STEELHEAD FISHING ON OREGON’S GRANDE RONDE RIVER

Randy Rowe and Skip Nault
TU meeting, May 14, 2007

In late 2006, we traveled to Northeast Oregon to fish the Grande Ronde River for steelhead. The GR is a famous western steelhead river that flows into the Snake River at the northern end of Hell’s Canyon, which is the deepest gorge in North America. Hell’s Canyon forms the northern border between Oregon and Idaho. The northeast corner of Oregon is a very rugged featuring the high Wallowa Mountains and several rivers that flow through deep canyons connected to Hell’s Canyon. The GR flows through one of these canyons before it enters the Snake. The area was formed millions of years ago as countless lava flows flooded the land, one atop the other. Further uplift of the land and subsequent erosion of the canyons has formed this very picturesque landscape. Our plan was to stay in the small town of Joseph, meet up with our guide, and then drift down the Wallowa River and into the Grande Ronde. At that point, the GR enters a roadless wilderness for the next 25-30 miles. The steelhead we were fishing for had left the ocean and entered the Columbia River the previous June. After migrating about 400 miles up the Columbia and into the Snake River, they eventually enter the GR sometime in October. We were fishing in late October and early November to hit a window when the fish had arrived but, hopefully, when the weather was still decent.  

We arrived in the Wallowa valley on October 28 in clear, warm wea (See the Full Article...)