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 › Washington › Klickitat River
River · Klickitat County and the Columbia River Gorge in south-central Washington · Washington

Klickitat River Fishing Guides

A glacial Columbia tributary running south off Mount Adams through a basalt canyon to the Gorge, known for summer steelhead and a distinctive milky glacial tint.

Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Klickitat 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 Klickitat River

The Klickitat rises on the glaciers of Mount Adams and runs roughly ninety miles south through a deep basalt canyon to join the Columbia at Lyle, in the eastern Gorge. The gauge near Pitt sits low in the canyon, watches about thirteen hundred square miles, and carries discharge, stage and a live water temperature series. Both numbers are worth reading here, because this river has a hydrologic quirk that shapes the entire fishing season.

That quirk is glacial flour. Meltwater off Mount Adams carries fine rock powder that turns the Klickitat milky grey-green through the warm months, and the degree of that tint changes daily with how hot it has been on the mountain. A cool spell clears the river and a hot week clouds it. Anglers here learn to read temperature and weather on the peak as a clarity forecast, which is not something most steelhead rivers require.

The fishery is built on summer steelhead, which enter from the Columbia beginning in midsummer and are fished into November, and on fall chinook and coho lower down. The Klickitat is one of the more reliable summer steelhead rivers in the Gorge and draws both fly and gear anglers, with guided trips run from rafts and drift boats through the canyon reaches.

Access is defined by the canyon and by tribal ownership. The upper river runs through Yakama Nation land and is closed to non-tribal fishing, so public fishing is concentrated on the lower river from Klickitat down to the mouth at Lyle, reached from Highway 142 and a series of pullouts and formal access points along it. Visitors should confirm the current boundary before fishing, because the closure line is a legal one rather than a customary one and it is enforced. The lower river is nonetheless long enough, and productive enough, to hold a full season of guided trips without ever approaching 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 Klickitat 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.

Access

Lyle at the Columbia confluence - the mouth of the river and the bottom of the public fishery.
Klickitat town access - the main upper limit of public fishing along Highway 142.
Highway 142 canyon pullouts - roadside bank access through the lower canyon.
The Klickitat Trail - a rail-trail along the lower river giving walk-in access to otherwise hard reaches.
Leidl Bridge - upper public access and a campground.
Pitt vicinity near the gauge - the flow and clarity reference for the whole lower river.
Columbia River shoreline at Lyle - staging water for fish about to enter the Klickitat.

Seasons

Spring: high and heavily glacial from early melt; limited fishing and poor clarity.
Summer: summer steelhead enter and the river fishes well on cool spells when the glacial tint drops out.
Fall: the peak of the steelhead season, joined by fall chinook and coho in the lower river.
Winter: cold, clear and quiet, with reduced access and few anglers in the canyon.

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 Klickitat River?

As of Sep 8, 12:00 am, the USGS gauge KLICKITAT RIVER NEAR PITT, WA reads 668 cfs, with water temperature 57.4 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Klickitat River?

Anglers target Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Steelhead on the Klickitat River in Washington.

Are there fishing guides on the Klickitat River?

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

Where can you access the Klickitat River?

Lyle at the Columbia confluence - the mouth of the river and the bottom of the public fishery. Klickitat town access - the main upper limit of public fishing along Highway 142. Highway 142 canyon pullouts - roadside bank access through the lower canyon. The Klickitat Trail - a rail-trail along the lower river giving walk-in access to otherwise hard reaches. Leidl Bridge - upper public access and a campground. Pitt vicinity near the gauge - the flow and clarity reference for the whole lower river. Columbia River shoreline at Lyle - staging water for fish about to enter the Klickitat.

When is the best time to fish the Klickitat River?

Spring: high and heavily glacial from early melt; limited fishing and poor clarity. Summer: summer steelhead enter and the river fishes well on cool spells when the glacial tint drops out. Fall: the peak of the steelhead season, joined by fall chinook and coho in the lower river. Winter: cold, clear and quiet, with reduced access and few anglers in the canyon.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Klickitat River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Washington agency site: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations