Winding Waters Fishing Report

Tom had a great week of Fly fishing on the Wallowa River last week. The river has finally dropped to a level low and slow enough to fish. We are beginning to see the Stone and Salmon flies hatching on the Wallowa. The fish have not quite discovered the dry fly but are certainly interested in the nymph. We have been catching 15 to 20 fish per day with most of them being beautiful Rainbows. With a few of those in the 18 inch range. The # 10 Prince Nymph is once again providing on the Wallowa River.

As the water continues to drop and green up we expect the fish to begin looking up once again for a few meals. This combined with the strong arrival of the Stone and Salmon Fly Hatch should produce some spectacular fishing. We are looking forward to a productive July.

We are also looking forward to fishing below Minam in the roadless section of the Wallowa River canyon on Saturdays and then catching the train back up river to Minam. This will open up a lot of incredible Trout Water for day trips.

I will do my best to leave posts as we have new information and experiences on the Rivers of Wallowa County. I have also been hearing stories of 30 lb Salmon being caught on the Imnaha River.

Drop me a line to learn more about taking advantage of the Train Shuttle out of the Wallowa River Canyon from Rondowa on Saturdays. This will be happening until August 1st.

Labels: Fly fishing on the Wallowa River

From Opening Day on the Wallowa

Well it is time to start thinking about fishing in Wallowa County again. Trout Season opened on Saturday the 23rd of May and Tom thought that was a good reason to get out a see what was happening on the river. He had a difficult time finding water moving slow enough to fish in, but he sniffed it out and caught this beautiful 19" Rainbow on a Prince Nymph. The weather has been incredible out here in Joseph and we are looking forward to a great season of trout fishing on the Wallowa and Grande Ronde Rivers.
We will do our best to keep you updated on what is giong on out here. Feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We are heading out to take the Enterprise High School graduates down Hells Canyon tomorrow, so I will let you know how the fishing is down there when I return on Thursday.

From Doug Senn Steelhead

Grande Ronde River - February 15, 2009
(Good) A beautiful day on the Grande Ronde River. This day was spent in the Tory, Oregon area. February 15th proved to be uncrowded, sunny and warm. We had the river to ourselves. We did some swinging without success. The water temp is hovering around 33F and the Steelhead were a little sluggish for this.

We began drifting the old standby Prince Nymph and had some success. 1 very large 30 inch Wild Buck was hooked and fought for about 5 minutes before breaking off. What a fish! We will have to come back for that one.

The Fishing should contiue to be good throughout March, especially in the Washington section of the Grande Ronde.

From Doug Senn Steelhead

Wallowa River - February 14, 2009
The Steelhead have arrived in the Wallowa River. We fished the Wallowa on Feb 14th on a beautiful day. 4 steelhead were hooked on the Prince Nymph with 3 being landed.

The water is still a little shallow but we are expecting some warm wet weather to move through the area during the end of February. This should provide an increase in flow and water temp which will bring more fish into the system. We expect the fishing to really pick up by the end of the month.

The Steelhead train is in operation on the weekends through the end of March. This is a very fun and unique way to access some beautiful roadless stretches of the Wallowa River below Minam.

Labels: Steelhead Fishing on Wallowa River

A little recap of some of the Steelhead that were caught this year. Enjoy.


Well the Grande Ronde River is still frozen. We have not been down to fish in a few weeks. We have been busy weathering the continuous storms that seem to be hitting everywhere else but Wallowa County. Joseph seems to have the least snow in the entire Northwest. The skis are waxed and ready but the snow is just not cooperating with us here in the Wallowas.

I hope that you enjoy the slide show that we put together. I will let you know how the fishing is going when we get back down on the River. We are excited about the Excursion Train this year. I will get some information about the schedule for the Wallowa River Steelhead Train and post that here in the next few days.

Be sure to check out our new Weekly Blog, The The
GearBoat Chronicles. I am excited about this. Our Gear Boatman Jon will be making weekly posts offering you a humorous glimpse into life in Wallowa County from the eyes of a Gear Boatman.

Happy Fly Fishing in the New Year!

The first major snow has fallen on Joseph and Enterprise overnight. The skiers in the area are getting excited. We have a long way to go before we can get in the mountains, however.

We went fishing, on the Grande Ronde near Troy, 2 days last week, December 2nd and 4th. We had a warm rain that seemed to get the fish moving after about a week of very slow fishing. We hooked into 4 Steelhead on Tuesday. These were all hooked on a swinging Black Intruder. This was very encouraging as it showed us that the fish are still active enough to hit a swinging fly. On Thursday 1 Steelhead was caught on a Prince Nymph.

Happy fishing, let us know about your fishing adventures.

This beauty was caught down on the Imnaha River on Saturday the 15th on a Prince Nymph. The Grande Ronde was blown out so we decided to go and check out the fishing on the Imnaha. It turned out to be a great day.

Today, it is looking like the Grande Ronde is stabilizing. The flow is currently 1400 cfs and loks like it will level out around 1200. This is a great flow for fishing. We are looking forward to getting back down there as the new water should bring more fish up river into the Troy area. I will keep you posted.