Steelhead: Adjusting to Changing Conditions/Grande Ronde Report

The scenic Grande Ronde valley

I spent last week guiding and fishing for summer steelhead on the Grande Ronde River in eastern Washington, as well as on the Clearwater River in Idaho. That week was a prime example of how conditions can rapidly change on a steelhead river. I arrived at the Grande Ronde on Sunday afternoon, October 24th to warm temperatures and hazy sunshine. The temperatures were in the upper 60's and the water temperature was in the mid 50's. My friend and fellow guide Chad Becker had been on the river since Friday and landed 14 steelhead by Sunday, all on a floating line and small traditional hairwing steelhead patterns. As we had also used on my scouting mission the weekend before. Conditions were ideal with the stable warm weather, and stable water conditions. When I crawled in the tent that night it was warm enough to just lay under the sleeping bag.

Pate didn't seem to mind the changes in weather.

But by morning, what a change! Temps were down around freezing, and the air just felt drier. Myself, my client and friend Tony, and Chad had breakfast and went up river in search of Tony's first steelhead. Tony was working on his scandinavian style single speys and snake rolls with my Winston BIImx 11'6" 6/7wt and Scientific Anglers Scandi Extreme 440gr. We used a number of traditional hairwing patterns in sizes 6 and 8 in the same water that had been producing so well the previous days but could not draw a strike. I took a water temp that afternoon and it read 46 degrees.  The temp had dropped approximately 8 degrees in one day! Over dinner, we all pondered this change and reflected on past times on the Grande Ronde. The previous year Chad and I had faced similar cold conditions and changed over to light to medium sink tips and small leech patterns with lots of movement. I decided that tomorrow we needed to make a change. So before bed I replaced the 10' intermediate poly leader with a fast sink version and changed to a black conehead leech.

The adjustments made.

We awoke to another very cold clear morning and headed to the water. Tony was working down the first run laying out some great single speys while I coached when his rod  doubled over and a beautiful hen steelhead rolled. After a great battle, Tony held his first ever steelhead, and on a swung fly none the less! The next few days produced more of the same.

Tony's first steelhead, what a beauty!

By Wednesday afternoon the water temp was down to 42 degrees.The fishing was not red hot as it had been pre cold front, but we managed to hook fish each day sticking with the leech patterns and sink tips.

On Friday, Chad and I went to the Clearwater River upstream from Lewiston, Idaho. The Clearwater is a much larger river than the Ronde and we expected to find warmer water and happier fish. Chad and I hoped to be able to go back to the long belly floating lines and small sparse patterns the Clearwater is known for. I took a water temp of 47 and felt comfortable with that approach. After a long day and a lot of casting, we both managed to find fish late in the afternoon as doubt began to set in.

Clearwater fish taken on a floating line and small sparse wet fly.

Chad's Clearwater steelhead

Making adjustments on the fly is something we deal with all the time in fly fishing. Whether it be a new hatch on the trout river, a change of tide on Puget Sound, or a change of weather on the steelhead stream. Don't be afraid to experiment and make changes, something new might work when all else has failed.