John Day River

John Day River near the Columbia River Gorge
Smallmouth Bass Fishing & great Resorts
Central Oregon RV Parks

John Day River is home to some of the best smallmouth Bass fishing in the Northwest and fishing guides on the John Day often catch over 100 bass a day. The John Day River flows into the Columbia River on the Oregon side near the Columbia River Gorge. The John Day River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 281 miles (452 km) long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. One of two rivers in Oregon to bear this name, it is by far the longer and more well-known.

The other John Day River is a small tributary of the Columbia in Clatsop County. The main branch of the John Day River rises in the Strawberry Mountains in eastern Grant County, and the four main forks each have their heads in different parts of the Malheur National Forest. The main fork flows initially north, then west through the John Day Valley and through the city of John Day. At Dayville in western Grant County it is joined from the south by the South Fork John Day River, then flows north through Picture Gorge and past the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The John Day River has a free-flowing course that furnishes habitat for diverse species, including wild steelhead runs. However, the Steelhead populations are under federal endangered species protections, and Chinook Salmon have been proposed for ESA protection.

At Kimberly in northwestern Grant County it is joined from the east by the North Fork John Day River (which had already joined with the Middle Fork of the John Day River above Monument, Grant County, Oregon). The river then flows west across Wheeler County. At the county line with Jefferson County it flows north, past the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. As it approaches the Columbia River in north-central Oregon it flows in an increasingly meandering course, forming the boundary between Sherman County to the west and Gilliam County to the east. It joins the Columbia from the southeast approximately 16 miles (26 km) northeast of Biggs.

The mouth of the river is on the narrow Lake Umatilla reservoir, formed on the Columbia by the John Day Dam, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream from the mouth of the John Day.

Central Oregon fishing and fishing guides in Central Oregon

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