Northwest Salmon and Steelhead Fishing

What’s hot is kokanee fishing on Lake Chelan for quality kokanee. Also hot is trolling for Lake Trout on Lake Chelan at the Yacht Club, the Bar and off of Minneapolis Beach. Finally, it is continuing pretty hot fishing along the shoreline of Lake Chelan now for a pot pourri of species.

Kokanee on Lake Chelan are biting now and are continuing to AVERAGE 14 inches. We seem to be seeing three size classes that probably correspond to the three common year classes. They are twelve inches, fourteen inches and fifteen and a half inches. Those are probably three, four and five year old fish. The thing that seemed to matter the most was the attractor. Hands down, dodgers in the 0000 size were the most productive. Mack’s Double D dodger, Worden’s 0000 dodger and Silver Horde’s number one size kokanee dodger all generated numerous bites. A leader of sixteen to twenty two inches to a Mack’s Lures mini-cha cha squidder is the next piece of the puzzle. We caught a lot of fish on hot pink and watermelon glow. The icing on the cake was baiting everything with Pautzke’s Fire Corn in natural and yellow. Trolling at 80 and 100 feet deep in the lower basin at 1.4 mph was very productive.
Lake Chelan’s Lake Trout bite continues to be consistent. Fish the Bar with Worden Lures Flatfish in T4 sizes. Use Mack’s Lure’s Cha Cha’s off of Minneapolis and Silver Horde’s Ace Hi Flies at the Yacht Club. Fish the docks on Chelan for Rainbows and Northern Pikeminnow. We use Pautzke’s Firebait in Mallow Balls ‘O Fire for Rainbows and pieces of fish entrails for Northern Pikeminnow.
Your fishing tip of the week is to make an ice slurry to keep the delicate flesh of those delicious kokanee firm. I cringed last weekend when I saw anglers dragging those fish around in the water on stringers. It will turn their meat to mush in just a few hours. Fill a cooler one quarter full of ice, float all the ice with water and immerse those fish in the slurry as you catch them. Yum!
The kids tip of the week is to use distraction instead of corrections to redirect those 4 to 7 year old kids when they engage in annoying behaviors. Unless it is a safety issue, distraction will be much more effective and keep your blood pressure lower…
The safety tip of the week is to take your time trailering at the end of the day. Fatigue from a long day on the water can help you make expensive mistakes. Stop and think your way through the process before proceeding.

Anton Jones of Darrell & Dad's Family Guide Service

1-866-360-1523 or www.darrellanddads.com

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