I have seen real improvements in a variety of fisheries in the region. The action has really picked for kokanee, walleye and bass. I have had a chance to get out and sample some of these opportunities and plan to ramp up my activity on the water to take advantage of more of them.

If you are following my reports on my website, on the radio, newspaper and videos, you have heard that the kokanee fishing on Lake Chelan has become hot. The fish aren’t big, but it is a ton of fun catching a bunch. It’s a great time to get the kids out in the boat for fast action. There are some other lakes that you can find kokanee in, and this is a good time to fish for them. Not far from Lake Chelan is Wapato Lake, just up over the hill from Manson. It is known to produce large kokanee, sometimes 16 inches. The public ramp at the east end of the lake is in bad shape, but small boats can launch here easily. There is another at the Rainbow Resort at the other end of the lake. It is narrow, though. Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, has had kokanee in it for a few years now. You will find them trolling shallow. Deep Lake, at Sun Lakes above Park Lake, may have kokanee up to 14 inches in it this year. There are some other kokanee lakes in the region I will suggest to you in future reports.

When I got a call from my friend Brian Anantatmula about hot fishing for kokanee on Lake Chelan, I immediately made a plan to get up there. Tom Verschuren was eager to join me. We both enjoy fishing for kokanee on Lake Chelan, and this would be his first opportunity to do so this season. We left the launch at Mill Bay, and when we hit 100 feet of water, I turned the boat down lake. We got a couple of fish and kept on moving. When we got to an area below Rocky Point, where we have found fish before, we finally started seeing good numbers on the Garmin fish finder. I adjusted the depth on the Scotty downriggers to just 50 feet, and the back rods to 75 feet with four-ounce lead balls for weight. I found that adjusting the speed on the Minn Kota from 1 mph to 1.4 and then dropping it back to 1 frequently helped tempt the kokanee to strike. Our catch rate soared, and we put 20 kokanee in the cooler. Big numbers of small kokanee that were 8 to 11 inches long have moved into the lower basin on Chelan.

One of my favorite fisheries in the region is for smallmouth bass at Crescent Bar. I have landed some really nice pre-spawn fish early in the month of May. I just stumbled onto this a couple of years ago. I remembered finding lots of smallmouth here fishing with my brother Rick and cousin Greg probably 30 years ago and just decided to give it a try. My brother in law Tom Verschueren loves catching bass and was willing to go along on our first exploratory mission. We had a blast, catching 20 plus smallies. We tried our usual method of creeping up the shoreline on the Minn Kota. I would watch the Garmin for ridges and drops, and we would cast plastics to the shale slides along the shore without success. I was frustrated and about to give up, and I thought, what the heck, let’s troll some crank baits and see what we catch. Surprise, surprise, the smallmouth jumped on them! We have gone back a few times and repeated this experience. I just hope I am not too late, and the fish have already spawned. I have heard that it has been good recently. This week’s photo is of one of the smallmouth that we have caught trolling cranks at Crescent Bar.

This is the time of year, the flows of the Columbia River vary considerably. It is important to know the conditions on the river before you launch your boat for a day on the water. Both recreational boaters and anglers should have the Currents App downloaded to their phones. The app will give you access to a range of information, like lake levels, river flows and even fish counts. The app is provided by Chelan County PUD, has been recently updated and is free! It has a simple map-based design, and modern look and feel. It has interactive touchpoints for users to find more details about each park, boat launch, river, lake or dam. It also features an easy to find menu with items for lake levels, river flows and fish counts. To learn more about the Currents App and to find the instructions on how to download it to your phone, go to my website at FishingMagician.com and look for the Ready, Check, Launch banner on the right hand side of the Home Page. This app is very important at all times when boating anywhere on the Columbia River near Rock Reach and Rock Island dams. Check it out.

It’s hard to make a choice on where to go for some good fishing right now. There are so many great options. Trout fishing on the region’s lakes that opened recently should be terrific. There’s a couple of places that should be excellent. Park Lake, north of Soap Lake, was keeping trout anglers busy, both from the shore and from boats. Jameson Lake in Douglas County was also producing well with stringers of very nice rainbow from the shore. Near Wenatchee is Beehive Reservoir, and thanks to a generous plant of trout this year, the fishing has been very good. Out of all of the walleye lakes in the region, Mose Lake, as usual, is producing the best catches in the spring. Fishing for smallmouth bass in the lakes has always been good, and from what I have experienced so far, it could be outstanding. I am going to dedicate a few days to smallmouth fishing on Moses Lake. I also plan on giving Banks Lake a try for both walleye and smallmouth bass very soon. Anglers looking for big largemouth bass should find them on Potholes Reservoir. Judging by the numbers we were catching here last fall it should be great this spring.