clearwater-river-outfitters

Dworshak Smallmouth Guided Fishing Report 3/30/2026

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 21:19:30 GMT

3/31/2026 Clearwater River Spring Chinook Report

Dworshak Smallmouth Guided Fishing Report 3/30/2026

The smallmouth fishing guides at Clearwater River Outfitters have been having a blast this spring on large Smallmouth. Our Professional Bass guide James Hollingshead gave a heck of a show on Dworshak Reservoir to his clients yesterday! They were able to start the day off with a couple 5lb’ers and a mix of smaller fish. Later in the day it happened…the 7lb 14 oz giant that they were looking for! This was certainly a fish of a lifetime and bragging rights for days!!!

Water temps have been flirting in the High 40’s, but unstable weather has the conditions all over the place. The crank bait bite will be hot for the next couple months. This has got to be the funnest way to catch a giant Smallmouth Bass! Plan your trip now or you might miss the sweet spot!

Thanks and Fish On!!!

The Smallmouth Bass Guides of Clearwater River Outfitters

3/31/2026 Clearwater River Spring Chinook Report

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:30:09 GMT

3/31/2026 Clearwater River Spring Chinook Report

The 2026 Idaho Clearwater River Spring Chinook season will open Saturday April 25th. The run projection is strong at this time and the initial opening regulations call for a 2 hatchery Spring Chinook per day limit with the fishing being open on Thursday - Sunday. The Salmon Fishing guides here at Clearwater River Outfitters will be ready to go and plan to have knock it out of the park fishing and a slightly early run timing. We plan to see good fishing on the lower Clearwater by the first part of May with the upper river by Orofino getting better by mid May.

A few tips for the early part of the Salmon run…

If the river temperature is below 50 degrees the best technique will likely be anchoring with or back trolling sardine wrapped Quickfish or MagLips. The Salmon egg bite usually takes off when river tempetkres get into the 50’s and 60’s.

When running Roe (Salmon Eggs) in the early part of the Salmon season prepare to fight off the trash fish. Squawfish and pea mouth chubs are terrible bait grabbers the first few weeks of the season. They will run you out of bait quickly until many of them have been caught and killed over the first couple weeks of fishing. If you are short on good bait beware!

Prepare for all kinds of weather! Spring weather can be all over the place so be ready for when it turns nasty! The occasional hail storm might send you calling butt back to the launch so dress in layers and plan for the best, but be prepared for the worst.

Idaho fish and Game now has a wonderful app for your smart phone. It is called GoOutdoorID. You can purchase you fishing license and Salmon tag right from the app and select e-tagging to use the app to tag your fish right on your phone! It really works!

Good Luck, tight Lines and Fish On!!!

The Fishing Guides at Clearwater River Outfitters

March 2026 / CRO Spring Chinnok Pro Tips

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:13:38 GMT

Spring Chinook Fishing Tips for the Clearwater River

Springer Bait Tips

With the 2026 Clearwater River Spring Chinook run just around the corner the salmon guides here at CRO would like to share a little secret information about how we cure our bait for Spring Chinook fishing on the Clearwater River. Quikfish and other lures may work fine at the beginning of the season but as the water temps warm and the river clears if you aren’t running some salmon eggs either behind a diver or back bouncing with a weight you are missing the boat. Springers simply love to bite down on a nice juicy bait of salmon roe and that is just a fact! So here is a guideline of how we like to make OUR bait for Springer season!

Egg Curing Tips

These best bait will be made from the Salmon you catch in the early part of the season. Make sure you bleed your fish and remover the skeins without getting a bunch of blood and guts all over them. Place your clean skeins in a ziplock bag and keep them cold in a cooler or the refrigerator until you have time to cure them. Make sure you get to curing these eggs within NO LONGER than couple days. The quicker you get them cured the better they will fish.

Normally we like to cure our bait in a bucket. Cut the skeins of roe into bait sized chunks. The size of a 50 cent piece seems to be just about right. Go bigger than you think if you are uncertain. There is nothing wrong with a golfball sized bait for these fish.

Place you baits in the bottom of your bucket and apply a 50/50 mixture of RED Pautzke’s Fire Cure and Borax o’ Fire bait cures at mixture of 4 tablespoons of cure for every 1LB of roe. Now use your bucket to spin the bait around and around until all the cure is thoroughly mixed onto the bait chunks. Do this a couple times over the next 20 minutes while the cure starts to react to the bait and dissolve into a juice. Now let your bait sit to cure for 2 hours. After 2 hour you need to drain off 1/2 of the accumulated juices. Once drained it is time to add these measured ingredients per each LB of roe…

1/2 teaspoon Pro Cure Monster Bite
1/2 teaspoon Pure anise oil
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons Pro Cure Bloody Tuna Powder

Now go back to swirling your bait around in the bottom of the bucket until everything has mixed it way evenly onto the bait.

Now remove your bait and place in a sealable Tupperware container. Place your bait in the refrigerator for a couple of days and it will be ready to fish. You will notice that all the juice and other ingredient will have been absorbed into the bait. Bait cured in this fashion will be firm, plump and full of scent, but not super messy and sloppy. We hate sloppy wet bait for the mess it makes in our boats, and just trust us…the fish are gonna love it!

Thanks and Fish On!!!

Jason Schultz - 208-305-4549

Clearwater River Outfitters Fishing Report 3/11/26

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:27:47 GMT

March 11, 2026

Clearwater River Outfitters would like to thank all of our dedicated and awesome clients who trusted us this steelhead season as their personal fishing guides! The Clearwater River had its ups and downs this season with water levels and fishing success. Overall, we feel it was a productive season and we had many great days with great company out on the river.

One of the highlights for us was the pleasure of bringing on Whitney Gould as our newest Spey fly fishing guide. Welcome aboard, Whitney, and thank you for your hard work and for the knowledge and experience you bring to our team. Whitney had an awesome season, and we can’t wait to see her back for the next steelhead return.

With the late-season water fluctuations and the lack of a normal winter, our guides had tougher-than-normal water conditions to deal with toward the end of the season. Conditions like these will separate the men from the boys, and as usual, our guides at CRO made successful days out of some of the toughest water conditions you’ve seen. A special thank you to Jim, Big D, and Tracy for putting in the extra effort to make it happen for your clients on rough days like these. These guys really put in the extra hours for their clients when the going gets tough.

The river spiked to over 19,000cfs last week with the rain and crummy weather we had. Since then, it has been dropping and becoming fishable, with a little fluctuation coming out of Dworshak Dam. For anglers looking to hit the river, there will still be opportunities for spring steelhead with these improving water conditions.

As for Clearwater River Outfitters, we are looking forward to our upcoming spring chinook run. With this year’s lower snowpack and possibly lower water conditions, we may have good fishing opportunities as early as late April. Springers can travel fast in low, clear water, and we have seen them in the Clearwater in big numbers in late April in the past, so let’s cross our fingers!

Until then, thank you to all our steelhead fishermen for the 2025–2026 season. We look forward to fishing with you all again very soon!

Thanks and Fish On!!!

Jason Schultz
Clearwater River Outfitters