After a few trailer and downrigger and boat water/fuel filter issues (always remember to fill the new filter with gas…) JoAnn and I final got to fish two days, Sunday and Monday on Lake Chelan.

Last year this time was our first trip on Chelan for kokanee, and it was truly Epic. This year you may have heard that the fishing has been tough. I will confirm that, but also give you some hope that Chelan, while not producing the numbers it did last year, will produce those quality 18-20” koks we all want to get in on.

Sunday my plan was to search areas uplake. We ran all the way to the narrows and fished for a couple hours, and caught one kok at 8am, 70 feet on the DR, orange hoochie with corn and mealworm. It was a respectable 15 ½” fish. We worked this area for another hour, and finding no fish marks (or fish) I decided to run us even farther up lake, to Field Point. Within minutes of dropping our lines we ran into a bite frenzy, getting three bites all within 5 minutes. Can you say “Fire Drill”? 90 feet on an orange “superglow” (my own creation) with shrimp, 75 feet on a pink hoochie with shrimp, and 55 feet on a gold wedding ring with mealworm. We caught two of three, an 18” and a 16”. You can bet I doubled back through the area but nothing. No more biters (or marks) here.

Ended Sunday at the Monument and again, no fish, but we did see some marks. Day one we ended with 3 of 4 fish, but all nice quality fish.

Monday I got us out a bit early, and we had lines in the water by 6:30 at the Monument. My plan was to work the basin since most of the weekend crowd would be gone. My plan paid off with a quick fish at 6:45, at 90 feet. Orange hoochie, shrimp bait. But not a kokanee. It was a nice 18” chinook, my first ever out of Lake Chelan! We fished the area for another two hours but nothing, so off to the next area, Mills Bay and working south to Minneapolis Beach and then Rocky Point.

I would like to say we found fish, but it continued to be a scratch it out affair. 8:35 we got a beauty in Mill Bay, an 18 ½” kok at 75 feet on an orange hoochie and mealworm. We moved over to The Rocky Point area and had a couple hookups that came un-buttoned, 9:30 at 60 feet on a green wedding ring/mealworm and 12:10 at 70 feet on an orange hoochie/mealworm.

So our first Chelan trip we brought back 5 koks and a chinook, compared to last year’s 36 fish. Ouch. I saved a glimmer of hope for the end of this report. Rocky Point had a pretty good number of fish marks, the most that I found over the entire lake in our two day travels. I think the catch numbers will improve, time will tell!

BTW, mealtime is always 5 stars on my boat thanks to my First Mate, JoAnn. :-)

---