Photos
Details
After researching and reading reports from the kind, professional guides that post them (Anton/Joe), I finally drove to fish Lake Chelan from an 8-foot inflatable pontoon. As a Michigander, I have had access to Lake Trout for an entire lifetime, and there, too, they have somewhat of a malnourished reputation. Lake Trout are nice fish.
What a beautiful lake! Never having been there, a pretty big learning curve had me on the raft for over 12 hours Tuesday and 6 hours Wednesday. While much of this time was spent exploring and comparing Topographic maps to the fish finder, I eventually targeted the Wapato Point/Manson Bay zone instead of the fabled Mack Bar and Minneapolis Beach areas. This was largely due to my “scrawny arm muscles” and silent protest against paying $7.00 to drop a non-motorized boat in at the Old Mill launch. That is, I dropped the raft in at a small park free of charge while saving the travel time to those more popular spots.
I ran small spin-n-glows tipped with sand shrimp tails behind the Mack’s Hot Wings at an absolute crawl. I tried to stay in 125 ft. of water with the cannonball at about 122 ft., but that was much easier said than done with what appeared to be a mountain range beneath me. I once went 178 ft. down in 180 to 190 ft. of water, but was reminded that one loses momentum with that much drag as soon as your hands are removed from the oars. I fished that depth only once with my manual downrigger and reeled up a bird’s nest, even though I did drop down in steps. In short, this is recorded as one of the five most difficult fishing adventures I have enjoyed.
On Tuesday, I landed three Lakers while a fourth squirmed out of my hand at the boat. Two more let go less than half way up after three or four other light bites. On Wednesday morning, I landed two for a trip total of five after more light hits. None were big, averaging 2.5 to 3.5 lbs. They were, however, beautiful and incredibly bright on the filet table. Today I learned that they were great on the dinner table as well... Fishing was slow, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to the next one.
While still relatively new here, I want to again thank the helpful people who have been nice enough to share in person or through the computer. Earl, John, and Chris in the Tacoma Area and the Lake Chelan guides are remarkable, and I appreciate all of you. If willing, please suggest other crazy adventures for this type of approach.
Along with many rivers and their steelies/salmon, I’ve so far cherished some success with Neah Bay Sea Bass, Columbia River Sturgeon, and American Lake Kokanee from the pontoon. Current studies are for Crescent Lake Beardslees, Rufus Woods Rainbows, Juan de Fuca Coho, unknown walleye spots, and anything else that should be left for a bigger boat. I’ll eventually graduate to a “lift and pick up” out of La Push if I can talk my tuna fishing friend into it.
Washington is great. Thanks, and enjoy the fishing.
Mark
Comments
Why is this comment inappropriate?
Delete this comment? Provide reason.