Sunday, June 27, 2004

Grande Ronde Runaround Shelly is certainly a good sport.  She wanted to go fishing again today, so after another magnum breakfast at Rusty's Ranch Cafe, we weighed our options and headed down Hwy 129 out of Clarkston for the Grande Ronde, which as you may recall from our geography lesson of the other day, joins the Snake about 25 miles south of Asotin, give or take.  Pat Long had told us the GR was running at about 4,000 cfs and he likes to see it around 1,000 or 1,200.  I should know better than to try to fish a river that's running four times as heavy as it ought to be for good fishing... From Asotin, Snake River Road takes you along the Washington side of the river to the Grande Ronde.  Viewed from that perspective, highlights like Buffalo Eddy and the bluffs where the bighorns hang out seem like miniatures compared to their greater prominence when seen from the river. The Grande Ronde looked fine from the road, but it was clearly running high.  Besides, no one was fishing it on a Sunday - not a good sign.  I made an executive decision and we drove up Joseph Creek Road to check out a major tributary.  This little river looked wonderful, with riffles, pools and a few deep holes.  We gave it our best shot, with Shelly tossing a tiny Panther Martin, Jon working dries and nymphs and me dredging the holes with Glo Bugs and Hot-Butt Stoneflies. Despite what looked like perfect water, we caught only a few very small rainbows.  Apparently the bass have not made it up this far yet, and if there were any steelhead present, you couldn't prove it by me.  The water felt quite warm, though I did not bring a thermometer.  We were wading wet again today and were quite comfortable, so it must have been pushing 70 degrees. Eagle-eye Shelly spotted a big mulie feeding on a hillside as we were fishing, and I found a half-dozen turkey dusting bowls, complete with enough feathers to get a good start on a feather duster.  The only turkeys we saw, however, were in a farmyard. We beat it back to Lewiston for lunch and found a cafe open up the street from the Traditional Sportsman fly shop.  The fly shop must keep casual hours because when I called them the other day during their posted hours looking for advice on where to fish, no one answered ther phone.  Maybe they could have steered us in a better direction. Next trip, I'll do a little more research before hitting the water. Tomorrow a.m. it's back to Wisconsin, where Shivani tells me it's raining again!  I'll try to finish blogging the OWAA conference from the plane and post it when I get home. Later... 9:28:06 PM    comment []

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