PRODUCTS Our quiver is full of the best products from the very best companies in the buisness. We produly offer a large selection of products from Sage, Simms, Ross Reels, GLoomis, Scientific Anglers, Rio, Fishpond, Outcast, and many more!!
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Your heart leaps as you watch a large native Steelhead snatch your skating dry fly on the Grande Ronde River. Kids laugh with excitement as they land their first Rainbow on the Wallowa. You realize you just missed a nice strike at your fly because you were too busy taking in the rugged beauty of the Imnaha canyon . These are just a sample of the experiences you can have in the territory the Nez Perce called “Land of Winding Water.”
Welcome to the Joseph Fly Shoppe located in the beautiful Wallowa Valley. We are a full service destination shop which specializes in a large selection of high performance fly equipment, unbeatable customer service, and absolute dedication to the graceful art of fly angling! Let us help make your Eastern Oregon fishing experience a memorable one!
We believe that customer service is our most important product and look forward to helping you with your next fly fishing adventure! For more information about fishing, Joseph, and the beautiful Wallowa Valley explore the links below:
Guided Fishing: In 2008 we sold our guide buisness to Winding Waters River Expeditions. This comprehensive guide service offers a wide range of whitewater and fishing trips on some of the areas most fantastic rivers including the Grand Ronde, Wallowa, Salmon, and Snake rivers. Please explore the Winding Waters River Expeditions web site and see the PHOTO GALLERY at: www.windingwatersrafting.com and give them a call at 877-426-7238 / 541-432-0747.
Shuttle Service/ Rentals: For information on river shuttles for the Grande Ronde ($90) or Wallowa ($35) rivers, as well as rafting equipment rentals call the MINAM STORE at 541-437-1111
AREA RAFTING, RIVER AND FISHING REPORTS: Grant Riche is one of the areas premier outdoorsmen. Check out his web site www.fishingandhiking.comfor great articles on area rivers (floating Minam to Troy 101, etc.).
Check this out.The Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries is monitoring hatchery steelhead passage on the Imnaha using in-stream counters that read “PIT” tags placed in a percentage of the fish.This information is available on line at the site linked below.The problem is, the information is difficult for layman to decipher.Tribal Fisheries representatives have assured me that “as soon as they have time” they will try to sort, interpret and post this info in a form that will allow fishers to better monitor current Imnaha steelhead numbers - on any given date (ie:are there enough fish in the river to justify my driving over?).Summary reports at year end will also quantify the number and success of the hatchery run. http://www.ptoccentral.org/dbaccess/InStrmDtctn/InStrmDtctn_query.html
FISHING SUMMARY
11-19-12 see individual river reports
11-12-12 Grande Ronde steelheading has been fair to good this past week. Crowds have thinned-out and many of the guides have pulled out to guide on coastal and other rivers. The most common rigging would be a 12’6” #6 spey rod with two nymphs and a strike indicator. Swingers need heavy sink tips.
11/2 MUST READ NEW REPORT ATTACHED FROM DISTRICT FISH BIOLOGIST JEFF YANKEE:
Hi all,
First off, for those of you interested in this – apologies for the lack of info this run year. We’ve been resource-limited, and these updates had to fall off my plate until now.
For those of you in the know, you’re probably aware that this year’s run as not like the last few we’ve enjoyed. The run-at-large at Lower Granite is running about 53% the 10-year average. As of today, 89,457 steelhead crossed Lower Granite.
For Northeast Oregon, we have some bad news and good news…
· Bad news. Grande Ronde steelhead are returning about 70% of last year, and 50% of the storied runs of 2010-11. Imnaha steelhead are returning about 30% of last year, and 25% of 2010-11. Eeesh. Of course, we’ll all need to keep in mind that recent steelhead runs were unusually robust and the reduced numbers we’re seeing now is more ‘normal’. Either way you cut it, catch rates won’t be as good as we’re used to.
· Good news. What fish are returning this year look to be of good size. Typically, our Northeast Oregon stocks return about 60% 1-salt (22-25”) and 40% 2-salt (26-29”). So far, we’re observing the Grande Ronde stocks returning around 80% 2-salts. The Imnaha stock is returning a little more ‘normal’, around 54% 2-salts. So if you can find them, expect your drag to work a little harder than usual.
· Caveats. Take these estimates with a grain of salt right now. Because the run is lower this year, we have fewer PIT tag detections we are basing these estimates from. Weird things can happen when relying on low sample sizes, like ‘creating’ Wallowa 1-salts out of thin air between Ice Harbor and Lower Granite. Also note that no 1-salt Big Sheep steelhead returned this year, because the 2010 brood year was released with the Little Sheep production.
I also included the 2010-11 and 2011-12 PIT tag estimates for the Grande Ronde and Imnaha stocks, just FYI.
Although the run is nearly complete, I may update this once or twice more before year’s end. Also, because some of the age composition and abundance estimates are so different, we’re double-checking data to see if anything else is causing the result. Bottom line, all is preliminary.
Jeff Yanke
Wallowa District Fish Biologist
Enterprise, OR
11/1 - Quick update. Water levels on the Ronde have fallen quickly to 1500 cfs and color is good.
10/29 - ALERT The Grande Rhonde went from 1000 cfs to 4000 cfs in the last 36 hrs -and has still not peaked. IT IS BLOWN-OUT. The Imnaha went from 150 cfs to 300 cfs and has some color. The wearther forecat looks good for a decline in levels, but the
Rhonde could take 2-4 days. Follow our link to river levels.
10/29/12 – Steelhead report for Grande Ronde and Imnaha rivers: Water levels for both rivers have been holding around median levels for this date (850 cfs for Ronde, 150 cfs for Imnaha). However, yesterday the Ronde did spike 300 cfs from recent rain and snow. Steelhead counts over the dams remain at 55% – 60% of ten year averages. Water temps have dropped, but we don’t have current numbers.
We have been away from the flyshop for most of the past two weeks. However, we have several reports from the last two days. Apparently the Imnaha fished well over the weekend – below Cow Creek and in the Snake near the mouth. There is little pressure above Cow Creek and we have no reports for this section. Rain is forecast for most of this week, so we hope water levels rise. Flows of 300 cfs – 500 cfs offer more holding water and spread out the fisherman..
The only Ronde report we have is that fishing has been slow for flyfishers and fair for back bouncers and gear guys. A report of a guide trip between Minam and Troy indicated fishing was slow, but a few steelhead were caught in the lower section. We will see what this recent spike in flows does to move fish.
10/16 – OK kids – some good steelhead news …. and some bad. Rains the last 2 – 5 days provided an important increase in river flows that will move fish. This is the first real bump in flows since the season opened and will tickle the noses of steelhead smelling their way home. The Grande Ronde went from 650 cfs to 1020 cfs - vs a medium flow of 790 cfs for this time of year. The Imnaha went from 110 cfs two days ago to 143 cfs – vs a mediam flow of 143 for this time of year. Both rivers have peaked for the time being. I will be out of the store for the next ten days and you will have to pull information off the links on our website.
The bad news: Steelhead counts over Bonneville Dam are only 60% of the ten year average. Counts over Lower Granite Dam have recently dropped to 53% of the ten year average for this date. Low stream flows have also delayed the movement of fish upstream from the Snake River. Despite this, fishing pressure has been pretty high on the Grande Ronde.
Thanks to the Nez Perce Fisheries Pit Tag website (see the link on our home page) we can determine approximately how many adult fish have moved above Cow Creek on the Imnaha. Since 9/1 twelve pit-tagged adult steelhead have crossed the counter at Cow Creek. Using the average multiplier of approximately 10 fish for each tagged fish (note, the Nez Perce Fisheries says this is only a rough estimate), we can estimate 120 hatchery fish are upstream of Cow Creek. It is also estimated that approximately one third of all steelhead are Native stock, so we can add another 60 fish, making the total 180 fish upstream of Cow Creek. Each year approximately 250,000 hatchery steelhead smolt are released into the Imnaha from the Big Sheep hatchery. A good return of hatchery fish would be 1%, or 2500 hatchery fish each year. As noted above, this figure may be reduced by 40-50% this year.
We do not have Pit-tag counters on the Grande Ronde or Wallowa Rivers. However, the two Wallowa River hatcheries each release 250,000 steelhead smolt each year which should result in approximately 1% or 5,000 hatchery fish returning to the Wallowa. It would be reasonable to expect an additional 2,000 wild fish to also return each year for a total return of 7,000 fish. Again, these numbers could be reduced by 40% - 50% this year based on Columbia River dam counts to date. I do not have information on the expected Cottonwood hatchery returns for the lower Grande Ronde in Washington.
