Fewer spring chinook forecast for Wind, Drano

The entire spring chinook run upstream of Bonneville Dam is predicted to be 188,800 in 2016, compared to 289,000 in 2015.

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 2015, sportsmen caught 3,900 spring chinook in Wind River and 3,000 in Drano Lake, 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 the spring chinook catch in Wind River normally exceeds Drano Lake’s catch, even though Drano gets a larger return.

In the Wind River, there is the popular boat fishery at the mouth, plus anglers also get a later opportunity upstream in the river itself. At Drano Lake, with Little White Salmon National Fish Hatchery is just a short distance upstream, opportunity is less.

“In the last couple of years, the fish have been pretty quick getting into Little White hatchery,’’ Hymer said.

The lower Columbia typically is closed by late April, leaving local anglers a choice between Oregon’s Willamette River, the tributaries in the Columbia Gorge, or the Cowlitz and Kalama rivers.

Boaters jam the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake in April and May. They troll with plugs, spinners, prawns and herring, often fighting the strong west winds, in a relatively productive fishery.