the number to watch, and anyone wading the shoals needs to know both the reading and the schedule, because the rise is quick and the shoals are a bad place to be caught by it.

Columbia is the base and everything is fifteen minutes from downtown, which makes this an easy add-on to a work trip. Saluda Shoals Park and the Three Rivers Greenway provide most of the public bank access.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Saluda 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.

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  • 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 Saluda 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 Saluda River cfs

Now: 2,400 cfs, read 3:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 02168504, SALUDA RIVER BELOW LK MURRAY DAM NR COLUMBIA, SC).

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

Access

Lake Murray Dam tailrace: the top of the cold water, bank access and parking.
Saluda Shoals Park: the main public access, boat launch, trails and river frontage.
Hope Ferry Landing: upper river ramp used by most guided floats.
Corley Island and Gardendale: mid-river shoal and wade access.
I-20 and I-26 corridor accesses: mid-river put-ins and takeouts.
Riverbanks Zoo and the Three Rivers Greenway: lower river bank access in Columbia.
Millrace Rapids and the Broad confluence: the bottom of the run, whitewater at generation.

Seasons

Year-round trout fishing, unusual for this latitude.
March through May: the best trout months, stocking and moderate flows.
June through August: striped bass below the dam and cold water when nothing else is.
September through February: trout again as air temperatures drop, low generation and quiet water.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Saluda River?

As of Oct 19, 3:30 am, the USGS gauge SALUDA RIVER BELOW LK MURRAY DAM NR COLUMBIA, SC reads 2,400 cfs, the 78th percentile for this date, with water temperature 60.1 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Saluda River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Striped Bass on the Saluda River in South Carolina.

Are there fishing guides on the Saluda River?

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

Where can you access the Saluda River?

Lake Murray Dam tailrace: the top of the cold water, bank access and parking. Saluda Shoals Park: the main public access, boat launch, trails and river frontage. Hope Ferry Landing: upper river ramp used by most guided floats. Corley Island and Gardendale: mid-river shoal and wade access. I-20 and I-26 corridor accesses: mid-river put-ins and takeouts. Riverbanks Zoo and the Three Rivers Greenway: lower river bank access in Columbia. Millrace Rapids and the Broad confluence: the bottom of the run, whitewater at generation.

When is the best time to fish the Saluda River?

Year-round trout fishing, unusual for this latitude. March through May: the best trout months, stocking and moderate flows. June through August: striped bass below the dam and cold water when nothing else is. September through February: trout again as air temperatures drop, low generation and quiet water.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Saluda River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the South Carolina agency site: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/regs/fishing.html