Little Spokane River

The Little Spokane is one of the odder fisheries in Washington to get your head around before you go. It's a slow, cold, spring-fed tributary that joins the mainstem Spokane about ten miles northwest of downtown, running low and clear through a weed-lined, almost meadow-stream channel — think spring-creek fish holding in soft seams rather than the boulder pockets you'd fish on the Spokane itself. Because so much of the flow comes from groundwater, the water stays cool and clear through summer while a lot of Eastern Washington freestone water is warming out. The draw is wild redband trout, though "pure redband" is more aspiration than reality here: the native fish have hybridized with introduced coastal rainbows over the decades. They run small to modest, 8 to 14 inches, with common mountain whitefish and a scattering of browns.

Here's the catch, and it's a big one. The river channel itself is largely privately owned — the Little Spokane is one of only two waters in the state where the streambed belongs to the abutting landowners, not the public. Practically, that means the meaningful public fishing is the lower seven miles through the Little Spokane River Natural Area, and even there the rules prohibit fishing from the banks. You fish from a non-motorized craft — canoe, kayak, drift boat with the motor off, or a raft — and inside the Natural Area you can't even anchor. Put in at St. George's School off Rutter Parkway (Discover Pass required to park), float down to the confluence near Nine Mile, and fish on the drift. It's a paddle-and-cast fishery, not a wade fishery, and that filters out a lot of pressure.

Expect a technical, low-and-clear presentation game — light tippet, small dries and nymphs, delicate mending on the move. Overcast days help the Baetis game; bright, low water rewards subtlety. It fishes best as a quiet half-day float rather than a destination trip, and the whole thing is release-oriented: the season runs catch-and-release from the Saturday before Memorial Day through March 15, then closes to protect spawning redband. Handle every fish with care — WDFW treats mishandling a native redband on the Spokane system as an enforcement matter. Don't come expecting the salmonfly and skwala show anglers talk about around Spokane; that's a mainstem Spokane River event, not this river.