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Woke up this morning to fog and a wife who wanted to go fishing. So after a nice hot cup of Blue Mountain coffee and a homemade blueberry scone, I rigged up the bimini top and snapped on the sides to keep out the weather, and we headed down to the lake. We launched at the lower end of the Lake and motored up to the lower basin and started putting down some ace hi-flies, mine with a wiggle fin and Cindy had a Smily Blade. After getting the down riggers to the bottom, I rigged up a Rapala on another rod with a drop sinker and let it out to troll the mid range (no hits on this one). We started getting bit when we reached 190-200 feet of water. Bites were light and reluctant to take the hook. After Cindy boated two fish and me zero, I changed to a smily Blade and the bite picked up for me. I utilized the tips from Joe and we were able to get 7 Macks to the boat (2-5#). We had several that would hit the bait then nothing for 20-30 feet then hit again. Cindy's reel went belly up and froze up with 300 feet or so of line out. After working with it a bit, I was able to retreive the line, but it was toast. It was an older cheap model, so maybe I'll try to get her a model for trolling. We rigged up the rod we were using on the snap weight and finished out the day. We marked some scools of Kokanee with larger fish under them, and picked up some of the macks at these locations. As my GPS bit the dirt today, I wasn't able to return to the same place to try them another time. After 11:30 or so the bite died down, and when we got home I looked at the barometric reading and it had started rising around 08:00 and started dropping again around 11:00. This coincided with the bite we experienced. Surface water temp was 43*. We had rain, wind, fog, and a few sunbreaks that produced some outstanding brilliantly Colored Rainbows. Another beautiful day on the water. The smaller fish were bright red fleshed, and tasted great after being introduced to the Foreman grill. We will have to give them another go on another day.
Tight lines all.

kevinb

1/17/2011 11:26:00 AM

Right on Loui, great report and stringer. I like the snow covered foothills too

MotoBoat

1/17/2011 1:19:00 PM

I have not seen your Gem of a wife in your fishing reports lately. I am surprised she did not fish and leave you home today! LOL. Nice pic's again. I do not recognize the brand of d rigger in the picture of the wifee holding the catch. Not exactly having a heat wave, on that day I see. In the ff picture, the suspended clutter on the screen in red and gray, your saying is Kokanee? Is the red lump on the bottom, and below the suspended clutter a mass of shrimp with a fish arch above it? My gray scale ff isn't nearly as cool as your TV screen. It is fun to follow along as your fishing skill for Macks progress through your Mentors teaching. I feel it is safe to say you have acheived "grasshopper" status. But your Mentor will have to graduate you. Nice job on the water.

blufin loui

1/17/2011 9:24:00 PM

Thanks kevinb, The pic didn't come out as good as usual because I was back under the cover (a little darker), and had to use the flash to get the fish to show up. It was raining at the time and Cindy didn't want to stand in the rain while I fiddled with the light exposure. LOL We had a double rainbow at one time during the morning. It was georgous.

blufin loui

1/17/2011 9:36:00 PM

Hi ya MotoBoat,Cindy "needed" someone to run the trolling motor and do the grunt work, so I felt safe that I'd have a place in the boat. LOL The riggers are Big Jon from early 90s. The are a simple but efficient unit, altho quite a bit slower than the scotty electrics. The temp as mild, but it was windy with rain showers, plus Cindy doesn't like to get cold, so lots of layers. I'm not sure about the red "lump under the fish arch. I'm not sure the shrimp would show up as color like that, but I had the sensitivity cranked to max, so it might be possible it was an echo of the arch. Also, I feel comfortable with the GH status, and as for graduating by the mentor. Hmmmmmm, that will take some doing on my part. LOL Thanks for the comments and questions.

flyfisherguy

1/17/2011 10:36:00 PM

Way to go Loui! Good to see you and Cindy having such great success! Hopefully, Dacia and I will make it there this spring or early summer, we'd love to get together with you two again and make a day of it on the water and then have a bite to eat together afterwards. I'll keep ya posted on our plans as soon as we figure out what we're doing. Tight lines my friend, and say hi to CIndy for us!

afk

1/18/2011 6:49:00 AM

Glad to see you finally let Cindy in on the action. I'm sorry to hear about the GPS & reel. Great report & pics. Thanks again, and keep it up! PS. See there, them oil companies aint gonna get all your money. Sorry, couldn't resist.

G-Man

1/18/2011 12:19:00 PM

Great report , thanks for posting. I sure do enjoy looking at bait on the sonar! Not knowing the lake all that well one could only speculate as to what the red lump may be, yet I'm sure that the large, suspended mass is shrimp. In Lake Washington one will find that the mysis shrimp will ball up just about anywhere including the bottom. If you have the feature, switch to 200kHz, it will give you a more defined image and, as the cone angle is smaller, give you a better idea as to your position over the bait.

blufin loui

1/18/2011 8:27:00 PM

Hello flyfisherguy , Cindy and I look forward to seeing you guys again, and maybe the fish will be biting too. As time passes, I hope to get better at the lake chelan fishery as it is such a beautiful pond of water, and I have neglected fishing it for many years. I think as I get more comfortable with the trolling concept, I will fish it more often. You two stay safe and well

blufin loui

1/18/2011 8:29:00 PM

LOL, well afk, after seeing fishdoc's report, I'm going to be a staunch supporter as I can hear RW calling. LOL.

blufin loui

1/18/2011 8:40:00 PM

Hey ya G-Man, thanks for the comments. I utilize the 50kHz feature in the deep water (over 200 feet) and get good echos off the downrigger weights, and we just had trolled up out of the deep water when we passed over these. And on the 200 kHz setting we have passed over simular "balls" in this area of the lake and it would be small arches. There were small fish surfacing in the lower lake that probably were the kokes. Some of the lakers have had kokanee (6-10") in their stomaches recently, so kokanee fishing will be coming up before too long (I hope). The fish on this trip didn't have any shrimp in their stomachs, but last trip they were full of the lil buggers. Once again, Thanks for the comments and tips. Take care and enjoy the great sport of fishing.

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