by John Kruse, July 04, 2006

Looking for a fishing destination that offers some variety? If so, you may want to head towards Lake Chelan. You can win a fishing trifecta at this beautiful lake going for big lake trout, tasty kokanee salmon or feisty smallmouth bass.

Anton Jones is the owner of Darrel and Dad’s Guide Service at Lake Chelan. Anton is a very smart man who runs a successful business getting his clients into big mackinaw and silver kokanee. In his latest fishing report, he says the fishing for the Lakers has been good in the lower basin and along the edges of Mack Bar. Lake trout here average 3 to 5 pounds. However, lakers can get big – up to 30 pounds big – and they like to stay deep. Anton recommends fishing out of a boat with a downrigger. Lately he has been trolling a U-20 Luminous Chartreuse flatfish plug at depths ranging between 165 to 200 feet for success.

Kokanee are small landlocked silver salmon that have got to be some of the finest eating fish around. Anton reports the fishing has been "out of sight". He’s been putting white shoepeg corn at the end of a Mack’s Wedding Ring spinner. He puts this behind a small dodger and trolls it between 15 to 50 feet deep at the very slow speed of 1 mile per hour. Anton reports catching kokanee from the Lake Chelan Yacht Club all the way down towards the town of Chelan. These fish are not huge, averaging 10 to 12 inches in size, but they sure fit well into a frying pan or wrapped in foil on the barbeque!

Trout and salmon are not the only games in town. There is a little known smallmouth bass fishery in Lake Chelan worth mentioning. One person who is dialed into this fun is DJ LaRoche. DJ is the owner of West Coast Custom Tackle and an avid bass fisherman.

DJ likes to say, "Warm weather means hot bass action." In June he fishes small tubes and lizards for big smallmouth around their spawning beds in 5 to 20 feet of water. As the summer progresses he finds the bass move deeper during the day but come back into shallower water in the early morning and as the sun is setting. When this happens he tempts them with poppers and floating jerk baits. During the heat of the day he’ll use a drop-shot technique, fishing 15 to 30 inches from the bottom with small plastic worms. LaRoche likes to use a spinning rod with a sensitive tip and combines this with light 6 lb test.

DJ says there are plenty of smallmouth to be found from Wapato Point all the way to Chelan. Concentrate on rocky areas, especially points and weedlines from 8 to 20 feet deep. You can expect to catch good numbers of ½ to 1 pound fish with the occasional four-pounder thrown in for good measure. DJ reports his biggest smallmouth at Lake Chelan was pushing 7 pounds and on his last summer trip he boated 15 to 30 fish a day.

Catching three unique types of game fish in a big beautiful lake makes for a great fishing trip. If you want to order some quality plastic baits for smallmouth bass from DJ Laroche, log onto his website at www.westcoastcustomtackle.com. If you want a memorable guided fishing trip on Lake Chelan, log onto www.darrelanddads.com or give Anton Jones a call at 509-687-0709.




Michelle Kruse caught this nice mackinaw fishing with Anton Jones of Darrell and Dad’s Guide Service.

Article reprinted from the Basin Business Journal in Moses Lake.