The plan WAS to fish Sunday evening, then spend the night on the boat, and hit it again in the morning. Got stuck at work AGAIN, so it became a Monday only program. Left Moses lake in the middle of the night, and hit the water at 4:30.This was my first time on Lake Chelan, and I'd heard about how the wind can be... Out of the gate, it diidn't look good. 15 kis of wind out of the West, with some unhappy clouds around. I thought "if this is what it's like at dawn......" Well, I was committed!

I was going to see if I could get into the huge Kokanee that were throwing themselves into the boat last year, but being quite a bit more difficult this year from all reports.
I started out with one DR at 20', the other at 30', running south from Rocky point toward the blue roof condos. Nothing, followed by nothing. There were a couple of other boats out in the area as it got later and the sun rose above the ridge, but I never saw a net. They seemed to be trying the same strategy as me. 1.2 kts up to 1.6. As it got lighter, I dropped my gear some, and finally got my first hit at 45' I took up the slack, felt some good weight and then...... yeah off. Grrrr! But hey, that's Kokanee fishing. Around 8 or so, the wind died down, and it became a REALLY NICE day on the the water! A little later I picked up a rainbow on an orange hoochie behind a red sling blade. Around 10:00 it started getting better in the Kokanee category. I only marked one school all day, but it was a big one, and the center seemed to be around 65'. I dropped the riggers to 65/75, and ended up catching 6 Kokanee to go with the rainbow. Most were 15-16", with one 18.8 bruiser. Only lost that one BIG first Kokanee. Wish I'd had more time, but had to be in Woodinvillle to get the new Lowrance put on the boat.
I'll be back. Kokanee, consider yourself warned!

OGF

P.S. After taking the boat out of the water, I noticed Anton Jones of Darrell&Dad's. I recognized him from the Kokanee video from here, so I went over and introduced myself. What a nice guy. He's every bit as nice as you'd expect from his reports, and his videos. He told me they'd whacked 'em, but I was not even a little surprised. They appear to have that fishery thoroughly handled. I plan to fish with him in the next month to learn Mackinaw fishing (never done it) and look forward to it!

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