Seeing the Grande Ronde posts the last few days, thought I might have something to add. I did a one day float in the middle of Oct. from Schumakers to the mouth. The fishing (for us at least) was poor, but the float was great. So while I can't give you guys a fishing report, I can tell about floating that section of the river. We floated with two pontoon boats (Bucks Bronco & Southfork). The water was low and we rubbed alot of rocks going through various rapids. Neither Pontoon boat was damaged at all by this, but we did have a patch kit with us and I would consider it a must for a trip like this, just in case. The only rapid that we didn't go through is the narrows, which is toward the end of the float. As the name suggests, the whole river goes through a very narrow section. The portage around meant carrying the boats over the rocky terrain, but wasn't too hard for a couple of reasonably healthy guys in their late 20's. We carried one boat at a time (one guy carrying the front, one carrying the back) and left all of our gear strapped on them while doing this(Probably an extra 50 lbs on each). All told it took us about a half an hour to move the two boats. I think most people in decent shape could do this in under an hour with two guys like we did. Not too far below the narrows, is a take out on the right side. It is above the bridge that crosses the river. I believe there are some shuttle services that will move a rig for you from Schumakers to there. I have a friend who lives just above the mouth right on the river, so we were able to have him shuttle us, and we took out at his house. If you do float all the way down, you can float into the Snake and take out at Heller Bar. If you do this, you will encounter one decent rapid right above the bridge that crosses the Grande Ronde. We didn't have any trouble going through it, but it did bury the "nose" of our pontoons and get us pretty wet. At the water level we went through hugging the right bank was the way to go through it.
This float can be done in one day, but is really a two day fishing float. We only had the one day, and ended up hurrying through lots of spots that we should have spent time at. As a fly fisherman who uses the boat as transportation and stops and slowly works his way through the runs, two days is really a must. Anyway, hope this is useful to some of you guys. I apologize for not posting it earlier, wasn't sure if it would be of use to anyone. I am one of the "lurkers" who has been on the list for under a year. I am fairly new to flyfishing and have been hesitant to report because a lot of my trips aren't succesful. Hopefully as I spend more time out there I will have something of value to report. Tight Lines Tom _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
