Okay, this goes out to all you veterans. Its been many years since I fished the Ronde, I am looking for some advice and tips here. I'm looking to fish the washington section only and am unsure of how to attack the bigger water.

I am most skilled in the spinner fishing and am wondering if that would be effective there.

So, can anyone shed some light on my lack of experience there?

Thanks,

Scott

Spinners are what I know best, and I've always done fairly well on the GR with spinners. There's lot of good water on the WA side. If there's a tip I can give you that would help, it would be to seek the more subtle water to fish. The obvious perfect looking holes have two problems: 1. Because they look so good, they get picked over by everyone every day--there's rarely a moment when sombody isn't dragging something through the water, and that leaves the few fish that escape very cautious. The other problem is that the GR is a big enough river that the holes are deep enough so that they are not best fished with a spinner. It's better to find spots where most of the river passes by a nice holding spot--then essentially you have a small river situation that's better suited for spinners. Another good idea is to hit marginal water full of rocks and boulders. The fish hold up in singles behind these obstructions, but are not easily targeted with many methods. These sections are fished well with a spinner, but not so well with drift gear, so they are either passed up or fished ineffectively, and you can come in and score with a spinner.

Good luck,

Pink corkie with rocket red and fuchsia yarn pulled through it.

I have fished the Grande Ronde the most out of all the rivers I have fished for Steelhead, and by far have found the best way to fish that area is by drift fishing. I have bobber fished with a jig which was also fairly successful for me. I use the the 1/8 size jig as was mentioned before some of the holes are rather deep. I like the rock dancer series down there. I have had my best success depending on water levels and clarity of course using a small orange corky with chartreuse yarn, or the larger corky in mucky water. Don't let the harn hang past the hook point. We use various sents to cover up the human scent. My particular favorite is gel krill it seems to do the job well, you can also use shrimp scented smelly jelly. You will have to fish the area over as there is alot of great water to cover there.

RAE