by Aaron Borg, May 24, 2006

Needing a partner to go fishing with on opening weekend (Apr 30th), I contacted Mike Carey and made plans to go fishing at Lake Chelan. It was a very simple plan. We would meet in Chelan, get a hotel for Saturday night, fish the lake Sunday, stay at a local resort on Sunday night, and fish some of the other area lakes on Monday. Mike had a much better idea though. He suggested we contact Darrell and Dad’s Family Guide Service and utilize their guide services. He also suggested that we stay at the Fisherman’s Hideaway, a lodging service provided by Darrell and Dad’s. It was a good plan, but, as they say, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. This would be no exception.

Checking out the pictures of Mackinaw being caught in Lake Chelan, I soon became so anxious for this trip that I could hardly contain myself. I made the reservations at the resort, marked the time off at work, packed all my gear, and was ready to go. I hit the road at 10am, and decided to hit as many lakes as I could on the way there. My first stop was Sprague Lake, in Adams/Lincoln County. I have read the reports for this lake, but I have never been to it. The resort I stopped at was nice. It had room for camping, rentable boats, RV hookups, and a decent dock for fishing. You can find the report here.

Moving on down the road, I arrived at Moses Lake, in Grant County. I have seen people fish from the I-90 overpass for years, but I have never had the time to stop and try it myself. They have a nice park right next to the highway with a decent boat launch and plenty of areas to fish. I tried fishing from the shore as well as from the overpass, but it was very windy and the fish just were not biting. I did not have much time to fish if I wanted to get to Chelan before dark, so I packed it up and hit the road again. The drive from George, WA up to Chelan is spectacular. There are a LOT of orchards along the way. A lot of them.

I arrived in Chelan at about 5pm. Chelan is a very quaint little town. I drove around in circles, just getting my bearings, then decided to head over to Mason, which is a few miles further along the north shore. Mason is where Darrell and Dad’s is located. I found Mason with no problems, located the “Fisherman’s Hideaway”, right away, but nobody was home. I might as well go fishing! Fishing from the shore on Lake Chelan this time of year seems about impossible. The water level is so low that 95% of the docks are sitting on the ground. I drove up and down the shore for about 30 minutes, and decided it would be best to just retire for the day, and prepare for the guided tour tomorrow morning. Mike would be showing up soon and I wanted to be at the Hideaway when he did.

I called all of the numbers for Darrell and Dad’s, but nobody answered. Just then, I saw Anton on the side of the road at a marine supply store, and stopped to introduce myself. Anton seemed surprised to see me. Apparently, I was a week early. A week early?!?! Oh no. What am I going to do? Mike will not be showing up. The resort reservations are not for another week. Anton might have other plans. I have totally messed everything up!

We went back to Anton’s place to check the calendar to make sure he was right about me being early. Sure enough, I was. Lucky for me, Anton had the next day off and graciously offered to take me out fishing anyway. He also allowed me to stay in the Hideaway. What a nice place! It has everything you could ever need. If you are planning a trip to Lake Chelan, this is the place to stay.

We hit the water in Anton’s 24 foot Bayliner at about 6:30 AM. On our way out to deeper water, we noticed that there were so many Kokanee near the cove where his boat is moored that the fish finder screen turned almost completely black! There were 1000’s of them! We were not there for the Kokanee though, we were there for the Mackinaw, so we dropped the downriggers, and started fishing. The trick to catching the Mackinaw is to troll at about 1.5mph as close to the bottom as you can. Using the fish finder and heavy duty Scotty downriggers, we raised and lowered the downrigger as the contour of lake bottom changed. This kept our lures right where we wanted them.

Over the course of the next 3-4 hours, we landed 6 Mackinaws and lost 1 Kokanee. The largest of the Macks were 6.5 lbs (27”) and 4.25 lbs (24”). The other four were 17 to 22 inches. At one point, we had a double, both poles had Macks on the line, and we were able to get them both to the boat. What a thrill! The largest Mackinaw did not give me too much trouble coming to the boat, but he did manage to take most of my line back out at least once before giving up and coming to the surface. Keep in mind, we were catching these guys at about 250-270 feet. That takes a few minutes just to get them to the surface.

We decided to stop for the day around 10:30. Anton cleaned and filleted all of my fish for me, which is part of his guide service. Overall, I left with about 20lbs of fillet. Excellent! I found it interesting to see what these fish had been eating. The first fish he cleaned had a baby Burbot in its stomach. I did not realize Chelan had Freshwater Cod. The rest of the fish were full of Shrimp. Another surprise for me. Most of the trout I catch in the northwest always have slime, unrecognizable bits, or bait of some kind in their stomachs. Oh, and the largest one WOULD have had a 10”+ Kokanee in him, but he spit it out just as we got him to the boat.

Before I left Chelan, I had Anton drive me past a few of the other local lakes. Roses Lake is just a few minutes from his house. The fishing is supposed to be great at this lake. Wapato Lake, as well as another small lake that I cannot remember the name, are just down the road from Roses.

I decided to take Hwy 2 home instead of I-90. The drive had some awesome views of Chelan. Once you get up into the hills, the lake is visible from miles away. I took pictures of a few more lakes on the way home, lakes that I had never seen before. Dry Falls Lake looked quite large from the highway. There was a very nice public launch/park area as well. I did not see anywhere that looked particularly promising for shore fishing so I did not try, but I am sure there are plenty of places to try.

Back in Spokane County, I stopped at the base of Long Lake Dam. There were a few people already fishing. I scrambled down to the water and threw my line in. I used a worm/marshmallow combo and had a fish on within minutes. It was just a Squawfish, but an older man down the shoreline pulled in a nice looking 18” Rainbow. After about 20 minutes, I packed it up and continued down the road. The view of the dam from above is spectacular.

It was getting late, but there was one more place to try fishing before I got home. About 10 minute down the road form the dam is a small place called Tum Tum. Just west of the city there are a few places on the roadside to pull over and fish. I have fished from a few spots here before, so I thought I would try a new one this time. As always, there are plenty of perch to be had from this part of the lake. They are mostly in the 8” range, if that. I received a few bits here and there, but it was getting dark, and I was ready to go home.

Wrapping things up, I would suggest that any avid angler try a fishing road trip at least once. I saw many lakes that I had never seen before, met some very nice people, and had an excellent time. I took too many photos to post them all, but here are some of the more relevant ones:

Chelan 1

Chelan 2

Chelan 3

Chelan 4

Chelan 5

Chelan 6

Dry Falls

Lake Spokane

Long Lake Dam 1

Long lake Dam 2

Moses Lake

Roses Lake

Sprague Lake 1

Sprague Lake 2

Wapato 1

Wapato 2