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Grande Ronde River Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The canyon of October dreams: Washington's swing-water classic, where summer steelhead eat dry flies between basalt walls.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Flow
669 cfs
Air / High
54 / 56 F
Wind
SW 14 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 13333000, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Grande Ronde River rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. The river is running 669 cfs, on the rise. Today brings clear skies, wind SW around 14 mph, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 56. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:27 AM-11:27 AM and 9:58 PM-11:58 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Brown troutExcellent

Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

SteelheadGood

Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Tomorrow: Warmer at 61 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Washington requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $39.95 for residents. What a Washington licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing steelhead here? Check the size and bag limits with WDFW before you keep anything. The season dates for Washington, read off the agency, are on the Washington seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Grande Ronde River at Troy.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 13333000.

590621652669 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 82 years of October 23

At 669 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 13333000 (Grande Ronde River at Troy) is at the 22nd percentile for the date: below normal. In half of the 82 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 820 cfs; the highest was 4,530 cfs and the lowest 534 cfs.

p10 594median 820p90 1,208

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 13333000; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp54 F
High / Low56 / 41 F
WindSW 14-17 mph
Pressure1019.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 86%
Sunrise / Sunset07:17 / 17:48
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Grande Ronde River this week

The best day on Grande Ronde River this week looks like Wednesday Oct 28, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Wednesday, Oct 28 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
9:27 AM-11:27 AM and 9:58 PM-11:58 PM
Minor period
3:53 AM-4:53 AM
Sun
07:17 to 17:48
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Rain, 14 mph
Rain chance
86%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Grande Ronde River: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Steelhead illustration

Steelhead

Great Lakes tributaries from fall through spring; West Coast rivers have both summer and winter runs

Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate to the Pacific or the Great Lakes to grow, then return up rivers to spawn; unlike most Pacific salmon they can survive spawning and spawn again. Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

When to come: the Grande Ronde River calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Steelhead
Smallmouth bass
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Grande Ronde River today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 73 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 68 F, wind to 8 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Washington requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

WA or OR license by bank + steelhead tags. Wild steelhead release; check WDFW/ODFW yearly rules.

Access

Troy access, Boggan's Oasis, county-road pullouts to the Snake confluence.

About this water

The lower canyon miles, Asotin County WA / Wallowa County OR. The Northwest's dry-line steelhead classic.

Fishing Grande Ronde River: the full guide

The steelhead swinger's mecca

The Grande Ronde's lower canyon (Troy to the Snake) is the Northwest's beloved swing water: modest-sized, wadeable runs where summer steelhead: including a fabled portion that rise to skated dry flies: arrive September and hold into November. The river is a pilgrimage: anglers who fish everywhere still circle October here.

The October program

Fish arrive with fall's cooling: swing soft-hackles and small speys through the tailouts at dawn, skate a dry through the same water for the rise of a lifetime, then nymph the buckets midday if pride allows. The fish run 5-10 pounds: A-run summers: and eat like they remember the ocean fondly.

Beyond the chrome

Smallmouth own the lower canyon all summer (a float-fishing fishery of underrated quality: poppers against basalt), rainbow trout fill the upper Oregon reaches, and fall bull elk bugle over the water: the canyon experience outdraws even the fishing some mornings. The road follows the river Troy-to-mouth: access is pullout-simple.

Two states, one canyon

The river crosses from Oregon into Washington near Troy: licenses follow the bank you stand on, and steelhead rules differ by state and year (barbless, wild-release, seasonal closures: check both). Flows matter: 700-1,500 CFS swings beautifully: our Troy gauge panel tracks it daily.

Common questions

Can you really catch steelhead on dry flies here?

The Grande Ronde is the river where it happens: October's cool mornings, skated muddlers over the tailouts. Even the refusals: boils behind the fly: justify the trip.

When should I fish the Grande Ronde?

Late September through November: October is the heart. Cold snaps drop fish into the soft water: swing slower, deeper, happier.

Is fishing good at Grande Ronde River right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Clearwater River32 miWallowa Lake51 miSalmon River51 miSouth Fork Clearwater River65 miDworshak Reservoir69 miLochsa River84 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 13333000 β€” Grande Ronde River at Troy
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 20:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 46.0100, -117.3200 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.