I finally fished the Grande Rhonde last Sunday and found the water extremely cold. How cold you ask? Well, one fish I caught was in a deep hole that had about a 20 foot opening that you had to cast into to get away from all the ice! When hooked all I could do was to try and get his head over the edge of the ice and try to pull him out over the 20 feet of ice to shore. I'd have to say I got lucky landing this one. I did manage three fish that day but all were hatchery brats with almost no fight what-so-ever (not all that big either).
All three were taken on a jig and bobber drift'n bait shrimp. The takes were very slow and the water is extremely low and very clear for this river. Nobody else appeared to be doing any good. Had a guide boat flow past that ran an overnight trip and got skunked for two day in a row. So I'm feel pretty lucky I did as good as I did.

Duke