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Home › Waters › Washington › Spokane River
Tailwater · Eastern Washington, running west out of Coeur d'Alene through the city of Spokane and past Nine Mile Falls into the Riverside State Park canyon · Washington

Spokane River Fishing Guides

A wild redband trout river running straight through a city, with basalt canyon water below Nine Mile Dam that fishes far better than its address suggests.

A boulder river running through mossy old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Spokane 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 Spokane River

The Spokane is the rare river that carries a genuinely wild trout population through the middle of a metropolitan area. The gauge sits below Nine Mile Dam, where the river leaves the slackwater behind and drops into the basalt canyon that Riverside State Park protects. What comes out of that dam is a tailwater in the working sense of the word – the release moderates the summer temperature swing and holds flow through the dry months, which is most of the reason trout persist here at all in a river flowing through a city of a quarter million people.

The fish that matter are redband rainbows, the interior subspecies native to the Columbia basin, and they are the reason the river carries restrictive rules rather than a stocking truck. They are not large by tailwater standards, but they are genuinely wild, strong out of proportion to their length, and they sit in water that most visitors drive over without a second thought. Browns share the river in smaller numbers, mountain whitefish are abundant and badly underrated on a winter afternoon, and the warmwater contingent of smallmouth, pike and walleye occupies the slower reaches toward Long Lake.

Guided work here is a drift boat proposition through the canyon, and local outfitters run it as a half day more often than a full one. The water below Nine Mile is a mix of ledge drops, boulder gardens and long basalt-walled glides, and it reads like a much more remote river than the road access implies. The Bowl and Pitcher stretch upstream of the gauge is the postcard water. Wading is realistic at summer flows but the basalt is slick and the current is stronger than it looks from the bank.

The catch is that the Spokane is an urban river with an industrial past, and the state maintains fish consumption advisories for parts of it. That is a reason to release fish rather than a reason to stay home, and it fits the wild redband rules the river already carries. Check the current regulations before a trip, because the selective gear and release requirements vary by reach and have been adjusted more than once.

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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.

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Posting to Spokane 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

Nine Mile Falls - the gauge reach and the top of the canyon water.
Bowl and Pitcher, Riverside State Park - the signature basalt water and the best bank access.
Plese Flats - park access with a usable gravel launch for small craft.
T.J. Meenach Bridge - the standard city takeout and a common drift boat put-in.
Sontag Park, Nine Mile Falls - lower canyon access below the dam.
Riverside State Park boat launch - the main trailered launch for the canyon float.
Spokane Falls downtown - bank access on the upper city reach above the canyon.

Seasons

Spring: high dirty water through runoff, then a strong redband period as it drops and clears.
Summer: the best dry fly fishing of the year, with early and late sessions beating midday heat.
Fall: cooling water, aggressive trout and the least crowded float conditions of the season.
Winter: whitefish on nymphs and slow deep trout water for anglers willing to dress for it.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Spokane River?

As of Sep 17, 4:15 am, the USGS gauge SPOKANE RIVER BELOW NINE MILE DAM AT SPOKANE, WA reads 1,220 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Spokane River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Largemouth Bass, Mountain Whitefish, Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Redband Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Spokane River in Washington.

Are there fishing guides on the Spokane River?

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

Where can you access the Spokane River?

Nine Mile Falls - the gauge reach and the top of the canyon water. Bowl and Pitcher, Riverside State Park - the signature basalt water and the best bank access. Plese Flats - park access with a usable gravel launch for small craft. T.J. Meenach Bridge - the standard city takeout and a common drift boat put-in. Sontag Park, Nine Mile Falls - lower canyon access below the dam. Riverside State Park boat launch - the main trailered launch for the canyon float. Spokane Falls downtown - bank access on the upper city reach above the canyon.

When is the best time to fish the Spokane River?

Spring: high dirty water through runoff, then a strong redband period as it drops and clears. Summer: the best dry fly fishing of the year, with early and late sessions beating midday heat. Fall: cooling water, aggressive trout and the least crowded float conditions of the season. Winter: whitefish on nymphs and slow deep trout water for anglers willing to dress for it.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Spokane River?

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