I would like to start out by thanking everyone who spend the days chasing the steelhead with me on the GR. The late winter/spring 2010 season was a huge success with a 5 fish limit and lots of great battles, big grins, and full smokers.  The fall 2010 season ran the full race.  We experienced days of beautiful sun and temps in the 70's, as well as classic steelhead days of rain and wind.  Probably the best thing about the fall fishing was the extraordinary size of the fish.  The run of the mill typical GR fish @ 5-7 lbs were 8-10 lbs this season.  The 10 lb trophy native steelhead that we have come to love gave into better ocean conditions, as this year they were in the 13-15 lb range.  YES, on the GR.  15 lb steelhead do exist.  I personally taped two 35" fish and a 37" hen that were amazing specimens of what a tried and true steelhead come through in our dreams.  The work  ODFW has done remarkably well in returning more of these great Wallowa strain steelhead back to the river earlier in the season.  Hats off to ODFW!!!!  Now to 2011

The 2011 GR steelhead season is just about to start up. I will begin booking trips on Sat Jan 15th for the upcoming February and March dates. With almost 200k steelhead in our part of the Snake River, the Grande Ronde Spring season should be as stellar as the last.(Spring 2010 was ridiculously fun for all.) If you are interested in a fantastic Grande Ronde steelhead trip this spring, DO NOT wait to book.  I will be full again this year with just prior clients, college class, and spring baseball. Hope to hear from y'all soon.....rick   The river should be fishing in the next week, look for an early season report to follow soon.