The report of an epic fishing trip

Arriving in Chelan about 5pm firday night me and Bassplayer17 (aka Tony) were in a mad rush to get out on the lake! not knowing were to launch or were to go we launched in town and hunted for the famous blue roofed condos. fished for a few hours and scratched out what i thought at the time were two nice kokes. a 12" and 14' fatty. Headed back to camp for the night and were treated to some meatloaf burger by Rseas, enjoyed some fellowship and some helpful information, and retired for the night dreaming of monster kokes.

Saturday 445 am we had the boat in the water and were dropping gear just outside of mill bay. as i was stacking the top rod on the down rigger the bottom one went off, missed it but got us excited for what was about to come. Withing minutes i had a fat 13" to the boat, reset, bam another huge (so i thought at the time) 15"er. I was ear to ear smile. after about another 10 minutes tonys rod buries into the water, after about 5 minutes we boated a 20" MONSTER!!! the light from heaven was shining on this fish and the angels were singing!!! We finished off the morning by boating a few more fish from 16.5"-19" and headed back to camp for some sandwhiches and a nap.

Returned to the lake in the afternoon and wanted to move away from the crowds so we moved up lake. as soon as we dropped the gear we were in the fish, lost 4 and put 2 HUGE kokes in the boat for a short 1 hour effort and scouting new water.headed back to camp for a feast perpared by Rseas.

Sunday am- poles in the water at the butt crack of dawn, instant fish on. One to the boat, reset, quickly into a double. reset again. two more singles. lost a few more. then a long dull in the fishing action. enjoyed the sights of the lake but the heat and lack of excited soon chased us off the lake. i popped both rods out of the downrigger and was putting some gear away, after i few minutes i look and one my poles is doubled over to ther cork and peeling line! boated our last fish for the trip, a very respectable 17" kokanee. Final fish count for the boat was 18 kokanee with 12 being over 17 inches

This trip in my mind was EPIC!! i couldnt imagine being over there a few weeks ago when the fishing was really hot. These fish test every aspect of your light kokanee gear. They tear the line off the down rigger, peel off 50 yards of line, about tear the rod out of your hand with head shakes. Then shoot up from 70 feet of water and get airborn, tail walk across the water, jump a few more times, peel more line off. Then go into the airplane mode again while your trying to slide the net under them. I am RUINED for life on kokanee fishing. I can only hope for a 15" fish while fishing over here, instead this weekend our fish averaged 17 inches.

Lake chelan has insane water clarity, drop your downrigger ball 45 feet down and still see it kind of clarity. so our average fishing depth was 45-70 feet with most of my fish being caught in 60 feet of water, and i dont know what the temptaure was down there but those kokes felt like fish-cicles when we got them in the boat. People were saying ling set back were a must but my average was problably 40- 45 feet and it worked fine. We caught fish on almost everything in the tackle box but Super Squids and a few homemade hoochie spinners boated the most fish. Dick-nite and double d .dodgers were used 95% of the time. Shoepeg, firecorn, and berkley maggots all caught fish. Green, pink, and orange all caught fish. Used every scent i had and caught fish. My hottest setup of the weekend though was a pink/white/purple hoochie with a silver blade, dick-nite chrome wonder bread dodger, and shoepeg with krill scent.

I want to thank Rseas and his family for their hospitality towards Tony and myself. He prepared some wonderful meals and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. I want to thank Tony for letting my jump in with him and letting me ride along for the trip. Got to talk kokanee with the famous Mike Carey himself and enjoy some of his mouth watering kokanee dip. Got to shake hands with bluefinlloui and AFK. The fellowship made the weekend. Chelan is a beautiful place to fish and the Weather was calm and pleasurable all weekend. almost no wind.

To me this was a trip i will remember all my life, from the fishing to the people. I am humbled today by the fact that just by joining this website i have got to meet so many awesome people and shared memories such as this trip with them. I am counting dow the days until i get to visit chelan again catch some of these trophy kokanee and feel that power i have never felt from a fish of that size. As i said before, i am ruined for life.

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