Sunny skies and calm water. That’s what I got to enjoy this past week. I got to fish several different lakes for different species and had fun doing it all. I hope you get a chance to get out on the water soon. Things are really starting to happen in our region.

When she saw the forecast for 80-degree weather, my wife said she wanted to take a trip to Lake Chelan. I wanted to see what size the kokanee were in Chelan this year, so we headed up there last Saturday. We arrived at the Mill Bay boat launch at about 12:30 and I steered the boat toward Rocky Point. We trolled down past the point and across the lake to the Blue Roofs. I didn’t mark a single fish. A guy at the boat launch said it had been good down here but had really slowed down. Apparently so. I had two rods out on the downriggers. One was set at 100 feet and the other at 80 feet. I had two rods out the back with 4-ounce lead balls. One was out 70 feet and the other at 100. I looped the boat up lake and the back rod set at 70 feet went off. Eileen netted the kokanee and it measured 15 ½ inches! It has been a while since I got a kokanee this size on Chelan. I am very excited about getting back up there early in the morning and spending a day trying for kokanee like this on Chelan.

While we waited for a few boats to pull out at the launch at Mill Bay, I pulled out a bass rod and went to look for some rock piles I knew were close by. I rigged up a Senko, put the bow mount in Spot Lock and started casting. I was getting bites and saw fish flashing at the bait when I retrieved it but couldn't hook them. I put on a smaller hook and bait and after a couple more casts hooked what was biting. It turned out to be a cutthroat! I have never caught a trout on a Senko. When we pulled up to the launch there was a boat with a guy on the bow casting a spinner. There was someone on the dock pointing to the fish he could see and telling him where to cast. Sure enough, he got a nice cutthroat and said he saw some much larger fish. I think you could get a limit of these cutthroat in no time, even trolling a fly. There are some larger rainbow in Mill Bay now, too.

My good friend and guide Brian Nielson, of BJs Guide Service, was planning to take me walleye fishing on Potholes Reservoir last Friday, but after getting some intel on how the fishing was there, decided that we should go to Moses Lake. As many walleye anglers know, the very upper end of the lake is where things start to happen every year, and he had heard that it was time to try it. His friend Mike Wren joined us, and we ran all the way up until we were in five feet of water. The weeds haven’t grown up yet and this end hasn’t turned over. We started trolling with bottom bouncers and spinners and I landed a 22-inch fish at about eleven ‘o clock. Mike put out his gear on side planers and that was the game changer. He started getting fish right away and continued to hook walleye on this set up. He showed me how to rig the side planers he was using, and I contributed a few fish, but Mike got the majority of the walleye that ranged in size from 15 to 22 inches. We had 13 in the live well when we pulled out the fillet knife. Once again, Brian put us right on the fish and we had a blast. This week’s photo is of Mike Wren with one of the walleye he landed.

It was a beautiful day in Leavenworth lastThursday, and when I checked the web cam on Fish Lake it was dead calm. I just had to get out on the water, even if it was going to be by myself. I threw a couple of kokanee rods and tackle in the boat and even put a bass rod and one of my boxes of bass gear, too. I remembered to scent some shoe peg corn, so I was ready to go.  I had put the downriggers on for a trip to Lake Chelan with my wife later in the week, and the batteries were charged. The road into the Cove Resort was very bumpy, so I took it very slowly. When I stopped to take the straps off the boat I found one of my riggers hanging by the power cord and actually touching the ground. I threw it in the boat and launched it anyway. I spent a very short time trolling and managed to get one kokanee but decided I had better get home and fix the rigger. I rushed home and got it done. Now I was ready to try for kokanee on Lake Chelan.  

When I was on my way to Wapato Lake last on opening day, I noticed a lot of boats out on Lake Chelan. This is the time of year I expect to see people out fishing for kokanee, and then I learned that there was a kokanee derby going on. I mentioned this last week, and it turned out to be the Something Catchy Derby, with 35 adults and 15 kids participating. I was told that fishing was pretty good, and what was really exciting was the size of the kokanee. The biggest fish was over 15 inches long. There were a lot of kokanee turned in that were over 13 inches and many that were 14 inches long. The biggest concentration of boats that I observed were over by the Blue Roofs, and I heard that fishing was good off Chelan Shores. If you are interested in learning the results of the derby, that includes kokanee, lake trout, cutthroat and trout catches, you can go to somethingcatchy.simplederby.com.

A fairly recent addition to my website is the Podcast Page. I started doing these on KKRV Radio in Wenatchee and KWIQ Radio in Moses Lake. Now people can catch the Fishing Magician broadcasts anytime, anywhere you have an internet connection. Check it out.