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.
Was dry all morning with a forecast of rain holding off until much later in the day. Arrived at the lake around 0930. Set up to start fishing, when light rain started to fall. Decided to turn over this large rock to move it out of the launch path and there were 6 or 7 good size worms under it. Took them along for a ride.
Started out fishing with a sinking fly line and damsel nymph on one set up. A flatfish on the second rod. 2 minutes into my troll and the flatfish rod has a pretty knarly hit! Ends up being a 11", feisty trout for it 's size. Even eeked out a couple turns of drag on two occasions during the fight. Rain picking up now, glad I threw the rain jacket in at the last minute, wasn't going to.
Nothing for the next half hour. Wind had me at the West end of the lake. Took the opportunity to switch up for bass of either the Largemouth or Rock variety. The wind made it impossible to effectively present a bait, without a anchor. So after 30 minutes or so, once again targeted Trout.
Decided to dunk a worm, placing a chunk on the fly and the flatfish. While I loaded up the hooks with freshly found worm, the wind drifted me into some brush. Something kept tapping me on the back of my head and discovered that tapping to be a bank anglers, lost wedding ring spinner dangling form the branches. Next 3 fish also hit pretty hard, and came on the fly/worm combo. After that something lightly tapped the flatfish like it was power bait still fished on the bottom. That was kinda strange. Nothing developed from that.
Decided to replace the flatfish with the wedding ring. Loaded with worm and headed back to the launch site. Soaked to the bone for close to 2 hours. One more fish would be a wet bonus, and a limit for the day.
In about the middle of the lake, and fish on the donated spinner! Bring the fish in, hoist it over the side of the boat. And notice all fish have been barely hooked. Except this last fish has both hooks in it! I hadn't noticed my hands getting cold. The fish was a bit energetic and somehow transferred the top hook from it mouth, into the tip of my finger. The fish is going nuts, my finger is numb from the cold and violent tugging is felt by the uncooperative fish.
Never having experienced the hook embedded past the barb routine. Wow, that really grabs your attention. The fish is hanging form one hook and the weight of the fish is suspending from the hook embedded in my finger and is stretching the skin around the hole at the point of penetration. Grabbing the second hook to relieve the stress and dull the pain. I quickly deduce it is not possible to unhook the fish and relieve the strain of the embedded hook!. Add to that the numb hands causing serious dexterity issues. I am in a predicament, needing three hands all of a sudden. The wind is drifting me across the lake, I am able to turn the hook so the wiggling fish unhooks itself.
There is water sloshing around in the boat from all the rain. The hook won't back out of my finger without the barb pinched. I am considering how i might load up all my crap while a hook is embedded. Remembering a I have a small leathermen multi tool on my key chain, that has never been used in the many years it has dangled there. Crimping the barb doesn't help with removal. However, cutting the hook worked just fine. Left by 1300.
Now I have two fang like red spots to remind me of a pretty good day of catching. All fish safely released. All fingers retained, with a fair amount of blood loss. I was going to remove the added weight, and bulk of the mini multi tool from my key chain.
Ya, as I was saying to somebody recently, the trout activity on Bitter is in full force. I don't think I told you, the other night I was there and there was a woman with quite a few fish, one of which was a quite large triploid. ( 100 trips release a few weeks ago) Chicken**** you didn't eat those fish. (-:
Glad to hear a "trip" came out of there, was wondering if the WDFW sight was accurate, nothing from Echo Lake yet, but I guess no one is writing, but from driving by, it had to have been planted,..
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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.
