Steelheaders hit Grande Ronde jackpot
The March steelhead fishing bonanza started a few weeks early on the Grande Ronde River.
Rising river conditions energized wintering steelhead before their traditional “spring break” to spawning destinations.
Hundreds of anglers were well rewarded for flocking to the stretch of river from Troy, Ore., downstream to Shumaker access on the last two weekends of February. Although ice and cold stymied the catch on certain days, persistent anglers caught plenty of fish.
Creel surveys conducted by Oregon and Washington fisheries staffers found anglers averaging 2-3 hours per fish – an indicator of stellar fishing by steelheading standards.
Around 250 steelheaders were checked in that section of the river last weekend, when air temperatures hit 60 degrees and the water had just the right touch of color.
Meanwhile, downstream on the Grande Ronde near the confluence with the Snake, only about a dozen anglers were fishing on Sunday.
“The early flows we’ve had triggered most of the fish upstream, but there’s always new fish coming in to the Grande Ronde from the Snake this time of year,” said Joe Bumgarner, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist in Dayton. “They can definitely catch fish in the lower river.”
The hot spot, however, is the Grande Ronde from the Troy area down to State Highway 129 and Boggan’s Oasis. Wild fish must be released, but a good run of hatchery fish is in the river.
About 3,000 hatchery steelhead are on their way to upstream hatchery facilities near Enterprise, Ore., while around 800 hatchery steelhead are bound for where they were released as smolts into the river at the Cottonwood Creek acclimation pond just upstream from the highway.
“Most of those Cottonood fish will be hanging out in that area for the next month,” Bumgarner said. “The fishing holds up real well through March, depending on water conditions.
“By April, most of the fishing is by guys who just want to play with something on the end of their line. Most of the fish aren’t in very good condition.”
Just upstream above the state line in Oregon, anglers found less competition last weekend but still averaged 3.4 hours per fish, according to creel surveys.
The other March hot spot for Grande Ronde steelhead is closer to their hatchery destination in the Wallowa River near Enterprise.
“Anglers really hammer them up here in what we call the canyon stretch, the eight miles with road access up from the Minam River,” said Oregon biologist Mike Flesher.
As of Monday, more than 60 steelhead had already reached the Wallowa hatchery. “That’s a little early, so they’re on the move,” he said.