Spring Chinook returns to Drano Lake, the Wind River, and the Klickitat River are expected to drop again this year, following a pattern that anglers have seen all along the Columbia in recent years. However, these fisheries tend to be consistent producers, even with poor returns.
Region 5 fisheries biologist Matt Gardner has tracked the steady decline of the runs.
“The runs have been dropping off from the way they were a few years ago,” said Gardner. “It’s been down a little bit the last five or so years.”
Poor ocean conditions, among other factors, have been to blame for the shrinking numbers of Chinook salmon, and although the conditions have improved it will take time for the runs to recover.
It is also important to remember that salmon returns tend to come in below the projections while the runs are dropping, but they tend to come in over expectations once the runs begin to recover. Only time will tell if this is the first year of rebuilding returns.
Drano Lake
The 2018 forecast for Drano Lake was for 10,200 adults, but the actual run was only about 7,400. That is about 75 percent of the recent 5-year average. In 2019, 5,600 springers are projected to return.
Drano Lake is located at the mouth of the Little White Salmon River near the town of Cook.
Fishing guide TJ Hester of Hester’s Sport Fishing, one of the Addicted Fishing guides, does not despair even though the forecasts are poor.
“I am not too concerned,” Hester said. “Last year the runs were down but I had one of my best years at Drano.”
Hester is more concerned about the river conditions than the run size.
“The conditions are more important. High temps or high flows are really my biggest concerns,” he said.
Over the last few years Hester and other Drano Lake fishermen have learned how to catch springers in the lake without always having to get in line in the “toilet bowl”, which is the nickname for the circular troll near the mouth of the lake. The tight, left-turning circle of boats can get very crowded and intense.
Instead, many anglers are choosing to work the other sections of the lake.
“Fishermen have found out how to fish the rest of the lake,” Hester said, “so they do not have to depend on that toilet bowl.”
His go-to method is trolling Brad’s Super Baits behind the Shortbus Super Series Flashers.
What will be the hot bait this year? Anglers will have to experiment a little to find that out.
“It seems like every year you have to figure them out,” Hester said.
The springers will return starting in April and run through June.
Boat fishermen are reminded that there is an exclusion zone just north and west of the State Route 14 bridge to provide bank anglers with a spot to cast for the fish. Fishing off the bank there is very popular, and anglers toss plugs such as Yakima Baits’ Maglip 4.5 for the salmon. Fisheries managers created the exclusion zone to reduce on-going conflicts between bank and boat anglers.
Wind River
The Wind River was projected to get a return of 5,300 springers in 2018, but only 3,100 adults returned. That is about 60 percent of the recent 5-year average. The projection for this year is for 2,800 adults.
Guide Cameron Black of Gone Catchin’ Guide Service, another of the Addicted Fishing guides, prefers to fish the mouth of the Wind River. He agrees with Hester’s assessment about river conditions.
“The conditions are more important than the returns,” said Black. “I’d rather have smaller returns with good conditions.”
The low returns do concern him, though.
“We will be fishing on only about one third of the usual numbers of fish,” he said.
Black admits that fishing the Wind comes with advantages and disadvantages when compared with Drano, eight miles to the east.
“In Drano the fish pull in and stay,” he said. “In the Wind, the fish will hold until the rains come. Then they move on.”
However, he reports that fish headed to other tributaries often pull into the mouth of the Wind, giving anglers a chance at additional fish not returning to the Wind River. The Wind is not contained by a causeway dike as is Drano, and it fishes more like the lower Columbia.
“If there is high water, it pushes the fish toward the point and the bank,” said Black. “If it’s low and clear, they will be further out up to 30 feet deep.”
Black reports that last year the bite at Wind was a little tough, and not as consistent as usual.
“Last year was a tough bite. It was pretty scratchy,” he said.
Klickitat River
The Klickitat River empties into the Columbia at the town of Lyle, and although the run is not as strong as the other two tributaries it draws a few anglers. About 2,000 adults were expected last year, but only about 700 showed up. That is only 30 percent of the recent 5-year average.
The estimate for this year’s return is about 1,000 adult springers.
