By Jeff Hernandez, President Association of Northwest Steelheaders
November 4, 2024

Two years ago, I saw the Grande Ronde River for the first time. We flew into Lewiston Idaho, picked up our rental Jeep and drove down to Troy Oregon for the rendezvous. Descending the winding hills into the Troy is nothing less than majestic. My heart leapt when I finally saw the winding river flowing through the canyon floor. Exciting things were about to happen, and they surely did.

This year we were told the event might not happen, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got an email from ODFW District Biologist Kyle Bratcher letting us know the event was a go. He asked if the Steelheaders would like to teach a basic steelheading class again this year, and without hesitation I said yes, we would love to. The main purpose of this gathering is to do a broodstock collection on the Grande Ronde. The intent is to gather some early returning October hatchery Steelhead and spawn them in order to create an earlier run. They tell me it’s a bit cold Steelhead fishing in November and December in that area, so an earlier run is appreciated.
Here are a few highlights from the trip that I would like to share. First of all, the organization and food were top notch. Kyle Bratcher and Michael Lance, both with ODFW covering the Grande Ronde watershed did a wonderful job planning the event. Some folks donated a dinner or two and ODFW provided the rest. They had a nice dinner and gathering at the big tent every night (Thursday to Saturday) and we saw 40-50 people arrive after fishing all day for dinner and a presentation. We had 3 presentations in total and all of them were fabulous.

The first presentation on Thursday night was from Kyle Bratcher, District Fish Biologist for ODFW. He shared an interesting study about fish stocking. He and his team did some research on the impact of dropping fish from different heights. They discovered that weather you drop a fish from 30 feet or 60 feet it really didn’t impact the fish mortality. They determined that they could have a very high success rate and low mortality from dropping fish from a helicopter as long as the fish were not too large. Good to know.

The second presentation was also very interesting. It was given by Marika Dobos the Fisheries Staff Biologist for Idaho Fish and Game, and it was about the impact that Walleye have on the salmon and steelhead populations. This was an eye opener. Not to discredit the impact that Pike Minnow (last years presentation) have on smolt, but what I learned is that Walleye are brutal. Walleyes are hearty and good survivors. They have learned to survive in harsh conditions and because of all the dams on the Columbia they are thriving. They are reproducing at a high rate and will be close to impossible to eradicate. They are not native to the area and were mostly introduced by illegal planting. Their primary diet is fish smolt, so they prey on baby salmon and steelhead, among other fish. Yes, they are good to eat and sound fun to catch, but these fish are growing in their population and are a real threat to salmon and steelhead survival. I volunteered a Steelheaders army to do some Walleye fishing and see what we can do. There is no catch limit, and we are all encouraged to retain as many Walleyes as we can and never throw one back. Even the big ones. I see a Walleye Fish Bash in our future. You can read more about Walleye in this article: https://idfg.idaho.gov/article/walleye-are-spreading-idaho-0

The last presentation on Saturday night was given by Winston Morton, Regional Habitat Biologist with ODFW. The presentation helped me understand the power of watershed restoration efforts. ODFW worked with landowners in the area and made some significant changes to the local watershed. They shared how planting trees and shrubs in an otherwise flat and open terrain made significant improvements. Rearing salmonid need cool water and safe habitat to survive. We got to see before and after pictures of the areas of interest and saw the dramatic change. One very cool thing that happened is that when trees were planted, beavers came and created beaver dams. These are good. In such a small stream that only trickles during the summer months, having a deep 3 to 4 foot “beaver pond” is a godsend to these fish. Its deep and cool and created the perfect environment for these fish during the hot summer months. Simply amazing.

All in all, I was very impressed with the presentations and left realizing something important. There are a lot of folks doing amazing research to keep our watersheds and fisheries healthy. These biologists are studying all sorts of different fish species, ecosystems, watersheds, environmental conditions, gamefish, predators, etc. to name a few of the things that impact the fish that we love. Yes, we also appreciate hatcheries and rely on them to support the fishing industries as well as the total fish consumption that happens in our country. All in all, ODFW is more than just hatcheries. They are biologists doing great work that we need to support.

Back to the fishing. This year was a record year. We were told that they collected 35 hatchery Steelhead in their efforts and released another 15 native steelhead during the long weekend. Sadly, I didn’t catch a steelhead this year but feel like I can take partial credit for one steelhead. I was showing my new friend Kyle Mackie from the Idaho Wildlife Federation the ropes; we had a nice few days on the river together. He came down to connect with the Steelheaders and discuss working together on their Snake River dam removal campaign, which we are glad to do. Anyhow, it was his first time on the Grande Ronde and being my third year, I said I would show him the ropes. As it turned out, Kyle is a very good fisherman and seemed to show me the ropes. But at one point his jig and float broke off and he was heading back to shore to tie up a new rig. I was fly fishing (with not much success) and told him to grab my spinning rod and give it a try. It had a nice (orange bodied) spinner on it, so he took me up on my offer. A few short minutes later he was yelling “fish on” from a short distance away. He landed a nice 7 Lb. native steelhead that we released after taking a quick picture or two. He was generous to give me partial credit for his beautiful fish.