Wallowa River Steelhead Report

Tom, Jon and I went Steelhead fishing on the Wallowa Monday afternoon.  It turned out to be a beautiful day.  We were fishing in T-shirts for a while.  Unheard of in January.  The day was a little less than successful on the catching front but I guess it is still January.  We only caught a few Rainbow Trout.

We found the water to be a little off color due to Rock Creek flowing in totally brown with run off from Smith Mountain.  This caused there to be about 18 inches of visibility.  The water levels were just slightly above what we would expect and were holding around 42degrees.  This warmer water temperature should have Steelhead on the move up river from the Grande Ronde and Wallowa confluence.  We will keep you posted on Wallowa River Steelhead fishing conditions as we gather more data.  I expect we will be back down there later this week to gather more info.  The fishing typically begins to pick up in mid February.  We caught our first Steelhead on February 6th last year.  Our next mission will likely be hiking down into the roadless canyon below Minam State Park.