Free: Contests & Raffles.
There is 5 hatcherys..they took out 2 I think a few years ago in oregon. It was at one time or still may be the highest stocked steelhead river in the world.
January, February, and March are prime times for the Ronde but it can be iced up in Jan so it makes floating the river dangerous! I float it in February and March and fishing is fantastic! Once it comes back into shape I am headed down to put a wackin on some more fish!B_C
last year it was unfishable during march and april, the water was much too high. the year before it was good with a limit of 5. this year it is 3 or 4? i think one of the hatcheries is for salmon. one steelhead hatchery is in oregon and the rearing pond for steels is about 2 miles above boggans at cottonwood. the fry are shipped from lyons ferry and put in the pond to reach a certain size then released. i have caught a few salmon in the river in the last 10 years. the tucannon river has a better run of salmon. mike w
The Clearwater has 1 run of steelhead but they break it in to 2 sub runs an A run and B run. The A run are typically smaller fish in the 5 to 8 pound class and they spend 1 year out in the ocean the B run are the larger fish and they spend two years out in the ocean. The smaller fish show up a bit earlier as well but there are still some bigger fish mixed in!B_C
PNW is correct that the fish are in different parts of the river at different times. The oregon fish pass by prior to the Wa fish arriving. I think the question is when does that occur in the various parts of the river.