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Home › Waters › Washington › Yakima River
River · Central Washington · Washington

Yakima River Fishing Guides

Washington's only blue-ribbon trout river, running from Cle Elum through the Ellensburg valley and the Yakima Canyon, with wild rainbows and cutthroat and a year-round catch-and-release season.

A red drift boat on a moss-lined river in the Pacific Northwest

Map of the Yakima River

20 numbered points: 9 access points, 8 campsites, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge, 1 point of interest. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 8, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (9)
  • Campsite (8)
  • Dam / hazard (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.

Open the printable map
All 20 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Lake Easton State Park Campground
Washington State Parks		Campsite47.24217, -121.18405
2Lavender Lake Access Area
Two ramps mapped here		Access / boat ramp47.21912, -121.12849Upper-river access between Easton and South Cle Elum.
3Three Bridges
Upper river access		Access / boat ramp47.18589, -121.04369
4Cle Elum
Town on the upper river		Point of interest47.19524, -120.94006Fuel, lodging and shuttles; the OSM point is the town boundary centre, not a river access.
5Hudson Ponds Access
Upper river access		Access / boat ramp47.18587, -120.92141
6Eagle Valley CampgroundCampsite47.16772, -120.88250
7Thrall Water Access Site
Head of the Yakima Canyon, at Ringer Loop		Access / boat ramp46.92750, -120.51696
8Bighorn Campground
BLM - Yakima Canyon		Campsite46.89532, -120.50265
9USGS 12484500 Yakima River at Umtanum
Real-time flow and stage		USGS gauge46.86263, -120.48007Check the reading before you commit to a float; releases and runoff move this river fast.
10Umtanum Recreation Site boat launch
BLM		Access / boat ramp46.85567, -120.48368
11Umtanum Campground
BLM		Campsite46.85480, -120.48275
12Lmuma Creek Recreation Site
BLM - Yakima Canyon		Campsite46.81413, -120.45016
13Mile Post 10 Boat Launch
BLM - Canyon Road milepost		Access / boat ramp46.79808, -120.46316
14Big Pines boat launch
OSM: unnamed slipway at Big Pines		Access / boat ramp46.79254, -120.45720
15Big Pines Campground
BLM - Yakima Canyon		Campsite46.79304, -120.45700
16Mile Post 8 Boat Launch
BLM - Canyon Road milepost		Access / boat ramp46.77554, -120.45296
17Roza Recreation Site boat launch
BLM		Access / boat ramp46.76387, -120.45663
18Roza Recreation Site Campground
BLM		Campsite46.76473, -120.45721
19Roza Diversion Dam
Irrigation diversion		Dam / hazard46.75039, -120.46619Foot of the canyon float - get off the water above the dam.
20Yakima Sportsman State Park Campground
Washington State Parks		Campsite46.58958, -120.45823

Guides on the Yakima 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 Yakima River

The Yakima is the state’s trout river, and for anglers on the dry side of the Cascades it is the whole season. It runs from Keechelus and Cle Elum lakes down through Thorp and Ellensburg, then into the basalt-walled Yakima Canyon between Ellensburg and Selah, and finally into irrigated farmland. The canyon and the upper river above Ellensburg are the guided water, managed as selective gear, catch and release, and open all year.

The fish are wild rainbows in the twelve to sixteen inch class with a real population of larger fish, plus westslope cutthroat that show up more often in the upper river. The Yakima has a genuine hatch calendar: skwalas in March, March browns in spring, caddis through summer evenings, and one of the best fall hatches anywhere in the October caddis and blue-winged olive period. Summer means hoppers along the grass banks and rattlesnakes on the same banks.

Flow here is an irrigation story, and it is backwards from most rivers. Releases from the upper reservoirs are increased through the summer to deliver water downstream, so the Yakima runs high in July and August and drops sharply in early fall when the irrigation season ends. That drop, called the flip-flop, changes the river within days and marks the start of the best fishing of the year. Guides read Umtanum in the low thousands of cfs as heavy summer water and a few hundred as fall and winter wading flows.

Ellensburg and Cle Elum are the base towns, and both are within a couple of hours of Seattle, which explains the weekend boat traffic in the canyon.

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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

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Posting to Yakima 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 Yakima River cfs

Now: 700 cfs, read 2:15 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 12484500, YAKIMA RIVER AT UMTANUM, WA).

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

Access

Cle Elum and South Cle Elum: upper river access and boat launches.
Thorp Highway and Irene Rinehart Riverfront Park: valley accesses above Ellensburg.
Ringer Loop: the standard canyon put-in on Highway 821.
Umtanum Recreation Area: canyon access at the gauge, with a footbridge and campground.
Big Pines and Lmuma Creek: BLM canyon campgrounds with boat and bank access.
Roza Dam: the bottom of the canyon float; take out above the dam.

Seasons

Year-round catch and release on the upper river and canyon; check current selective gear rules.
March through May: skwalas and March browns, moderate flows, the first good dry fly fishing.
June through August: high irrigation flows, hopper season along the banks, best early and late.
September through November: the flip-flop drops the river, October caddis and fall olives, the best month of the year.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Yakima River?

As of Oct 19, 2:15 am, the USGS gauge YAKIMA RIVER AT UMTANUM, WA reads 700 cfs, the 22nd percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Yakima River?

Anglers target Bull Trout, Chinook Salmon, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Westslope Cutthroat Trout on the Yakima River in Washington.

Are there fishing guides on the Yakima River?

GuidedFloats lists 4 guides and outfitters on the Yakima River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Yakima River?

Cle Elum and South Cle Elum: upper river access and boat launches. Thorp Highway and Irene Rinehart Riverfront Park: valley accesses above Ellensburg. Ringer Loop: the standard canyon put-in on Highway 821. Umtanum Recreation Area: canyon access at the gauge, with a footbridge and campground. Big Pines and Lmuma Creek: BLM canyon campgrounds with boat and bank access. Roza Dam: the bottom of the canyon float; take out above the dam.

When is the best time to fish the Yakima River?

Year-round catch and release on the upper river and canyon; check current selective gear rules. March through May: skwalas and March browns, moderate flows, the first good dry fly fishing. June through August: high irrigation flows, hopper season along the banks, best early and late. September through November: the flip-flop drops the river, October caddis and fall olives, the best month of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Yakima River?

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