STEVENSON, Wash. - Good news from Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife: The Wind River is receiving so many fish they've bumped the limit up to four Chinook per day!

My buddy Shawn is a Wind River nut. He loves that river. Last Sunday, he hiked in and went 4-for-7 and was home by church. That’s my kind of fishin’. So the other day, Shawn invited me to go up to one of his favorite holes. 

Sounded good to me.

The run to the Wind: Now, I live on the Oregon coast. The Wind is just a little inland, so before meeting up with Shawn, I only had an hour and a half of sleep. You know it’s early when the gas attendant wishes you “Have a good night!” on your way to fishing.

We arrived at our destination in the middle of the night with only one other car there, a couple of guys who were spending the night in their rig. We put on our waders and backpacks (you need a pack to haul your fish out) and geared up. By this time another couple cars were pulling in, and not even halfway down the trail there were a couple guys on our heels. Literally. A guy even stepped on my heel once.

Let me tell you about the trail: It alternates between snot-slick mud where you spend half the time on your butt, and sheer cliff walls that you need to use a rope to get down with. There's nothing out in front of you but total blackness and the sound of the roaring river below.

We finally got down to the river and staked out our rocks. I was feeling good, as I could see fresh blood on my rock. It was total darkness with the sound of rushing water, but I could swear in the distance I could hear banjo music.

Bring out the banjos: As daylight approached, so did the banjos. By the time it was time to fish I had one guy standing so close to me I was hitting him with my rod when I cast, and there was another guy on the cliff casting over the top of us. When that guy left, another took his place.

Shawn was happy because we got the prime spots to stand on, but it didn’t do us any good. Shawn hooked one fish that came off. He reeled in and there was a scale on his hook point. They don’t have scales inside their mouth ...

We moved upriver to another “hot spot”: Another buddy of Shawn’s was leaving to go to work and had just pulled a nice hen out of it. Apparently, it was the only fish in there.

We moved upriver some more to another killer-looking pool with several guys working it over, and since we were late-comers we couldn’t get into the prime spots. We watched five more fish get caught.
It was 10:30 now and the pouring rain and lack of sleep was taking its toll and we headed back to the truck. Back up out of the canyon…

Clean up after yourself!: The Wind River canyon is a very beautiful place: rock walls covered with moss and ferns and waterfalls. So why is it that bank anglers have to be such pigs? Like all “meat” fisheries, the banks are littered with discarded line, bait containers, beer bottles and rancid pools of rotting fish guts. I never see boat fishermen tossing shrimp boxes and candy wrappers over the side.

Please clean up after yourselves.

On the way home, Shawn was telling me there have been many people taken out of that canyon by Life Flight, and some have even died. I believe him: For two days after my memorable trip to the Wind, I could hardly walk up or down a flight of stairs, and I had muscles hurting that I never even knew I had.

And to add insult to injury, Shawn went back the next day and caught his limit of four.
-DJ

Keep it in mind ...
1. You'll need a stringer to secure your fish while you're fishing, and a backpack to get them out.

2. If you're going before daylight, make sure to have a head lamp: you'll need both hands to get down to the water.

3. Just because the limit is 4 doesn’t mean you're going to catch a thing.

4. Be in shape.

5. Respect nature and pack out whatever you brought in. Even better, take what others have irresponsibly left behind, too.

-D.J.

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