Spring forecasts unveiled for Wind River, Drano Lake

Drano Lake is the name given to the large backwater of the Columbia River at the mouth of the Little White Salmon River.

Carson National Fish Hatchery on the upper Wind River needs about 1,500 spring chinook for spawning. Little White Salmon National Fish Hatchery, just upstream of Drano Lake, needs 1,000 and Klickitat Hatchery needs 500.

The mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake are extremely popular once the chinook arrive about the fourth week of April to first week of May.

In 2014, sportsmen caught 1,500 spring chinook in Wind River, 950 in Drano Lake and 550 in the Klickitat River, according to Joe Hymer, a biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Washington regulations allow anglers with a two-pole endorsement to fish at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake from May 1 through June 30 with two rods. The rules also allow boat limits (everyone can keep fishing until the limit for the boat is caught) during the same time frame.

Hymer said spring chinook passage over Bonneville Dam has been getting later in the past decade or so, which does not help the sport catch at Wind River and Drano Lake.

Once the spring chinook cross Bonneville, they tend to move through the fishing areas at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake more quickly and are less available for sportsmen.

The lower Columbia River is closed at that time, leaving local anglers a choice between Oregon’s Willamette River or the tributaries in the Columbia Gorge.

Boaters jam the mouths of Wind River and Drano Lake in late April and May. Fishing moves upstream in the Wind in late May and June.

They troll with plugs, spinners, prawns and herring, often fighting the strong west winds, in a relatively productive fishery.