Grande Ronde River Steelhead Report
Sorry for the lack of reports from the river this year. We will try to do better moving forward.
The Grande Ronde has been struggling for water this year. We have had a beautiful sunny, dry October which has been great for angler comfort along the river but maybe not the best for bringing fish upriver. The water levels have been hovering in the mid 500 CFS range for most of the fall making floating a bit of a challenge but has made finding the fish holding water a little easier.
One of our guides was Steelhead fishing on the Grande Ronde River on Monday the 26th and was able to guide his Purple Hoh Bo Spey fly within striking distance of the beautiful Steelhead shown in the image above. He found the water temps to be 49 first thing in the morning and warming up to 51 by mid day. The water is still running fairly clear but has added a little color with the recent rains.
Our experience this weekend has shown that a decent angler could expect a few good grabs a day on the swing. We are finding that fish have dropped a little further back in the runs due to decreasing water temps over night. The Steelhead are still filtering into the system but have been a bit delayed due to low water and warmer water temps so far this fall. We are hopeful that with water temp dropping and some cold rains increasing the flows we will see more fish moving upriver. We will see what November holds but we are expecting the Steelhead fishing to be great in November this year.
Click on the following link to check out the current Steelhead Creel Report for the lower Grande Ronde River. This shows that folks are having increased success so maybe November will be the new October on the Grande Ronde.
Please send us your reports from the river and contact us to book your next day of guided Steelhead fishing on the Grande Ronde River.