The 3 of us arrived at Chapman Lake about 2:00pm Friday. Cost us $5 to launch the boat at the resort. The launch is very nice, the boat slipped into the water very easily. We hooked up our trolling gear, flashers, dodgers, fenders and wedding rings and headed for the north end of the lake where the inlet is at. No bites the entire way. We fished the entire inlet area with Rooster Tails, Blue Foxes and Jointed Rattling Rapalas painted to look like Crawdads. No luck at all. My son was using a bobber. No luck.

About 4 we started using slip bobbers to take some bait down to 20' about 25 yards from shore in one of the northern bays. Bites, bites, bites. We picked up a few 7"-9" Rainbows but threw them all back. When that proved fruitless, we put the trolling gear back on and tried doing that all around the lake for another 2 hours. There are MILLIONS of small silvers in this lake. From 5-6 they swim around in schools and surface for bugs... they were jumping EVERYWHERE, such that the splashing was a constant noise for over an hour. We moved our way back to the narrows where the resort is and tried the bottom but had no luck there either. We watched the locals get into their boats and turn lights on and head south... to the cliff narrows.

After dark, around 8-10pm, we were trying to do as the locals do using eggs, powerbait and dead garlic worms. No luck still!!!! We were determined to stay till we had results, so about midnight a local cruised on by and told us the secret. Go for the Kokanee (Silver Trout) by using 1/2 inch maggots (3 of them on a size 10 hook pierced through the tail so they still wiggle, with a few pieces of corn on the end of the hook for good measure. Drop the line to the bottom about 20 feet from the south cliff edge. Bring the line back up counting the rotations on your reel. Drop to the bottom again and reel back up 1/2 the reel turn amount so you are halfway up (that’s about 15 feet from the bottom). Bam. Bam. Bam. Fish on every time and boy can those little fish squirm. They were ALL about 8"-10", but with a limit of 10 each, we hooked up about 26 of them including 1 small 10" Rainbow. My son asleep, as well as the boats captain, the fish stopped biting VERY abruptly when a cold front moved in, so we called it a day at about 5am.

Cleaning 21 fish after 15 hours of fishing was no fun at all, but using the method that was given to us you just can't help but have a great time. I'll be seeing Chapman Lake again later in the summer when the bass are more active (said to be in the 3-5 pound average) and the Silvers are a little more grown up.

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