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Bag limit liberalized at Drano Lake, upper Wind River

The Columbian
Published: May 24, 2012, 5:00pm

Anglers are allowed to keep up to four adult spring chinook salmon per day at Drano Lake and in the Wind River upstream of the BNSF railroad bridge beginning Saturday.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the liberalized the bag limits on Thursday.

Little White Salmon National Fish Hatchery just upstream of Drano Lake has doubled its spawning escapement need already. Carson National Fish Hatchery on the upper Wind is expected to meet its goal.

The bag limit between the white buoy line at the mouth of the Wind River and the railroad bridge will stay two hatchery salmon or steelhead or one of each. The fishing area at the mouth of the Wind was enlarge recently and is being monitored to see if chinook from other watersheds are being caught.

The change makes the Drano Lake and upper Wind bag limit six hatchery salmon, but only four adults and no more than two hatchery steelhead.

At Drano Lake, the bank-fishing-only rule near the outlet remains, along with Wednesday closures to accommodate tribal netting. Anglers with the state’s two-pole endorsement may fish with two rods at Drano.

Other regulation changes include:

Kalama closure — All spring chinook must be released beginning Tuesday in the Kalama River.

Only six spring chinook have returned to Kalama Falls Hatchery, well short of the spawning need of 390. The forecast was for a run of 700.

Sampling of anglers have shown light catches. There is no evidence of large numbers of chinook holding in the lower Kalama. Fishing for hatchery steelhead remains open.

Toutle Green — The South Fork of the Toutle and Green rivers are opening early for hatchery summer steelhead.

The South Fork Toutle from the mouth to 4700 Road and the Green from the mouth to 400 feet below the water intake at the upper end of the hatchery are open now. Fishing was to open on June 2.

Opening the lower South Fork Toutle and Green allow opportunity to catch steelhead from a strong summer run. No bait and single barbless hook rules will apply through June 1 to minimize handle mortality of smolts and adult wild steelhead.

The entire South Fork Toutle and Green rivers open for hatchery steelhead on June 2.

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