Grande Ronde Steelhead 11-27-11

 I fished the Grande Ronde  with Mark G on Saturday and Sunday

11-26-11 and 11-27-11

Our weather and fishing conditions were excellent.

The temperatures were cool, but with very little wind it was warmer then I had expected.  Another bonus  was it did not rain or snow a drop on us all weekend!

The river was running from 900 to 800  with 4 feet of vis and slowly dropping most of the weekend.

We hooked 23 steelhead and  several chunky trout that kept us more than entertained  all weekend

The fish seemed to be evenly spread  in good numbers throughout the river.

We caught our fish using a combination of drift fishing, free drifting and bobber and jig.

The abundance of wild life; big horn sheep, deer, coyote, and misalliance critters  added to the already spectacular scenery and created an incredible atmosphere this weekend.

 



Humtulips Silvers and kings 11-20-11

I fished the Humptulips with Tom F and Sean J, on Sunday 11-20-11.

The fishing was good but not great

The river conditions were perfect, 4 to 5 feet of  vis and a slight green tint

The river was on a slow drop from 1,200 to 1,100 and had just recovered from the heavy rains it received on Wednesday.

The below freezing temps in the morning made even the easiest of casts very challenging. It was a constant fight with the freezing  rods, eyes, reels and line until the sun came out later in the day

We hooked a even  mix of silvers and  kings. Most or our fish were dark but we were able to find some bright ones. Both the silvers and kings seemed to be spread throw the whole river and there did not seem to be a huge quantity in any one spot.

We caught our fish on a combination of eggs, spinners and jigs

 

Humptulips Kings 11-12-11 & 11-13-11

I fished the Humptulips with Matt S  on Saturday and Sunday

The river rose form 650 to just over 1,000 Friday night and slowly made its way back down to 900 at 1pm  on Saturday before rocketing back up to 1,500 Saturday night and slowly dropping back  down to 1,200 by the end of the day on Sunday.

The river was threatening to blow out all weekend,  but never did.  Our visibility ranged from 1 to 3 feet but as a whole it was pretty good. A massive amount of leaves in the river  made  fishing a bit difficult but not imposable.

The weather  started out ok  but turned  downright nasty the second half of the day on Saturday .  The nonstop   rain and 30+ mph winds made handling the boat and lines very challenging at times.

Although there did not seen to be that many fish in the the river we  had some wide open smoking hot fishing at times and were able to catch several nice kings including a few doubles. We were also able to scratch up a couple  silvers and a few chum. We did our best with eggs this weekend but  were also able to catch a few on jigs

The overall  feel for this weekend was that the fishing was very slow for most people and there were hardly any fish rolling or moving in the river but there were definitely fish to catch for those willing to work at it.   The kings and silvers were about 50% bright and 50% dark.  Most of the chums have disappeared and 90% of what are left are in poor condition although we did catch a couple bright ones.

I expect the fishing to continue to  get slower in the next few weeks.

Humptulips Kings, Silvers, & Chum 11-6-11

I fished the Humtulips  with Cory B on Saturday 11-5-11 and Sunday 11-6-11

The fishing was good but not great.

The overall  fishing conditions were good. The temp in the mornings were near freezing but it warmed  a bit in the afternoons. The river was slowly  dropping from 850 to 750 this weekend   and had about 6 feet of vis.

There are a ton of chum  spread out throw the whole  river,  we hooked several bright ones each day. We had to work  for both our kings and silvers but were able to scrape up a good number of both this weekend. I was very happy with our results given the slow tone to the river this weekend.

The ration on both the kings and silver seemed to be about 40 % bright and about 60% dark

The overall feel on the river was  that the king fishing was slow and may be winding down for the year. The silver  fishing was a little better than I had seen in the last few weeks but still not great and probably will not be till we get some more rain.

We  had our best results on a combination  of eggs  and jigs .