If you're looking for lake trout I would try the "pound the bottom" technique. Most of the chelan lakers are hooked 2-3 feet off the bottom

i have tried to fish Mack Bar with heavy lead, small spreader bar and glow squidder with glow smileys, yet to get bit. without down-riggers not sure what else to do. havent really been marking fish deep, not sure if that matters.

One member uses a "drop shot" technique for the Lakers in Chelan. Does quite well. That member can be found reading past fishing reports for Lake Chelan. If you find that fishing report, an option is to reach out and touch that person through a pm. Another option is to pm any of the 3 guides, who are members on this site for tips.

Are you tipping your lure with Pike minnow? Are you certain your fishing within 5 ft of the bottom? Trolling or drifting slow? These are a common theme in guide reports for that lake.

Perhaps the bite is real subtle at the depths fished, and hard to detect? I have never fished for them. But trying to help in anyway I can think of.

Howdy!

I have fished for lakers and have used all kinds of methods to get down there to the bottom. One is of course down riggers and by far they are the easiest, you dont even need to have a depth counter, just watch your graph and every five to ten min. check your rod and depth, by bringing up your line and releasing it till it thumps the bottom. This way you know you are maintaining the 3-5 ft from bottom. If the bottom has came up then real some line up as the bottom comes up and then let line out to thump the bottom, and then bring it up 3-5 feet and repeat in 10 min. or so or if the bottom makes a change. As mentioned above maintaining that 3-5 ft off the bottom is key. So you dont have down riggers, not a problem.....Get yourself a metal clip that is used to clip on an extra line to your down rigger line so you can run multiple lines on one down rigger. Take off the plastic release clip for your fishing line, and then get a lead ball of 12 OZ or so, and fix it to the metal clip by heavy line 3-6" long, and then get your rod ready and let it out 75' or so and clip that weight on your line and send her down, and work the bottom as mentioned before every 10 min. or so. I Will take a picture and post it.
Also as mentioned above drop shotting.... If you do find a good ledge or a pile of fish on your graph, stop and send a big jig (3oz) with a treble stinger hook or drop shot rig that is a couple OZ's over and jig them. I have been very successful doing this and have targeted the lings that way too. My buddy has posted about the drop shot method and has since fine tuned it and done very well since he and I were up there summer before last when he kind of stumbled over the thought of drop shotting for them, although he is very good at the drop shot method and very tuned into it where I am not. He kicks my but every time. Point being at that depth you need to have a very skilled hand to feel them. If in doubt jerk....Jerks are free. I am not skilled in that area as he is, but it is a great method, if you find a pile of fish you are able to keep on them. Having said that, you need to know where some ledges are and where they stack up. You dont really want to just go out anywhere and start jigging or drop shotting. Jigging or drop shotting the hits are a wide range from the line feeling heavy or bogged down to a tick tick tick, or bump bump bump then heavy to slamola. As far as the hits go trolling, I have seen them in one day flat slam it and rip it out of the DR clip or just barley tap it and you wonder huh.....that just doesn't look right. So it just depends on the particular fish that particular day.
With that I hope it helps, and it is time for me to get after it again and replenish the stock pile in the freezer for laker soup come spring. If you see a Blue and Gray Lund sport angler dont be shy, come and say high! let me know if you have any further questions. Glad to help!

WOW, thanks for the response guys! I think the technique I was using was similar to a drop shot. I kept pounding the bottom and trolling around, thought I may have had a bite a couple times, but when I went to set the hook, nothing was there. I do use braided line hoping that would translate to easier detection of bites at such a depth I was using a night crawler and some stink gel hoping that would work. I have seen that Pike minnow makes good bait on this site in the reports, I am just not clear on what the technique is. Do you fillet them out and cut strips and put on hook, or cut up chunks of the fillet? skin on, or skin off?
Mcfisherson; I am not clear on the technique you explain for fishing without a downrigger. You use a clip from a down rigger with a weight on it, then when you get a bite, you set the hook and leave the clip and weight on the bottom of the lake? or you clip it on, then remove once you get it reeled in far enough?

If you go to hooked on toys or your local Sporting goods store and ask them to show you the double stacking down rigger clips, you will see a metal clip about 4" long (which is what you want) and tied to that is the heavy leader fixed to your normal plastic down rigger clip/Release(scottys are black with the green tips). At hooked on they are back with the down rigger accessories. You cut off the plastic clip, and tie on your lead ball in some way or fashion. Then to use it, you let out your line about 75' and then you clip the metal clip with lead ball onto your fishing line. Send it down till you thump the bottom, and then bring it up 3-5' from the bottom. When you detect a bite you just set the hook and real in and fight the fish and when you get the clip up make a quick move to take the clip off your line and then continue bringing in the fish, it is easier with two people but I do it all the time by my self. It releases very easy and quick, I have never lost one (Knocking on wood as I say Yet!) Like I said I will post a picture as soon as I get one taken, so keep checking back.
As far as the bait, keep the skin on your bait to help keep it on the hook. cut strips off the fillet and the key I try to do is to try and make it look like a fish. A 2-3" narrow strip and I cut a fork in the tail just for grins. I will also use flat fish behind this weight system too, But I will thump the bottom and then bring it up 5-10' and work my depth until I get hit. The flat fish will dive some so that is why I bring it up more then when I use bait. Keep your baits moving and work it, you can just put it in there and drag it around, but you will have more success if you are working it. If I mark a fish on the bottom, I will go past it and when I think my bait has past the fish with no strike, I will thump the bottom and create some racket and hopefully generate a reaction strike if they are being fussy and not wanting to be racket. I will also make a turn if I see several fish in a general area and try to racket them into hitting if they are being fussy. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But I am always working my gear and trying to generate strikes. Hope this helps clear it up some.
Good Luck!

I checked out the Stacker clips at Hooked on toys and they looked to me to be 2 plastic clips and a metal clip in the middle closer to one end. I could see running your main line out , hooking the metal clip onto it(the main line) then also clipping the plastic clip closest to the metal one to the main line to hold it in place, then tying on a big ball of lead, then when I reel in, if the plastic clip hasn't released already, I could release it, and it would just slide toward the terminal end. is this the way you suggest McFisherson??

Kind of, But I get rid of all the plastic clips all together! The metal clip shouldn't slide on your main line or I have never experienced that any way, with out the down rigger pulling in the downrigger line. The metal clip kind of pinches your main line and holds it very good. I have not seen it damage my main line either or had any problems like that. I would keep the system as simple as possible. The less you have to remove when you have a fish on the better. You do create some slack in the line when you are mickey mousing around with it taking it of.... so quick is the name of the game! Another key is to bring that fish up as fast as you can if you intend to keep it! It will blow them up and keep them from swimming back down if they do come off. I have had to turn the boat around many times to go get my fish that came off that is now floating due to the Bends. I will get a picture tonight and post it tomorrow.
Later!

I went out yesterday with my "downrigger alternative" which consisted of: duo lock snap, #5 split ring, bead chain swivel, and another duo snap from which I ran the dropper. I tied a small downrigger clip using about 6"line onto the first lock snap from which I clipped to my main line. what I did was let out about 50' of line, then clip this to the mainline, pull a loop from my main line and run in through the split ring, then clip the rigger clip to this loop. The idea is that when a fish hits, you set the hook, the loop pulls out of the clip and then this contraption would just slide down the main line to a bead above the snap swivel, attached to a leader and the terminal end, and my fish. It worked fairly well, as I was able to hook a fish using this method, the problem I had is that I use braided line, and the downrigger contraption spun the mainline, so after a couple of head shakes, and the beginning of a run, my rod went limp and I reeled right up to the attachment point. Frazelled, and a bit disgusted about losing about $20 bucks of gear, I continued fishing, going back to the spreader bar technique I had tried before, with a longer leader, and a glow flatfish on the bottom, and on my other rod, the same thing with a big needlefish fished at 50', continued to fish the south side headed back to the launch, ended up bringing 1 small kokanee to the boat that I shook off, and nothing from the deep deep.
My plan now is to put about 75' of mono line on the end of the braid on my reel, hoping that the mono will be less likely to spin because the main line didn't spin up every time, but it was a problem that I had to remedy a couple time that morning. if that doesn't work I guess I will just have to pony up for a downrigger, or 2

Check My posting, I posted the picture of the clip that I use.