Best Fishing Day on Chelan Ever - Part 1

We took our mostly annual sun and heat pilgrimage to Lake Chelan from June 29th to July 6th. I got out fishing a couple of times. Part One is kokanee for the trip...

Went looking for kokanee on my first outing on the lake. Reports said they were large, and coming from Rocky Pt, but spread out and getting harder to catch. Took my first outing for them on Sunday July 1st.

I fished a lot of different lures from Toni's Wannafishalure. Had lines in right around 6am but don't know if much light was getting down to the fish then. I started hooking fish around 6:30. Had a limit of 10 before 10am. I think that is my first limit on Chelan in a long time. The smallest fish I kept were around 12-13 inches, which would have been the biggest last year. I had at least 4 in the 16-17 inch range... Wow!

I got my first fish at 26 feet, and a guy near me got one around the same time. I was markiing almost constant fish near 25 and also right near 40 feet. Homed in on the deeper fish shortly after that. Caught fish on the UV Pink Squidy Thang, the Bloody Mary and an orange wedding ring. Tipped with either white or pink Berkley Power Maggots. At one point I had a double on and managed to get them both. I was fighting fish one when the second pole went off. Put pole 1 in a rod holder, grabbed pole 2 and reeled down to the fish, then put it back in a pole holder. Played fish 1 and netted it, then grabbed pole 2 and played fish 2 and lifted it into the boat... What a hoot! Best speed was around 1.2 mph on gps.

In the past we caught lots of fish at Chelan on Gilded Lily, but not this year. I have also caught fish tight in to the rock wall at Rocky Point, but this year they seemed to be further out in about 100+.

Some things I was doing differently that I think helped compared to others I saw not doing as well... I stacked the lines up the cable at least 15 feet to get the downrigger balls way below the kokes (I have a 14# and a 12# on the boat, so I think they spook fish a little)... I have a black box (yes I believe in them)... I was doing lots of "S" turns rather than just going straight for a long ways... I was trying not to fish directly towards the sun (read that in a book once)... Ultralight tackle and light drag so most all fish took some line...

I fished for kokes late on Thursday evening before we left, but think I got out too late. The sun was already behind the mountains. I caught and released one on a Pink Ice and another on the UV Pink Squidy Thang. I was marking lots of fish, still around the 40 foot range, but i don't think light was penetrating enough for them to see my stuff... maybe with glow?

Oh, well. Great Koke fishing!

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