Drano Lake Fishing Guides

Drano Lake Springer Fishing is Popular

This is a super popular spring fishery and requires tons of patience. If you’re not willing to bump into other anglers and watch the boat next to you fight a fish, this is not the place for you. When the fish are in, expect the parking lots to be full and the toilet bowl to look like the Indy 500. Boat control and patience is a must. Get in line and enjoy the tight quarters. This is a big reason why most anglers choose to hire a fishing guide. The big prize is the 15-20-pound bright, chrome salmon. The Columbia river springer averages around the 15 lb. range but we’ve also caught some in the middle to upper 20’s.

High Catch Rates – Pay a Price

Drano Lake is a fantastic “catching” fishery. Just remember, high catch rates come with a cost. High winds, crowded fishing, lines at the boat ramp, impatient anglers, is all part of Drano. If you are not completely comfortable with all these variables, hire a guide and experience Drano in a stress free, fun environmen

Playing the Wind

It’s fairly uncommon to fish Drano lake without some sort of wind. After all, it is the Columbia river gorge. Drano anglers actually prefer some wind out of the west. The westerly wind has a tendency to push dirtier water into the neck of the lake, pushing salmon toward the hatchery. An Easterly wind is better than nothing, it doesn’t bring dirty water, but it does present some surface break. If the pond has frog water, fishing gets tough and time to tinker

Stott’s Favorite Techniques:

Columbia River springers love prawns and herring. The fish are headed to the hatchery and we try and cut them off. While we have our favorite rigging, we let the fish tell us what they want. At some point, herring wraps, prawn rigs and tuna filled super-baits all work. We have seen some patterns and happy to share our thoughts. Colder water or early mornings, springers seem to be a bit shallower. Keep your line at a 45 degree angle and fish more in the 20 foot range

Spread Out & Fish Water Columns

If we are fishing 6 rods, we’ll fish 3 different water columns with the bow rods using heavier weights to bang the bottom. The middle rods will be just up above the bottom with back rods, flat lined. Covering 3 different water columns lets us know where the fish are. Typically, early morning we see a herring bite with our slow rolling Leo Flashers. As water starts to warm, the fish go a little deeper and it’s the prawn and spinner game. Eventually, the superbait and kokanee cutplug bite will become king for the day

Trolling Speed

Key is to keep your rod at a 45° angle and keep a nice spread in the water columns. Most of our trolling is from 1.5 to 2.0 mph. There are times we use 6 oz. of lead and other times we go with heavier 8 oz. cannonballs. When you detect a bite, hit your trolling motor throttle to drive the hook. Anglers make the mistake of lifting the rod out of the holder too early to set the hook. We make sure the rod is loaded up and have our anglers start to reel, keeping the line tight.

Little White Salmon Fish Hatchery

Drano lake has a fish hatchery located on the Little White Salmon River which means the fish aren’t going anywhere. The hatchery produces up to 9.4 million salmon/steelhead smolt which are annually released to the lake and other locations within the state of Washington.

In Conclusion

I would say Drano Lake is a unique salmon fishery in every sense. If you catch it at the right time, it’s world class. Fish pass over the Bonneville dam and we intercept them headed to the Little White Salmon hatchery. Our guides spend the better part of a month entertaining anglers that come from all over. We’ve broken down the fishery and shared tips and techniques to eager anglers trying to get an edge. Nothing is perfect, and by no means do we feel this is the end to all Drano Lake salmon fishing. Although, we’ve weeded through our numerous mistakes and left you with a solid blue print to catching more fish.