Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
Well, I've thought long and hard on how to word this and what comes to mind is mythical. I see videos of guide services pulling over 50 fish out of a lake in a day and think that has to be so rare it's nearly a myth. Well today my brother and I happened to stumble upon such luck and this is how it went...
Several months back, July or August I went up to Green Lake with my Dad. It's electric motors only and a lake that's 45 acres tucked away in a steep valley/ravine. Right now it's in it's selective gear rules, catch and release season until December 1st. So this fishing trip back a few months was great!!! We weren't prepared for the selective rules because we couldn't find out what they were anywhere before we actually got there and read the signs, single barbless hook or barbless fly fishing only, catch and release. So we rigged up spoons, spinners, thin spoons, lots of little things and just toss them all around catching and releasing probably 8 fish with at least that many getting off those single hooks. That day I told myself I'm definitely coming back when we can start to keep these fish because every fish was in the 10-12 range with bigger ones in the 14" range. So... I got around to getting there sooner... :)
So today, the 18th, my mythical day that'll probably never repeat itself. My brother and I go out there with expectations of catching a few fish. The fog was settled in that valley and the sun had yet to come over the hills. We lauched the boat and had our lines in the water by around 8am. We go right to the north end where it's roughly 5 feet deep and just float around out there. No wind, not too cold. On each of our second cast, BAM, double right off the bat. Both landed a fish, mine was bigger, hah! I'm ahead already I say. Another three casts, bam. Another few more, BAM!!! These fish were hungry and out for a vengence it seemed. Up to 8 fish, 10, 15, 18... We start losing track around that time but we're sure we're within 2 fish... We hit a slow spell around that time. At about my 8th fish I end up losing a lure to a fish that peeled my drag for about 5 seconds. Got it to the boat, it was a great sized fish for such a small lake, 15-16" and the knot didn't hold. Next time I see Wob-l-rite's in a tackle store I'm getting one in every color, even PINK! This one I was using was 1/4oz and a hammered finish but it was pure gold color.
So back to the fishing... We're around 18 fish and we hit a cold spell.. and I've lost a good lure. I try a few small things, trolling a wooly bugger, pick up a 8" fish. My bro is swapping from a mepps to a few other lures with no luck. Finally coming across 3 or so fish with an arctic fox spinner. Silver blade with chartruese bell, size 3 I think, pretty big, but the fish liked it. Finally I had an epiphany... GOLD!!! It wasn't the spoon itself, it wasn't the spinners it was gold, that's what was triggering all these fish... So I look through my spoon box and find some small crocodile lures, you know the hammered ones with the gold coloring and an orange stripe, we all have at least one of those... Well that's what I put on...
So we're heading along the bank to the south end of the lake, picking up fish as we go... 21....23...26.... We get to about the south third of the lake and hit another cold spell... It gets real shallow there and we didn't feel, well okay, I didn't feel like picking weeds off the motor and my spoon kept dragging weeds, so I spun us around and we headed back up the other bank by the road, heading north... 27... 28...Cold spell....
We say, IDEA!, let's troll to the other end real quick and get back to where the fish are! So we throw on some banana weights. I try another new lure, a Pro Troll Kokanee Killer with a echip that I rigged with a single barbles... OH BOY! I'm set and ready to go, my brother is using a gold and orange spoon, but not a hammered finish. So we troll a good half the lake... bump... bump... I laugh and say crap I'm gonna have weeds when I reel this in... then he gets a few bumps, we're sure we're bumping logs, weeds whatever... then WHAM... fish on... so pull this beast from the depths and he's 7" which is fine because my brothers fish was 6", hah, I win again. These fish had very silvery sides with a nearly pure black top, not sure if they were just living in the depths the whole time or what, but I was very surprised to catch small fish out in the middle there...
So I throw out the line, and we're getting back to the 5-8 feet of water, bam, another little fish, 7-8", we're up to 31.
Finally we're up to the loading ramp and I tell my brother to throw on a crocodile. Well I had two of what I was using but he ended up putting on one that's a little thinner but about the same weight, maybe 2.5", gold hammered, orange streak...
Just past the ramp there's a few logs/trees hanging in the water and he gets a perfect cast into them, BAM 32, 33, both by him, back to back fish 16-17".
As we go north to shallower water I start getting a few and we're back to trading off catching fish... 35...38....40...42...
We got as far north as you can go and we decide to play around in a small opening in the reeds... we figure if we get stuck we have paddles, no big deal...
We creep into these weeds and are fishing in what seems to be 10-12" of water, we're scooting these spoons right along to avoid hangups in the weeds and the fish still go after them... 44...46...
We get back into that small opening in the reeds... We get a few hang ups on the reeds... but we're back there hunting for the big one that just hides back there waiting... We're on a mission, we know he's there... So I spin the back end around and let my brother fish the area back there while I fish the opening... He throws a small cast back there 15' or so... and I swear this fish must have hit his line at like 3' because within 3 seconds he had that fish in the boat, it splashed his lure right near the water and with it being only 10-12" from the surface to the weeds it just splashed water everywhere, my bro scooped it up and we got some pictures... another 17" fish just hanging out back there. That's right, we're not crazy, we knew there was a fish in the darnedest places, hah.
47...I get a few bites fishing that opening and I get a few fish following the lure but no hits... We start inching back out, throwing to each side in that shallower area... 49....51....52... We're thinking... okay...60 fish, that's when we'll stop.... WHAT THE HECK! When do you ever to say, oh we'll stop and 60 fish... yea right...
Cold spell... boom... 52 fish and we're dead in the water thinking... 8 fish this could take a while...
We head closer towards the loading ramp, back to the logs and trees... we break the cold spell... 53...54...55.... we run out of fresh uncasted water so we head back towards the north area... we catch a few fish in the 8-10" depth... 56...57...One more on the way towards the middle...58...then bam... worst cold spell of the day...
Two fish... TWO FISH from our goal... how can we live with ourselves! We decide to make another round the shallow end to the north... We get to the far side, nothing... Suddenly, fish just start feeding off the top, EVERYWHERE, we're talking 3-4 ripples at any given time all around us... left...right...infront...behind...we couldn't tell what they were taking off the surface if anything....
We start throwing our lures at them, nothing... we're thinking this is ridiculous, fish everywhere and can't catch them... not the first time for me, ugh, memories...
We start heading back towards the loading ramp... nice and slow... the wind keeping us in place pretty well. Finally my brother breaks the silence, fish on! 59...And I answer back shortly after with a small fish but still, our 60th fish! By that time it's 2:15pm and we call it a day.
All in all an amazingly fun time and this trip exceeded my expectations 6 fold. The catch was roughly as follows...a good 45-50 of the fish were caught on a spoon with a hammered finish that had gold as the main color. Having an orange stripe didn't seem to make much difference but the shape being more of a slender design and not a huge teardrop looking design made a big difference. The other 10-15 fish were caught on spinners, modified mepps and arctric fox spinners, removing the treble and using a single barbless. Fish also hit a golden bead headed wooly bugger trolled on a fly rod with sinking line. A needlefish in white/orange/pink/yellow? produced one small fish, the echip pro troll accounted for two small fish, and some off named spoons that I don't recall caught just a couple. I can't believe we caught so many using single barbless hooks, no bait, no scents, just lures... Just seems unheard of to me.
As for the size of these fish. Around 8 fish were small, definitely not keepers, 6-8" range. But on the other end of the spectrum there were 8-10 fish in the 16-17" range, very vibrant colored healthy fish, some very fat and if I had a scale I'm posivite some would have been darn close to 2 pounds. The bulk of our catch were fish in the 12-15" range and I've got to say these fish were aggressive. At times hitting lures right after the splash and they were hitting the lures hard, hard as I've ever had trout this size hit a lure and boy did they put up a fun fight. Maybe I'm just used to the heavier salmon poles but going back to my medium rod with lighter line was a ton of fun.
We fished this lake like we typically fish for bass... casting towards the shore. Trolling produced some fish but we're the type who like to cast and it seemed to be the way to do it today. Playing around in the shallows, throwing towards the shore... casting over the breaks in the weeds, rocks, even just out in the open over the weed beds. 90% of the fish had to have been caught in 8 feet or less of water.
So I hope you enjoy my story and I apologize for the length of this report. Any questions just ask. I plan on fishing this place when the catch and keep season comes into effect but I don't care to ice fish, we'll see how the weather is. I'd hope some of these fish start getting to 18-19" but maybe that's expecting too much.
I took 30 pictures but I'll try to pick the best. Tight lines all.
A truly epic day. Normally fishing those depths would get you the occasional trout. But more likely Bass, perch and bullheads. Not on this day. Oh, who caught the most fish during your sibling rivalry? Well written. Should be a "best of" fishing reports section on this site. Yours is a classic!
Thank's MotoBoat. I think I beat my brother by only maybe 4 fish at the most, we traded off so often and the hottest streaks were probably 3 fish before the other person hooked up one. It was just so hot fishing you couldn't miss if you had the right thing on. But I think he got me on the largest by about half an inch, I know he beat me on the smallest too, hah!
I completely agree with you on the depths and the oddest thing was when we trolled 20 or so feet down we caught our smallest fish!
We prefer to fish for bass and we laughed at our methods several times making comments like, we're fishing for trout like we were going after bass. But it worked so we kept at it :)
" I can't believe we caught so many using single barbless hooks, no bait, no scents, just lures... Just seems unheard of to me."
That statement from your report says it all. If fish are out there and interested in your offerings.... there is no reason that selective gear rules have to slow you down. Thanks for spreading the word to people that Selective gear is not as bad as some think.
Leave a Comment:
Flag
Why is this comment inappropriate?
Delete this comment? Provide reason.
Edit
Available Guide
Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
