Wintery Wallowa River Steelhead Report
Wintery weather on the Wallowa means Big Fish. Tom went out yesterday braving the high winds, snow, rain and sun to find that the river had not quite blown out yet. He was unsure what he would find after a long night of warm winds and lots of melting. They found the Wallowa River to still be in good shape. After fly fishing for a few hours they landed a 31 inch Hen on our favorite go to fly, the tungsten headed, red winged Prince Nymph. The first Hen of the season. This was a beautiful Steelhead that gave them a run for their money. The day was not super productive with the low pressure and many other factors adding to the challenges of the day but this one Steelhead made it all worth it.
I just checked the River Gauge for the Grande Ronde River near Troy and it looked like the river spiked up from 2800 cfs to about 4,000 cfs over night last night. I suspect that this means that the Wallowa will have some significant color in it today. I will let you know what we find on our next trip down over the weekend.
The big canyon hatchery is reporting to have an abundance of Steelhead showing up daily now, so get down there and catch a few of those fish to take a little work off of them.