I now several outstanding steelheaders, who have been at it for over 25 years. The only 10-fish days they have are when they volunteer to work at the steelhead hatchery on spawn day, and the game department gives them 10. Kenbarb rates the day a 5 when he boats 4....and that's for two people.

aWe fish the Heller Bar area about 15 days each year. This year we averaged about 4 fish/day boated with 6 to 12 fish on per day.
We pull plugs most of the fall similar to Ken and Barb. Don't know how many folks over here on the wet side can say that.... It's definitely worth the trip. Two of my boys and I landed 18 steelhead in one day on the GR in late February. Even though the numbers are down and the ratio of natives are up it is a ton of fun to C&R Steelhead! They've been in the rivers since September, and still these Snake River and GR fish are amazing fighters. Can't hardly tell the difference from catching them in September to catching them in February. Seems like they don't lose any energy at all!

Barb and I usually fish in the afternoon from about 1:00pm to 4:00pm, our normal fish to the net average in a three hour period is three or four Steelhead. Any avid steelhead fisherman in this area knows that you have to work for every one you get, and some days you are lucky to even connect with one. Some of the big open guide boats no doubt have 20 fish and more in the boat, they fish all day, they have 7 or 8 people side drifting with eggs or shrimp, they can't backtroll due to so many paying customers that must have a line in the water. They are also fishing the populated fishing areas , the Salmon River, and Grand Ronde confluence. We have several friends that are guides, and they must fish like this to make a living. The area we usually fish is between Couse Creek, and Billy Creek, some days like yesterday, we did not see a single boat fishing in the area we were at. So to sum it up you have a choice, fish the crowded spots, and catch more fish, or enjoy the solitude like we do. If we fished from daylight to dark I'm certain we would have the many fish days, but for us a few hours on the river catching a couple of steelhead is just fine. I try to put a lot of detail in the reports I submit, in hopes it will help folks catch one, but no matter what, with steelheading it just takes time. kenbarb

My father in law fished this last weekend and got 7 to the boat on Sat. Lost 4 and nothing on Sun due to the rising river flows. I believe the Rhonde is blown out. I fished my boat 2 weekends ago and boated 10 in a day and a half. All I do is drift shrimp. This seems to work good and gets more lines wet vs. pulling plugs. Hope the water calms down so we can fish at least once more. Tight lines

nice pictures. I like the rainbow in the second one. Of course, the rainbow in the first pic isn't bad, either. :-)