Most of the Wind is closed on purpose
The Wind River runs about 30 miles, all of it in Skamania County, from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest south to the Columbia near Carson, 10 miles above Bonneville Dam. The 2026-27 rules treat it as a refuge for wild steelhead. Every tributary of the Wind is closed water all year. Everything above Moore Bridge is closed. Between Shipherd Falls and Moore Bridge the river opens for only about ten weeks, September 16 through November 30, and every game fish caught then must be released.
What is left is a salmon and hatchery steelhead fishery in the stretch below Shipherd Falls. If you want to fish for wild steelhead here, you are fishing in the fall and letting them all go.
Shipherd Falls up to Moore Bridge
The upper river is split by two small closed zones. From 400 feet below to 100 feet above the Shipherd Falls fish ladder is closed, and so is the water from 400 feet below to 100 feet above the Coffer Dam at river mile 2.93. Above and between them, up to Moore Bridge, the fall season runs September 16 through November 30 under selective gear rules, except that barbed hooks are allowed, and all game fish are catch-and-release. The anti-snagging rule and a night closure apply up to 800 yards below Carson National Fish Hatchery. A Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement is required for anyone 15 or older fishing for salmon or steelhead.
There is one exception to the release-only pattern. From 100 feet above Shipherd Falls up to 800 yards below the hatchery, salmon and hatchery steelhead may be kept from May 1 through June 30: minimum 12 inches, 6 a day, no more than 2 adults, meaning 2 adult salmon, 2 hatchery steelhead or one of each. That window exists for spring Chinook headed to the hatchery.
Below the falls and the Highway 14 bridge
From the boundary markers at the mouth to the Highway 14 bridge, and from the bridge up to 400 feet below the Shipherd Falls ladder, the Wind is open for trout and other game fish all year, with cutthroat and wild rainbows released. Salmon and steelhead rules run by season. March 16 through June 30 is the spring Chinook and hatchery steelhead fishery, 6 a day with no more than 2 adults, releasing wild Chinook and wild coho. From July 1 through October 31 the river is closed to fishing for or keeping steelhead, so wild summer fish moving through are off limits; salmon stay open with wild coho released and, through September, wild Chinook as well. November 1 through March 15 is hatchery steelhead only, 3 a day, 20-inch minimum above the bridge, and all salmon go back.
Below the bridge, boat anglers may keep fishing until everyone aboard has a limit, and a two-pole endorsement allows a second rod for salmon and steelhead. Both reaches have night closures for salmon and steelhead.
Carson hatchery at river mile 18
Carson National Fish Hatchery sits on 20 acres at river mile 18, where Tyee Creek meets the Wind, north of the town of Carson. The Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1938, and it releases 1.52 million spring Chinook a year to make up for losses from Columbia River dams. The fish ladder opens in early May, adults are visible in the holding ponds from May through August, and they are spawned in August. As of August 27, 2025, 3,676 adults had returned. The hatchery also ships 250,000 eyed spring Chinook eggs a year to WDFW's Lyons Ferry Fish Hatchery for a restoration program on a Walla Walla River tributary in eastern Washington. The hatchery is open to visitors Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Reading Carson in September
USGS 14128500 is near Carson, low on the river. Late summer is thin: monthly means since 2010 are about 170 cfs in August, 150 in September and 200 in October, rising to about 1,190 in November and 2,440 in December. No shop publishes a range for this gauge, so the 150 to 1,200 cfs band on this page is the span of the monthly means across the September 16 to November 30 catch-and-release season. On September 24, 2026 it read 141 cfs, just under the September mean. With water that low, land released fish quickly and keep them in the water.