We are getting the warm weather we have been waiting for. Some will consider it too hot. I am happy to have a top on my Smoker Craft. Plenty of shade when needed, and I have a portable mister that has saved the day many times in the heat of summer. Don’t forget the sunscreen and take lots of water along when fishing during this season.
Father’s Day is on June 15th this year, and that has been a special day for me. For many years my brother Rick and I would take our Dad fishing. We fished for kokanee on Lake Chelan, triploids on Rufus Woods, even perch fishing on one of the area’s lakes. What we fished for or what we caught wasn’t as important as being together. Our Dad introduced us to fishing at an early age, and those experiences had impact in our later years. Rick was a professional fishing guide for 15 years, and my first real job was at Fishing and Hunting News in Seattle, where I was a staff writer and photographer. I contributed articles for a variety of fishing magazines after that and began doing fishing reports on KOZI radio in Chelan in the early 90s. This year my daughter Whitney is coming over and when she does, we usually go to Banks Lake to fish for bass and walleye. I remember the first time we fished for bass she learned to tie on her own hooks and release the fish. She has also demonstrated an ability to out-fish me for walleye, consistently landing larger fish than I do. This week’s photo is of a whopper walleye that Whitney landed at Banks Lake a few years ago.
My good friend Brian Anantatmula called saying he was up for a quick trip to Lake Chelan, so I hooked up the Bob Feil Boats and Motors Smoker Craft and launched it Mill Bay. While he set up the rods and Scotty riggers, I motored down the lake to an area below Rocky Point that we both like to try for kokanee. I was watching the screen on the Garmin, hoping to see it light up with schools of kokanee, but it only showed a scattered few of them. After some loops through here, we joined a fleet of boats that were trolling across from Lakeside Park. Although we had landed a couple of kokanee, we really hadn’t found good numbers of them. I moved the boat into 50 feet of water above Lakeside and although we got a couple of cutthroat, we managed to put a few more kokanee in the cooler. One of the cutthroat was maybe the biggest one we have landed on Chelan. Once again, we found that pink colors, in Kokabow blades and spinners were working the best. The kokanee we caught were getting a little bigger than earlier this season, averaging between 10 and 11 inches.
Nic Alexander, is the president of Reel Recreation, the organization that conducts the Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge. He and I have wanted to go bass fishing together for a long time. He said that Monday June 1st would be a special opportunity. That would be the day that the San Poil Arm of the Columbia River opened to fishing. We would be some of the first anglers to fish for smallmouth that day. So, I met him at the Keller Marina, and we crossed the Columbia and ran up the arm to the Power Lines. This has been a very productive spot for him over the years. However, the high winds the previous day had muddied the water, and although we did catch some smallmouth, it wasn’t what he expected. We fished a bunch of his favorite holes with limited success and planned to come back when conditions were better. The highlight of the day was when we captured a Canada goose that we noticed was in distress. Nic was able to get it in our landing net. It turns out that it had both feet tangled in fishing line, and even had a stick caught up in it. It was so exhausted it gave us no trouble while he held it, and I clipped off the line. I’m sure the bird will recover and survive. Exploring the San Poil Arm of Lake Roosevelt was a great experience, and I hope to get back up there soon. You can watch the video I did with Nic on the San Poil by going to the Dave Graybill YouTube channel or put this link in your browser: www.YouTube/haltyXOIh_g.
I got excited when I heard that the Colville Tribe had released a bunch of triploids into Rufus Woods. Earlier this spring they released thousands of them into the upper reservoir, and I took a few of my fishing friends up there. We had a ball catching and releasing rainbow that were from about a pound-and-a-half to two pounds. The recent release was of over 16,000 fish, weighing an average of 1.6 pounds, and included some jumbos of 8 to 9 pounds. The jumbos were put in the reservoir at Seatons Grove, the State Park and Willow Flats. I thought I could run up there and find these big ones and get a few for the smoker. I had Rollie Schmitten and Jim Passage along and had them believing I could put them on these big fish. Well, I was wrong. I looked all over the lower end and even off Brandts Landing and never did find them. There were anglers trolling the middle of reservoir and catching fish. One guy said he had a 10-pounder. I should have run up to the top end above the middle net pens like the last time. I really goofed on this one.
Also, coming up on Father’s Day weekend is the 33rd Annual Pike Minnow Derby, conducted by the East Wenatchee Rotary Club. There are some significant changes that anglers should be aware of about this derby. Primarily, there will be cash payouts for the pike minnows turned into pay stations on the Columbia River. Those interested can go to www.EWRotary.org and fill out a form to register.
