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.
I had two goals for today while visiting Hanson. One was to catch one of the fabled Brook Trout that inhabit that lake, the other was to increase the overall size of the fish I was taking home from the lake. I can say that both were successfully achieved.
After stopping at Chitwood for about 50 minutes this morning (and landing my biggest Cutt yet, just shy of 14"), my dad and I continued on up to Hanson Lake, arriving there at about 10am. After picking our way down the shoreline to a good starting spot, I began by using a gold and crimson colored 1/8oz Kastmaster. Let me tell you, not only did this lure work, it absolutely blew...up...those Cuttys. My typical strategy was to cast it out as far as I could, let it sink anywhere between 2 to 5 seconds, and then bring it in nice and slow with an occasional twitch of the rod tip followed by a pause, or just a straight pause in the reeling. Time and again I would do this to find yet another Cutthroat had nabbed the lure during the free fall. Cast after cast this was bringing in fish that were on average probably 10".
Wanting to see if I could up the ante a little bit on the size of fish I was catching, I switched to a 1/4oz solid gold colored Kastmaster and began to use the same technique as before. Again, this continued to produce many strikes with the average size of the fish being maybe an inch or two bigger (although some of the smaller ones still took it). After playing C&R with many Cutts, and keeping a few that were nicer sized/too badly damaged by the hooks, I was down to my last fish for the day and was beginning to wonder if any of those fabled Brookies would show up....
Not long after this I cast my larger gold Kastmaster out, let it sink for about five seconds, and then began bringing it back pretty much the same as before. Fish on! As I brought this one in to shore it felt like a standard Cutty, but I saw that it had a deep red belly at one point as it flipped over. At first I thought, "is this a resident Coho in spawning color?" According to the WDFW website resident Coho live in Chitwood, just up the road, so I figured maybe they would be in Hanson too. I didn't consider it likely, knowing that Hanson is pretty well cut off from other lakes and rivers in the area, but this fish just looked too strange to me. As I pulled it ashore I saw that it was quite dark on the sides, definitely not a Cutt, and upon closer inspection I promptly found that small red dot ringed by a halo of iridescent blue, signaling that I had finally come across the Brook Trout I was looking for! This one happened to be about 8" or 9" long. Immediately after that, my dad, who I believe was using my smaller gold and crimson Kastmaster, brought in another Brookie, this one probably about 10" or 11". I believe it was my next cast I hooked into yet another Brookie, very similar to the first one that I pulled in. And then as quickly as they had come, those Brook Trout were gone again.
After that I caught another Cutt or two and finished up my limit. I then handed my pole over to my dad so he could use the larger Kastmaster already tied on and he proceeded to C&R three more Cutthroat, completing his limit for the day between Chitwood and Hanson, although he didn't actually keep any of the fish he brought in. I believe that we stopped fishing at about 12:30.
And now for some notes on my observations at the lake today. First off, gold was the key. Every fish we caught, or even had on the line, was hooked on something that was gold colored as far as I know. I used nothing but gold/crimson and solid gold Kastmasters today, while my dad tried various Rooster Tails with silver and gold blades, as well as what I think was a Thomas Buoyant spoon in gold perch pattern. He got a hit on the gold spoon, but I don't think he had anything at all on the Rooster Tails, which leads me to my second observation. Those trout really seemed to like the Kastmaster and spoon action, not the spinner action. As a matter of fact, when I cleaned some of the bigger trout I saw what looked like remnants of little fish in their stomachs, further indicating why a spoon would be more attractive to them. Third, it seems that the trout in this lake were cruising in schools while in search of food. Why I say this is because I basically stood in the same spot, doing the same thing, with the same types of lures all day and would go through periods about every 15 to 20 minutes where I would catch fish after fish, and then I would get nothing for about 10 minutes or so. I was also paying attention to the weather and water, and during those same periods it didn't start or stop raining, there weren't breaks in the clouds, and the wind didn't even really change much. Knowing that information, coupled with the fact that I was literally getting a fish on almost every cast at some points, really indicates to me that they were simply moving through in schools, and when a school happened to be in front of me it was lights out fishing for about 15 minutes. I really refuse to believe that I could catch 10 fish in a row doing the same thing, and then all of sudden they would just "stop biting" on a whim knowing that nothing else was changing at all with the weather and my presentation. I think they simply weren't there during those periods.
My last observations are about the Brook Trout. I noticed that the two I landed both struck on retrieves where I had let the Kastmaster sink deeper, indicating that perhaps they were further down in the lake, as opposed to the Cutthroat which were definitely up top. Also, it was very interesting that we caught three of them in a row, and right at the tail end of one of the cycles of Cutthroat catching I described above. It seems that this could mean two things. One, the Brook Trout don't mix with the Cutthroat, but rather just follow them around the lake in a separate school. Or two, the Brook Trout just hang out in the same spot, but down deeper than the Cutthroat. Once the crazy Cutts stop biting everything that hits the surface and move on, the Brooks actually have a chance to get in on the action. This may also be due to the fact that there are just less Brooks in there than Cutts (which I could certainly attest to knowing the ratio of Cutts to Brooks that I have caught there).
So this was absolutely, hands down, an excellent day of fishing. I probably caught between 20 or 30 fish today, all within about a two hour time frame, and nothing smaller than about 8" or 9". I ended the day with 5 Cutts, the smallest of which was still 11", accomplishing my goal of trying to get bigger fish (as compared to the 9" or so average that I got last time from this lake). The Cutthroat in the picture range from 11" to just shy of 14" (with that biggest one coming from Chitwood). I also managed to catch a Brook Trout, another nice fishing accomplishment. Furthermore, I noticed some great patterns in the fishing today which I will use to my advantage in the future. The weather was good, not raining on us until about the last 20 minutes of the hike. And last but not least, I got to spend the day fishing with my dad and forgetting about work.
@LittleTrib. I appreciate the concern, but frankly, I'm not too worried about this lake. It is a five mile hike to get to it with at least 800 feet of elevation gain. That is good for probably keeping 95% or more of the anglers away from it. Your average angler isn't going to want to do 10 miles and a 1600 foot elevation delta just for some average size Cuttys. Besides, if someone hadn't been willing to share the lake with me in the first place I never would have known about it, and I certainly don't mind letting others know it is there if they are willing to actually put the work in to get there. Again the key part being "work to get there."
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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.
