JOHN DAY RIVER – Steelhead Outfitters

JOHN DAY RIVER
OREGON

STEELHEAD | SMALLMOUTH BASS

Spring and summer on the John Day are about boating, camping and smallmouth bass. There are bass everywhere and they are easy to catch, making this a great venue for beginning anglers, as success is a guarantee. Day trips are available all spring and into the summer. Overnight trips are limited but available in June. There may be no better way to introduce your kids to river trips and fly fishing than a John Day River smallmouth float.

JUNE

SMALLMOUTH BASS

This fishery is best done from a boat. Most days the topwater action is fierce and the fish that come to the surface to eat are too numerous to count. Single day floats begin at Cottonwood Canyon State Park and end ten miles downstream at Starvation lane.

Rods reels and flies are available and a days fishing comes with a modest lunch. We prefer to meet clients in Wasco, OR. From Wasco you ride with us to the put in and we safely return you to your vehicle at the end of the day.

Fishing the John Day requires a Bureau of Land Management boaters pass and an Oregon fishing license.

OCTOBER – NOVEMBER

FALL STEELHEAD

Many think of the John Day for its prodigious steelhead runs, it has the largest summer steelhead returns in the Columbia River Basin, and perhaps the largest run of wild steelhead in the Lower 48. I’ll say it again – there are more summer steelhead in the John Day River Basin than any other river entering the Columbia River!

For our purposes, steelhead fishing begins in mid-October and lasts through November, depending on weather and flows. John Day Steelhead readily take a swung fly; many like to skate them up before water temps cool below 50 degrees.

We typically fish floating or intermediate lines with 5 to 7 weight rods. A day of swinging flies on the JD is typically peaceful, with little competition for good runs and willing fish. These are float trips and typically run dawn to dusk.