Guided Snake River Fishing Trips

Snake River Steelhead Fishing

Guided Snake River fishing trips for steelhead in the Hells Canyon area starts early October and lies in one of Pacific Northwest’s most scenic areas. The Snake river steelhead are a little smaller in size from the Clearwater cousin but offer anglers an entirely different fishing experience. The Heller bar area is considered the Gate Way to the deepest gorge in North America and is where we access the river for most of our trips.

Canyon Views & Wildlife

The scenery is beautiful, and wildlife roam the canyon hill sides. The Snake River steelhead runs gets stronger throughout the Winter and our guides support that with lots of 20 fish days. Our guides love to side drift eggs as it’s easily the most productive method to catching fish but there are times backtrolling divers and shrimp can be deadly. Targeting steelhead isn’t the only game in town, combo your steelhead trip with some great sturgeon fishing.

Snake River Sturgeon Fishing

The Snake River – Hells Canyon area host some of the world’s largest sturgeon that grow up to 11 foot and weight over 400 pounds. We start guided Snake River fishing trips during the spring, 22 miles up-river from the town of Asotin Washington. The sturgeon become super active with higher water flows and warming temperatures. We fish about a 20-mile section that is most productive for catching both shakers and over-sized sturgeon. Sturgeon fishing in the Hells Canyon area is catch and release only but, taking pics with your giant sturgeon in the water creates a priceless fishing experience.

Best Sturgeon Fishing

Our best sturgeon fishing is in the spring, but we experience some great fishing in early summer too. We try to give the sturgeon a break in the heat of the summer and shift our fishing to down in the cooler waters of the Columbia. The fall brings us some cooler weather back to the Hells Canyon area and our sturgeon fishing picks back up. We can combo your sturgeon trip with steelhead, salmon or bass all depending on time of year.

Snake River Hells Canyon Salmon Fishing

Fall Chinook fishing on the Snake River opens in August and fishes through the end of October. The Columbia River typically forecast a big run of upriver bright that a significant portion of the fish return to the Snake River. We start fishing the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater river around the towns of Lewiston/Clarkston. Once the fish start to move up-river we’ll access our trips from the Heller Bar boat launch in the Hells Canyon section of the Snake River.

Trifecta Package Salmon-Sturgeon-Steelhead

Each year the harvest retention changes but typically the state allows anglers to keep 6 hatchery Fall Chinook and no limit to Jack Chinook over 12 inches. Fishing is barbless hooks only as there are plenty of steelhead in the river this time of the year. We can combine your guided Snake River fishing trips with Clearwater Steelhead, Snake River Sturgeon or steelhead all in the same day.

Bass Fishing Trips

The Snake River has some excellent smallmouth bass fishing that definitely fly under the radar with Pacific Northwest anglers. The Hells Canyon is mostly known for the wonderful steelhead runs, giant sturgeon and picturesque scenery but for those who know, the smallmouth fishing can be incredible. There’s lots of pocket water and gravel bars that hold bass throughout the canyon. We’ll hole hop from our jet boats throwing shallow running crankbaits and grub jigs. Best fishing is spring and summer when the river drops back into shape from the high flows of spring run-off.

Canyon has Spectacular Bass Fishing

Hells Canyon bass fishing has no harvest restrictions, so we ask that you respect the fishery and our beautiful resources we have. We have 3 guides that work our Hells Canyon guided bass trips that will gladly combine your trip with some sturgeon fishing. The Hells Canyon area allows anglers to fish either Washington or Idaho license holders. Make sure you call us well before you book your trip to check on water flows and temperatures.