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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!
News: In 2008, we sold our guide business 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: www.windingwatersrafting.com and give them a call at 877-426-7238 / 541-432-0747
We believe customer service is our most important product and look forward to helping you with your next fly fishing adventure. For information about Joseph and the Wallowa Valley check out the links below:
For water level reports:http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/current/?type=flow
For steelhead and salmon counts coming over the dams: http://www.cbr.washington.edu/dart/adult.html
https://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/op/fishdata/home.asp
For info on our wonderful community: http://www.josephoregon.com/
Also see individual river reports under the "Fishing Reports" tab above.
7/23 - What a difference a week makes. The rivers have continued to drop quickly and the hatches and fish locations have changed. See individual riveer reports for more info.
7/16 - The Wallowa River is offering some of the best dry fly fishing I have seen in years. Big hatches of golden stones and caddis, combined with nice green water that continues to drop, has fish going crazy. see report.
7/7 - All of a sudden - following a very wet spring/June - all area streams have dropped and are running at average stream flows for this time of year. The Wallowa remains too high to wade but is producing nice trout on salmon fly dries and nymphs -- tight to the bank. Other area steams also fishing well. The Imnaha producing lots of spring chinook.
7/5/10 - The Imnah is producing plenty of spring chinook, and the Wallowa fishing well for trout on salmon flies from a boat.
7/3/10 - Rivers still high, but they are starting to drop and clear. We will have to see what the hot weather this week does as far as additional snow melt. The Imnaha has started to produce good numbers of spring chinook. The Wallowa River is still very high and colored, but the salmon flies are out and some good flyfishers are catching some big fish in the slicks along the bank - mostly with big stone fly nymphs. Do not expect to wade the Wallowa any time soon. Kinney Lake, Marr Pond and Wallowa Lake are all producing good numbers of stocked trout -- some to 18". We are also getting used new Kokanee records being set at Wallowa Lake every few weeks.
07/1/2010 - Same as 6/21 below.
06/21/2010 - Most area streams have been high and off-color this season to date. However, please check individual stream/lake reports for more info.
10/28/2009 - Steelhead fishing continues to be “hot or cold” --- depending on the day and the angler. There are lots of fish in the rivers. Steelhead are spread out throughout the Grande Ronde , and fair numbers have already been caught in the Wallowa River above Minam. The same is true of the Imnaha River where fish are being caught upstream near the town of Imnaha. When steelhead are “on the bite” big numbers are being caught on any given day. Two of us recently had some 7 – 10 fish days, interspersed with days where it was difficult to hook-up at all. Some of the best days over the past two weeks were during rain storms. One of our best flies this year has been a hot bead woolly bugger (orange bead head/black woolly bugger). Nymphing the deep slots and runs, on the bottom, with a combination of stone flies and egg patterns can also be productive. Fish are still being caught on intermediate sink lines, as well as single-hand and spey heavy sink tip lines. Other productive flies have been gold or orange bead prince nymphs (swung or nymphed), green butt skunks, purple spey patterns, and black or purple leeches. The fishing pressure near Troy, and on the Imnaha, has not been as heavy this past week as one might expect. The last ODFW Creel Checker counts for Oct 24 – 25were 7.4 hrs/fish in Ore. and 9.1 hrs/fish in Wash.
Joseph Fly Shoppe personnel will be on the river from 10/21 – 10/26. There will be no reports posted online or available at the shop during this time period. Thanks.
Steelhead fishing on Grande Ronde and Imnaha is can be a bit spotty, but there are lots of fish this year. Trout fishing on the Wallowa is still good and steelhead are being caught above and below Minam See "river reports" for updates on the different rivers.
10/3/09 – Perfect! We have had a steady wet snow most of the day here in Joseph. We may accumulate 5” – 10” in the next 24 hours. In any event the Grande Ronde and Imnaha Rivers will see a nice surge of water over the next few days. This will bring a bunch of new steelhead up from the Snake. Keep an eye on water levels over the next week. The rivers may be so low that they won’t “blow-out” (or not), but sometimes fish will go off the bite on rising water levels. The forecast is for clear weather and mid 60 degree temps by mid week – in Joseph . The Ronde and Imnaha should be perfect next week.
9/29/09 - We have more and more reports of good steelhead numbers being caught on the lower Grande Ronde and Imnaha Rivers. Despite low water levels the fish want to move upstream. If we get rain this week it could produce a big surge of fish. Grab your rod and make plans now. This could be the best October on the Ronde and Imnaha in years.
9/27/09 – We are watching the weather forcast – possible rain this week. Otherwise nothing much has changed. Steelhead are still fairly scarce on the Ronde and Imnaha. Water flows have continued to drop slightly. Sure, everyone is hanging on the few stories of steelhead caught at Troy, Bogans, the mouth. The lower Imnaha is actually producing some fair steelhead fishing. But for the most part it is still spotty.” That could, indeed will, change. We are watching the weather forcast – possible rain/snow this week.
9/19 - Trout. The Wallowa is still fishing very well for trout. The October caddis are starting to hatch, and the fishing pressure is light. Steelhead.
9/10 - Just a quick update. The Wallowa continues to fish well for trout - October caddis about to hatch. The Grande Ronde is still a bit low for steelhead to move in -in numbers. I know of four fish caught on fly near Troy this past week, but most flyfishers comming up empty. No crowds yet - need rain. No report from mouth or lower Washington section. No reports of steelhead yet on lower Imnaha.
9/4 – Although water levels are low, cool nights have stabilized water temperatures and trout fishing has been good this September. Forcast rains for Labor Day should only improve the fishing. The Wallowa River has fished well all summer and continues to produce some nice size trout. Fish tend to be concentrated in the deeper, faster water – the shoots, tail-outs, boulder fields, etc. (avoid the long areas of shallow water). The river is very slippery so wadding these fast water areas is best done using studded boots and/or a wadding staff. Surprisingly, dry fly fishing has been fairly good throughout midday. Try a variety of dry flies including #10/12 stimulators, #12/14 humpies or wulff patterns, or#14 caddis. If dry flies fail to produce move to hoppers, then to nymphs including #14 – 10 prince nymphs, hare’s ears, or smaller copper johns in a variety of colors. The Imnaha River is very low, as is normal for this time of year. Trout fishing on the lower river, below Horse Creek, has been fair to good. Use flies similar to the Wallowa, but consider some bigger woolly buggers or streamers for bull trout. Upstream near the Hwy 39 campgrounds do not expect to find many trout, but this section of river holds large whitefish and some nice bull trout. Like the rest of the world, we all anticipating the record setting run of steelhead moving up the Columbia this year. The Grand Ronde is still very low and warm this September (70 – 72 degrees) and only a few fish are being caught from Troy to the mouth. Fish are holding in the Snake.
8/18/09 – A couple of very heavy rains a week/ten days ago was just what the doctor ordered. In early August our rivers were too low and warm for good fishing and healthy fish. Now area streams are at or above normal stream flows and the trout are spread out and active. …… And – the big news this week is that we also have some crazy good numbers of steelhead moving up the Columbia and Snake Rivers, headed our way. In the last seven days over 100,000 steelhead moved over Bonneville Dam (32,000 in one day alone!). That brings the total year to date number to 323,155 versus a ten year average of 192,717. Numbers over Lower Granite Dam, the last dam before the Grande Ronde and Imnaha Rivers, is now over 19,000 – a forty percent increase over the ten year average. We will need more rains to keep the steelies coming, but one thirty inch hen was reportedly caught at Troy last week.
7/20/09 The Wallowa River has dropped rapidly this past week, but is still fishing well --- if you are willing to work a little harder for your fish. The big boys are a little harder to find in the low clear water.
8/1/09 Despite the hot weather the Wallowa is still fishing really well, and we have been getting reports of larger than average fish for this time of year! The water temp is getting up into high 60’s and lower 70’s but cooler weather and possibly some rain is in the forcast.
Large (sz 6-10) stonefly nymphs, Princes and Hares ears, are still the best producers fished solo or with a small dark colored dropper such as a sz 14 dark hares ear or Copper John in red, copper, blue, or purple. There have been mayflies out in the evening and we generally consider from 7:00 pm to dark to be the golden hours. Smaller red and yellow Humpies should do well and Parachute Adams should also be on hand. The hoppers are out so hopper and muddler patterns are a good bet as well. We have had reports of decent fishing on the lower Minam river as well, it is possible that some larger fish are migrating from the warmer Grande Ronde and lower Wallowa up into the Upper Wallowa and Minam rivers.
Note: in this hot weather being extremely careful when releasing fish is important. Handing of the fish should be as minimal as possible and they should not be removed from the water. After a good fight you might need to hold them in the water for as long as 2-3 minutes before they are strong enough to swim away. As always we recommend using barb-less hooks and a net to aid in the healthy release of fish.
Visit complete fishing report...
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