Wallowa River Fishing Report

Fishing Report

Wallowa River: Weather is cooling down but the fishing is heating up!

Jan. 11. 2021

By: Andrew Hasbrook

What we found

With winter fully upon us now it is common to dream of warm days spent on rivers fishing and basking in the glory of the sun. While it may not be the balmy 75-80 degrees that we dream of, the sun still often shines in the winter months on the Wallowa River.

We set off for a fishing trip this past weekend, with temps just above freezing when we hit the boat launch. The water was flowing a bit higher than the last time we set out in December, around 290 CFS. With a recent bump in the flows about a week earlier we were hopeful and optimistic that we would find some steelhead that moved up with the water. What we were surprised to find however was just how good the trout fishing continued to be. 

What worked for the Trout 

We were again pleasantly surprised with the quality and the fight in the trout for the cold water temps. We started with our go to: the dry dropper. Immediately we were finding players from the first couple spots. Our choice of suspending a jigged pheasant tail and jigged prince nymph continued to produce. After a bit of floating and a few dries lost in tree branches, we switched over to just a single jigged nymph dropped under a small indicator. Zero split shot, and one fly. Sometimes it pays to keep it simple folks. This produced a great number of fish for us. 

Steelhead

Between throwing trout gear we would switch over to the nymph rod for a go at some of the steelhead we were hoping to find. As we were having so much fun with the trout fishing, we often would forgo picking up the heavier weighted nymphing rig. There are a few spots on this float that are worth making the switch, at this particular spot we were happy that we did. Suspending a hot bead stonefly with a bead dropped roughly two feet off of it’s shank, we were able to get into a great specimen of a hatchery fish. With another great fight from this fish we were all left with smiles on our face. 

The steelhead fishing should continue to improve in the next couple months and we are excited to get out there and try our luck. Don’t let the cold temps and winter months intimidate you; there is great fishing to be had this time of year. We have been very pleased with the trout fishing and hope it continues to produce. The steelhead have been bigger and stronger this year so we are in for some fun!