The best time to fish the Klickitat River is dependent on how you enjoy fishing for steelhead or salmon for that matter. As fly fishermen we typically are after that steelhead coming in from the Columbia River but people underestimate how much fun salmon can be as well.
The Klickitat River opens in June where early summer steelhead start to come up the Columbia and begin to enter the Klickitat. The flows and clarity of the water can be uncertain and the fish can be far and few between but rest assured those fish are fresh and have zero angler pressure. This means that the hunt is on. If you can find them you can catch them.
When September and October come along we see a much higher influx of fish, including salmon, but also a higher influx of anglers (pressure). This means that the fish are there and sometimes on their spawning grounds but sometimes they are not really excited to play, meaning, eat our flies. Our Klickitat fish are different then a lot of other steelhead. A fish you catch could have been in the system for six months in the same run and have been hooked six times before you catch that fish. This is because our fish wait until the Spring to spawn. So the question is still, “When is the best time to fish the Klickitat River?”
The best time to fish the Klicktat River is in mid September to late October.
This is when the majority of fish are in the system and fishing is best under a strike indicator and on the swing. River conditions may cycle throughout the day, meaning, you might have muddy water in the early morning and clearer water in the early afternoon into the evening. This is day to day and month to month depending on rain and temperature during the day and night. It is very important to pay attention to both if you are planning on fishing the “Klick”.