Heading down to the Grand Ronde.

[andersonjk4]

My girlfriend and I are taking a trip to Boise next weekend and I talked her into leaving a day early and taking a little detour to spend a couple days and a night on the Grand Ronde and trying our hands at catching some steelhead.  I've been floating the Grand Ronde every summer for the last several years and fish it a lot for smallmouths, but this will be my first trip for steelhead.  All of my previous steelhead fishing experience has been trolling plugs on the Snake.  If nothing else I love that valley and will have a great time enjoying the scenery.  Any tackle or technique tips anyone is willing to share for bank fishing steelhead would be greatly appreciated.     

[WSU]

Fish from Cottonwood down.  Drifting bait works great, as does bobber and jig.  Tip your jig with shrimp some of the time for a little extra.

[Dhoey07]

I've been down there once and caught one on a corky and yarn and a spinner.  Good luck 

[Mfowl]

Fish from Boggans landing up to the Cottonwood hatchery. Lots of bank access. Use a bobber/jig combo tipped w/shrimp. Been a long time since I've been out that way, Rattlesnake gr. is a helluva drive but scenic. Schoemaker gr. has bank access as well. Spinners and spoons will work to.

[andersonjk4]

Thanks guys!  I'm definitely a novice when it comes to this kind of fishing, but my plan is to drift some bait and try some bobber and jigs.  I just ordered some artificial eggs from Polarbear and was planning on giving them a try too.  Anyone ever caught any bass this time of year?  I figured if I can't figure out the Steelhead bite I might fall back to what I know and bust out the bass gear.   

[bearpaw]

That's a nice river, I always wanted to fish it for steelhead too, good luck. Post pics.... 

[pendoreilleadventures]

I haven't fished there in years but when I did I would go to Schoemaker gr. and hike about 3 miles down stream there is a nice trail. We used a corky and yarn and a spinner. Bring waders some times the river is hard to access once the trail runs out.

 I would not recommend going down that grade when there is fresh snow. My buddy slide us off the grade lucky it was in the best place to do it we only went over about 10 feet still cost me 550 bucks to get towed out. I had to hike up the grade 4 miles to get to a farmers house to call for the tow. As we waited 3 hours for the tow to truck to come we watched 7 other rigs bonce off the rocks around where we went off.

[andersonjk4]

I haven't fished there in years but when I did I would go to Schoemaker gr. and hike about 3 miles down stream there is a nice trail. We used a corky and yarn and a spinner. Bring waders some times the river is hard to access once the trail runs out.

 I would not recommend going down that grade when there is fresh snow. My buddy slide us off the grade lucky it was in the best place to do it we only went over about 10 feet still cost me 550 bucks to get towed out. I had to hike up the grade 4 miles to get to a farmers house to call for the tow. As we waited 3 hours for the tow to truck to come we watched 7 other rigs bonce off the rocks around where we went off.

I would really like to head down Shumaker one of these times and check it out.  I've been down the first 1/2 mile of it while hunting cow elk in the Couse unit, and I've floated by the landing many times, but never driven down.  I would love to try that and get a good hike in, but since this is a quick trip with the GF that one will have to wait.  But thanks for the suggestion.  I will definitely keep that in mind for another day.  I can imagine that grade gets real dicey with a little snow on it.     

[huntnnw]

goodluck...very bad year down there as half the fish count of the 10yr avg...if you wanna catch fish bounce the bottom 

[eastwa]

Last week there was about 12" of ice on the edges below the narrows- 2 miles upstream from the Snake.
Lots of bobber fishing going on.

[Bone_Collector]

I would suggest trying out just some glo bug yarn in your egg loop as well when drift fishing it works great at times when nothing else will! Good Luck!

B_C

[7mmfan]

I would suggest trying out just some glo bug yarn in your egg loop as well when drift fishing it works great at times when nothing else will! Good Luck!

B_C

  Yarn alone in a baitloop, trimmed down to a ball the size of a dime can be dang effective, pretty much fish that all the time now as it is.

[huntnnw]

nobody has yet to mention the most effective weapon to fish the ronde

[andersonjk4]

Thanks for all of the tips guys.  I will have to pick me up some yarn.  What size hooks are you guys using?   

nobody has yet to mention the most effective weapon to fish the ronde

Well I gotta know what that is.  Come on guys. Dish it.     

[fishingfool]

"Dupont Spinner"??

[huntnnw]

It's not a bobber.. The guys having 10+ fish days are NOT using bobbers .. I haven't used a piece of yarn in 3 years down there or bait

[one shot kill]

Dynamite or pipe bomb.

[Bone_Collector]

I saw it down there yesterday it was a set up with 3 hooks and beads on all 3 of the hooks!

B_C

[woodywsu]

I've heard a lot of reports lately. A lot of pressure on WA side. A couple buddies decided to buy a oregon license and floated to teh border and had killer days. No pressure on the Oregon side.

As for methods, I've taken a lot of fish and everything. Drifting yarn or bait is killer but there is plenty of spoon and bobber water as well. Fish are throughout the system and every type of gear will take fish.

[andersonjk4]

Sounds like I need to just bring the whole arsenal down and see what works best for the location and for me.  I've heard people say that steelhead "go to bed" on the Grande Ronde and it isn't worth fishing from after mid to late afternoon and not before about 11:00am.  Any truth to this? I'll probably still have a pole in the water while I'm down there just wondering.  Up river on the snake I've done my best steelhead fishing at night with lighted plugs, so it seems strange that these ones would be any differnt, but I guess this is a lot skinnier water and the fish are in a different stage of there journey. 

[WSU]

Sounds like I need to just bring the whole arsenal down and see what works best for the location and for me.  I've heard people say that steelhead "go to bed" on the Grande Ronde and it isn't worth fishing from after mid to late afternoon and not before about 11:00am.  Any truth to this? I'll probably still have a pole in the water while I'm down there just wondering.  Up river on the snake I've done my best steelhead fishing at night with lighted plugs, so it seems strange that these ones would be any differnt, but I guess this is a lot skinnier water and the fish are in a different stage of there journey.

Not exactly.  The bite often picks up mid-day as the temps warm up (the ronde is cold this time of year).  But, I've caught tons of fish right at dark and at daylight. 

And, I wouldn't bring a bunch of different setups.  I'd bring a float road and a drift rod and work the water.  Keep moving and don't spend too terribly long in one spot.  Those fish aren't moving fast and there are only a certain number of biters in each spot.  You can always go back once the water has rested for a few hours.

[huntnnw]

some of the best fishing on that river is sunrise till 11am and then 1-4pm..alot of times the fish turn off when the sun gets off the water in the evening

[allen]

I've been waiting with baited breath, you gotta let us know how you did.

[andersonjk4]

I've been waiting with baited breath, you gotta let us know how you did.

Haha.  You were waiting for nothing.    Didn't catch a single fish.  Although that was pretty much the outcome I expected.  This was my first time fishing for steelhead like this, so it was more of a learning experience.  I did learn some things and I did get one bite that I missed.  The weather was great and the scenery down there was awesome as always.  Next time I will have to bribe some of the more experienced steelheaders down there or on here to show me the ropes.  I have been fishing warm water fish (bass/walleye) my whole life, so steelhead fishing (drift fishing) is going to take some time for me to get the hang of.  Good luck to all of you who are headed down there. 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Would be nice if Huntnw would let us in on the hot method of catching the steelhead up there? We need to come together
 and love one another here on hunt wa!

[TheHunt]

Well, he eliminated bait, bobber, and yarn ball or yarn.   

It could be

1.  Metal = spoon or spinner
2.  Corky

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Guess that leaves metal throwin and plugs.

[WSU]

Bead.

[goosegetter79]

Bead.

   Good bddy uses just a bead and does pretty good when no one else is.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Yes. The bead! Thanks for the clarification.