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This is a report for my fishing experience in the 3rd Annual Mackinaw tourney on lake Cle Elum recently. This was a very fun day for us. The check in the am was at 0700. They told me "Blast off" was at 0800. We launched at Wish Poosh campground. The water was like glass for much of the day. Clear skies and very little wind. There were 50 boats in the tournament, about 140-150 anglers. It was kind of funny that we motored up to the check in area, about 2/3'rds the way up lake. We were 50 boats all bobbing up and down, when all of the sudden an air horn went off very loudly.
At that moment it was a testerone fest. All of these large Alumawelds, HewesCraft, etc. etc. boats went full throttle out from the area. We are in a 14' lung, open boat. It was a little dicey for a moment with turbulance.

Anyway... we motored over to the far side of lake, opposite the launches. We went with the Warden's U-20 flat fish, in chartruese/blue. I had gleaned over all the Chelan reports for gear, and stocked up on everything that I read about.
We were trying to hug the bottom very tightly in about 150-200' of water. About 30 minutes into it, I see some head shakes on my buddies rod. It had not come out of the clip at that point. I think I pulled from the clip, and def. felt a good size fish. My buddy boats our only fish. It weighed on my scale 7lb 15oz. on my scale, later official weight of 8lb 3 oz. Other than a couple vigorus head shakes, these fish are pretty much dead weight coming up from the depths.
We fished only a few different things, to include Silver Horde's Ace High Fly in Chartruese/purple. and some salmon spoons. Couple of times I thought a saw some hits, but it's hard to tell when you are 200' deep. Not to mention I broke one of my heavy Ugly sticks coming out of the clip, so I had to switch to my Kokanee rods which are noodles. Anything looks like a head shake on those rods.
When we got to the weight off, it was evident to me that it had been a hard day for most of the anglers. I think there may have only been about 20 fish weighed in. Many of these were 15-16", 1.5lbs.
When all was said and done, my buddy tied for 7-8th place with his fish weighing on the tourney's scale, 8lb 3 oz. The guy running the tourney was very generous I felt with the entry money raised. Even at 7-8th place, my buddy took home $250.00. The winning fish went 14 lb 9 oz. There was one in the 10 lb range I recall. Many door prizes of Lamiglass rods, and reels. and other things. Cash for random drawing, etc. It was a great time! Not to blow my own horn too much, but I got a kick out of the fact that we were out there in this dinky 14' boat with manual downriggers fishing 200' depths at some points. Everybody around us was decked out with electric riggers, and heavy horsepower!
But it all came out well here.
btw... usually I don't think much of the tablefare of Mackinaw, but we soaked it in Tony Chechachere's seasoning and olive oil. long slow cook on the bbq. Tasted just fine.

kevinb

5/21/2012 11:24:00 PM

Now this is the kind of fishing report I like. Reading it felt like I was actually there. Sorry it was only one fish and a broken rod
but really sounds like a quality trip. I've been to Lake Cle Elum a few times but never fished it,just some day trips and a bear hunting trip.
The family and I have fished/camped at Lake Katchess a few times. Did you camp out at Cle Elum for the weekend?
Sorry for rambling,excellent report

MarkFromSea

5/21/2012 11:44:00 PM

Yowzer! Nice fish! Time to buy a new rod........ Way to go at figuring it out so quickly.

LiveAsYouWill

5/22/2012 2:47:00 AM

I HIGHLY appreciated your synopsis of the experience- fun to read! Great work on the hawg Mak...but also, i needed a good laugh from your outlook! ....AWESOME! Love the "At that moment it was a testerone fest. All of these large Alumawelds" comment! always good to hear about others who just don't have OR chose not to throw a huge credit-line into stuff and just go do....!

LiveAsYouWill

5/22/2012 2:49:00 AM

....oops, end sounded wrong... i am a cheapskate-ABSOLUTE.... manual-DR's a are bit too spendy for my tri-hull! LOL

Gringo Pescador

5/22/2012 7:22:00 AM

Nice job guys!

The Quadfather

5/22/2012 7:56:00 AM

Thanks guys! Mark, ya, always looking for a reason to buy a new rod, right?

MotoBoat

5/22/2012 12:01:00 PM

Excellent write up Quad! From the Testosterone blast off. To reeling in of the dead weight of a fish on the way up, to slapping some sauce on the fish and BBQ it up. Were you using your 6lb lead dr balls to hug the bottom?

BentRod

5/22/2012 3:06:00 PM

Great read Quad! Nice report. Sorry about the rod though.

rseas

5/22/2012 4:37:00 PM

Again congratulations, looks like you guys made it count when you needed to. Hope that the new FF was effective for this deep water mackinaw fishery. I keep trying to head for Cle Elum but something always seems to come up at the last minute.

stryker17

5/23/2012 8:21:00 AM

We were there also, like Quadfather said it was a great day for fishing, although we were in the majority ( no fish no hits ) we had a good time, we launched from Shaws place ( fish headquarters ) and had a fun day doing nothing... I think we threw everything at them except a dupont bomb. Last year the give aways were great as they were this year, they do a great job of keeping the entries happy and are not cheep, like some other tournies are.. great job....... try again next year................

Bo

6/5/2012 8:43:00 AM

Nice report Quadfather! Sorry it took so long to get back to you, seems the chore list after fishing went on and on. We were there too, I saw you guys, but never made it over. Man that was fun. I was the guy with the manual downriggers too, in the old alum 16' boat. Our boat was one of the one fish 1.5 lb'ers. Our buddies boat caught a 6 lb.er, sure was a tough day of fishing. But man, that was fun. All the way from waking up to bbq'ing that night. We cooked both of the fish too, and I have to say, they were much whiter and tastier than the ones from Chelan. Ours was on a U20, and I think our buddie caught his on on a small plug too. So many nice people out there, and a beautiful place to be. I talked to one guy, I don't think he was in the tourney, fishing the shallows by the boat ramp, and he said he caught one rainbow over there. Seeing those big ones at the weigh in makes me want to go back. Thanks again for the great report, see you over there!

oneshot

6/27/2012 10:33:00 PM

good report and story.. very entertaining, and helpful as this area is one of my main summer time camp spots and family cabins in the area as well.. i'll be out here in a couple weeks giving it a go..

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