Washington
Klickitat River
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About Klickitat River
The Klickitat is Washington's classic Columbia Gorge swing river — a glacier-fed tributary off Mount Adams that runs about 95 miles to meet the Columbia at Lyle, one of the longest largely-undammed rivers in the state. What draws fly anglers is the fall run of summer steelhead: fish that push in on the September freshet and hold in the lower canyon runs, taken on a dry line with Skagit or Scandi heads and a swung fly. This is spey water first and everything else second. The honest version is that you plan the Klickitat around the calendar, not around a good hatch.
Its character is dictated by glacial melt. The river carries suspended rock flour off the Adams glaciers, so through summer it runs off-color and clarity is genuinely unpredictable — that's why most guides don't book serious swing trips until late September, when the melt slows, the water drops and clears, and the big push of fresh fish lines up with dry-line temperatures. It runs cold for a summer-run river, so on tougher days a swung fly gets refused and nymphing quietly outproduces the swing. Highway 142 parallels the lower 18 miles from Lyle up through the town of Klickitat, giving genuine bank access to a dozen named runs plus several boat ramps; above town the river drops into a roadless basalt canyon that's float-only. The season closes November 30 and fishes best from late September into that close.
This is remote water. Klickitat County has no fly shop of its own — the nearest storefront is the Gorge Fly Shop across the river in Hood River, Oregon, and the shops that run the most Klickitat guide days are up in Ellensburg, roughly two hours north on the Yakima. There are resident rainbows in the canyon and up toward Glenwood, but they're an incidental catch, not a reason to make the drive — compared to the Yakima the trout are modest in size and number. Come for the steelhead, and know that 'glacial and off-color' is a real risk you're accepting.
Species
- Steelhead (summer-run)
- Chinook Salmon (spring run)
- Chinook Salmon (fall run)
- Coho Salmon
- Resident Rainbow Trout
- Mountain Whitefish
| Species | Abundance | Best Season | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steelhead (summer-run) | Primary | Sep-Nov (fishes Jun-Nov 30) | 5-12 lb |
| Chinook Salmon (spring run) | Common | Apr-May | 10-25 lb |
| Chinook Salmon (fall run) | Common | Aug-Oct | 10-30 lb |
| Coho Salmon | Common | Oct-Nov | 5-12 lb |
| Resident Rainbow Trout | Present | Jun-Oct | 8-13" |
| Mountain Whitefish | Common | Year-round (winter prime) | 10-16" |