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