Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
I guess I’ll start out to say that I officially have a fishing mentor, Jigmeister, or Jiggy, and I am going to be greedy here, and say that I am the Jigmeister apprentice! I was having trip after trip in the past which all turned out to be disappointing, to say the least. I voiced my discontent on this site, and asked for help, and my call was answered by a fellow that seemed as interested to help his fellow fisherman as he was to catch them all himself. Jiggy and I met, he showed me the flaw in my tackle and equipment, and he guided me to the right equipment for the targeted catch for the day.
After gearing up properly, we headed to Pond #6, or Buena Pond. Walking out the northwest corner of the pond, Jiggy showed me how to properly rig a worm, scent it, and jig it. Immediately, I lost the tail end of my worm to what can only be described as, well, a fish. I re-rigged my jig-head, and casted again, finding out that casting a small reel with a 5.5' pole and 4LB test is not the same as my normal 10-15LB braid on a 7 foot Ugly Stick. I bird nested immediately, and spent the better part of 15 minutes attempting to untangle my line. I gave up and cut it, pulled in my rig and re tied, getting the hang of it. I moved to plastic jigs with crawfish scent, and started getting the non-committal bites that ultimately drove us from Buena.
This is where I should mention the weather. The forecast said "Rain, Rain, Rain", but we had beautiful blue skies, warm sun, scattered clouds, and a steady, in-your-face 20MPH wind. The wind with such light tackle made fishing a tactical operation all day. But I digress...
By about 11, Jiggy had caught two small planters, and one small perch, and I had one small planter, all of which were released. We decided that Buena was not the hot spot we had hoped for, and looked for nicer digs. Jiggy suggested we hit Pond #4, and I blindly agreed, not knowing more about the I-82 ponds than Buena.
After a short jaunt, a near miss as Jiggy's truck's reverse lights snapped on (I had no idea you could drive through that giant culvert going under I-82) and quickly got out of the way of oncoming traffic, and a fun tunnel ride, we arrived at the parking lot for Pond #4. Unloading the Jon, locking our trucks and pushing off (around 12:00), we coasted down the east side of the pond, almost immediately falling into a bite that trumped every fishing trip I had ever been on. Drifting lazily down the bank and casting along the reeds produced more planters than we could, well, shake a stick at, I guess?
We eventually reached the south end of the pond and beached to check out what Pond #5 looked like. With the Yakima so high, Pond #5 looked like a mud hole, and we eventually made it back to the boat.
We worked our way north on the pond again, essentially replicating our bite we hit earlier, but more sporadic and concentrated this time. When we found a producing spot, we circled for a while until the bite slowed down. We finally hit our limit (mind you this was a very selective limit, and by the time we had our collective 10 in the bag, we had selectively picked the best of about 55 other planters) and we exclusively moved to fishing for perch. Jiggy reeled in two small perch, and I succeeded in CAR'ing about 10 more planters. We reached the shore again, packed everything in our respective trucks (around 3:30), and parted ways.
All in all, we had over 64 fish caught, 10 of them kept, cleaned and frozen, and three perch that Jiggy produced. I was so caught up in the bite that I completely, 100% forgot to take pictures before or during, so I attached a photo of the ten frozen guys I cleaned earlier. I figure that if a picture is worth a thousand words, the opposite must be true, so a picture and a thousand words must be worth something.
Good luck everyone, tight lines, see you out there!
great report! it's always awesome when fellow anglers help each other out. while one can't give away all his secrets, they can always help point others in the right direction. i wish i lived closer to the i-82 ponds, reading these reports about all the fish caught out of them makes me super jealous :P
Guys, I am truely honored. Getting to go fishing with guys like wilcom , malott guy,and bluefin louie is the most awesome thing about walakes.com. Mike Carey has given us all a great forum to share our love for fishing. Wil's constant smile and adrenaline rush yesterday made my day and I will forever be thankful for my fishing mentor Larry Taylor showing me the ropes so long ago. Sharing what we have learned with others is the true definition of sportsmanship. Jiggy
Nice report will, i am heading over to Packwood from Spokane on the 23rd of this month. I am interested in checking out the ponds. I will be with my 3 yr old doughter so just a brief outing on the bank. I love to bass fish. Just cerious how to get to the ponds and what one would be the best to hit for some bass from shore. And how do you determin what pond is what pond> Stay safe out there.
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Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
