Wallowa River Fishing Report
Low Water Steelhead
By: Andrew Hasbrook
The Wallowa continues to flow low and clear for the most part. A small system rolled through about a week ago and bumped the flows about 100 cfs but they have since dropped again and are about 280cfs at the time of this report. Here is a link to the river levels. https://apps.wrd.state.or.us/apps/sw/hydro_near_real_time/display_hydro_graph.aspx?station_nbr=13331450
Even with the low flows however Austin and I went out to see what we could find last Friday. We were on a meat mission, looking for some hatchery steelhead to throw in the smoker. After a morning of fishing a few spots here and there we were only able to hook into one measly steelhead that quickly popped off after a good head shake. We took a little break for lunch and headed to another one of our favorite spots in the afternoon. We did not expect to find a whole lot after what we saw that morning. We were very wrong however and ended up pleasantly surprised. With the water temps rising into the afternoon the bite turned on and we were able to find ourselves a good pocket of fish.
When fishing the Wallowa or Grande Ronde at lower flows you can find pockets of steelhead that will hold up together. Finding areas with good cover, depth and slower flows this time of year is generally the ticket with low cold water. When you do find these pockets of fish it is generally worth spending a good amount of time there and thoroughly working the water.
When we found and landed our first steelhead on this particular afternoon we were in a spot that we knew probably held more. After Austin landed and tagged his first buck of the day it was my turn to step in. It was probably somewhere around 12:30 pm and we knew that the bite must finally be turning on. After landing a few whitefish, that truly had me tricked at first, I was into a nice hatchery hen. With a nice tail job from Austin, I now had my first tagged and harvested fish of the year on the Wallowa. We then proceeded to both step in and have an absolute blast with both of us hooking into some nice fish every few casts or so. Austin tagged out with another small buck and I continued to hook a few more. Unfortunately my landing percentage on the day was quite low and after losing another couple fish I finally had my last fish of the day and also tagged out.
This day just goes to show that even if the flows are low and you may not find fish right away it’s worth sticking it out. It only takes one honey hole and one magical hour to turn a poor day of fishing into a day worth bragging about. The Wallowa and Grande Ronde can both be rivers where when that magical hour hits you better have your line in the water because these fish can get bity! After a good smoke sesh on super bowl Sunday we are now enjoying the fruits of our Labor.
It looks like the weather is starting to cool down in the area and by next weekend we are looking at high temps of only about 19. The fishing will probably slow down a bit during this cold weather pattern. However, once the temps climb again and if we get a little rain it’s going to be on like Donkey Kong for our hatchery steelhead fishery on the Wallowa. Keep your eye on the forecast and hopefully we will see some higher temps moving in next week. Until then we could use the snow in the mountains for our snowpack.
We will keep you posted when the weather and fishing turns on again.