Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together

[jd39]

Just wanted to wish you guys good luck this weekend! Hopefully I'll get to get out and meet you all on some other outing.

[Idstud]

Good luck to all and cant wait to see the posts and pictures from the trip.

[Mike Carey]

bait is curing and the gear is all tied and ready to go!

[afk]

I'm hoping to find you guys in the park this evening!

[Mike Carey]

I'm hoping to find you guys in the park this evening!

rseas is over in the tent area, spot I I believe. My wife and I are in A-5.

[eenakok]

have fun everyone!.. I will look for you if you are fishing Monday!

[bassplayer17]

Just finished unpacking what a job and all I can say is what a fantastic weekend. The koks in this lake are amazing, what great fighters and biggggg. My fishin partner and new friend steelheadin 360 schooled me in a good way. Learned a lot from him Got to meet Mike, Bluefin and AFK. And AFK you missed a lot of fun. Special thanks to the RSEAS camp . YOU and your wife were the best. I have never felt so welcome. Thank you for the advice, the awesome meals and the great fellowship .

[afk]

I was really glad to have the opportunity to meet other Walakers. Wish I was able to ply the waters with you. Work is a four letter word these days but, I'll get on the water soon. Thanks to Mike and this site And all of you reporting I can still hang in there!

Andy

[Steelheadin360]

WHAT AN EPIC WEEKEND!!!! Thanks to everyone!

Report has been sent in and I am counting down the days until im in chelan again.

Thank you mike and rseas for getting the little event together and inviting us along to experince this amazing fishery

[Mike Carey]

You're welcome, BIG kudos to Rseas and his wife. Their hospitality is second to none. We're trying to scratch out a few more right now.

[sickbayer]

This sounded great just read the report posted, makes me so want to go buy a new boat right now lol... seems like you all had a great time!

[Steelheadin360]

This sounded great just read the report posted, makes me so want to go buy a new boat right now lol... seems like you all had a great time!

After seeing Rseas Lund and watching it fish i too am looking into a new boat. something a little more kid freindly, and fast

[Toni]

Rseas has a very nice and functional boat. He blogged about it on his rseas blog here at WALakes

[Mike Carey]

Just posted my report. We got another six today, so ended with 13 kokanee and 1 rainbow. Lost three that should have been in the boat except for my haste in setting up gear.

Let's try to do this again next year!

[Steelheadin360]

Let's try to do this again next year!

Splendid idea!!! Just hit it a little earlier so we can all clean house like you did on your first trip! Im going over in a few weeks just to try it again.

[Mike Carey]

Let's try to do this again next year!

Splendid idea!!! Just hit it a little earlier so we can all clean house like you did on your first trip! Im going over in a few weeks just to try it again.

Us too. One last shot. Staying at the Fisherman's Hideaway with Anton Jones and family.

http://www.darrellanddads.com/hideaway.html

[rseas]

---Report will be posted soon---

Whew, its 6:00 Monday evening and we’re all unpacked. The last few days have been a whirlwind with wonderful fellowship, new friends and some pretty good fishing.

Before I get to the fishing I have to put into a word for a couple Wenatchee businesses, maybe local gems but on the way to Chelan we hit Hooked on Toys and Dusty Burgers. Although you may not want to be counting calories, Dusty’s is awesome. I had a double beef, double cheese with bacon and extra goop and my taste buds were dancing. The fries are pretty good also. Now Hooked on Toys is just plain awesome, I wandered the aisles in a trance excited to see what was around the next corner. If you’re looking for anything vice related; from prospecting supplies to toys and games they have it. They also have a huge selection of water toys and a few well stocked aisles of fishing supplies. The people working in the store are not just employees they know their stuff and live the life. Everyone I talked with in the fishing department had either just gone fishing, just returned or in some way was an industry expert. Hooked on Toys is a must stop for anyone enjoying the outdoor in the Wenatchee Chelan area.

Arriving at the Lakeshore RV Park in Chelan we found it very well maintained and the tent sites were grassy with level tent pads. We did change sites to take advantage of a couple large shade trees. The park is close to various launch facilities and is walking distance to a number of local restaurants. After camp was set up we decided not to hit the water and instead let the kids and dogs explore the beach and playground. Speaking of, I love the dogs and often they go with us on trips around town and day trips to the beach or hiking. They have never been camping where they had to be tethered or on leash for extended periods of time. They didn’t do so well and were vocal in expressing their displeasure with the situation. At home my dog is usually quiet, well behaved and glued to my hip. Her company is enjoyed but I found that having the dogs along on this trip was very stressful. I know it is not their fault and maybe I need to work with them to better accept being tethered but until then…

I am a firm believer that food and fellowship is good for the soul and I feel blessed that I got to share both with everyone that participated in the weekend festivities and hope that this becomes a recurring event. The highlight of our weekend was not the fishing but the comradely and fellowship shared with the gang. We enjoyed meeting bassplayer, AFK, steelheading360, Bluefin Louie and seeing Mike and Joann again.

Speaking about the fishing, man-o-man the weather was spectacular! After months of cold rainy weather the hot dry conditions were long overdue. I fished for 4 or 5 hours on Saturday and then one of the kids and I fished for 4 or 5 hours Sunday morning. In preparing for this trip I read a lot about the specialized gear required to catch Lake Chelan kokanee. Many sources were saying that you needed to run double dodgers or a larger dodger with and very specific lures to catch the Chelan kokes. I had all the gear onboard to target kokanee using the specialized Lake Chelan kokanee gear my research suggested but being a bit stubborn I decided to give my usual kokanee tactics a go first.

I found that a white and white or white and silver wonderbread patterned 000 or 0000 dodger to be the most effective. I also had very good success on a white and orange swing blade. At the pointy end of things I was running a variety of custom tied mini squids or mini squid/smiley blade setups all on 8-10 inch leaders. For my boat anything with orange in it seemed to be the hot ticket. After some experimenting I found that 2 or 3 kernels of corn cured in orange or pink Pautzke’s Kokane Fuel was the hot bait to tip the hooks with. Boat speed seemed to be important and all of our fish hit at 1.2-1.4 mph. I was running a 60-70’ setback from the clips with a tight clip tension. All our fish hit while I was chasing meter marks located between 70 and 90 feet. I am not real familiar with the various local Lake Chelan hot spots but we mainly fished the Mill Bay area with the far side of the lake being the most productive. I did one water temperature survey and the data represents an area 160’deep at the far side of Mill Bay.

Surface/55.9°, 5’/55.9°, 10’/55.9°, 15’/55.9°, 20’/54.7°, 25’/52.3°, 30’/51.3°, 35’/49.7°, 40’/49.2°, 45’/49.0°, 50’/48.7°, 55’/48.1°, 60’/47.5°, 65’/47.1°, 70’/46.8°, 75’/46.2°, 80’/46.2°, 85’/46.0°, 90’/45.8°, 95’/45.6°, 100’/45.0°, 105’/44.7°, 110’/44.7°, 115’/44.4, 120’/44.0°, 125’/43.7°, 130’/43.6°, 135’/43.2°, 140’/43.0°, 145’/43.0°, 150’/42.8°, 155’/42.8° and 160’/42.8

Saturday I caught 6 fish up to 18” and lost a chinook that hit my kokanee gear after I adjusted the gear depth for a healthy meter mark. Sunday Little B (our 3 year and I) also caught 6 fish with the largest being 21 ¼ inches and 3.1 pounds. Our 6 fish success on Sunday does not accurately reflect the fishing. Sunday was a three year old day, he reeled in all but one fish with his largest being 19” and 2.2 pounds. We lost many others due to the little guy learning curve. Lost fish or otherwise we had a blast and he hasn’t stopped talking about his Lake Chelan aquatic adventures.

The weekend was a major success and we can’t wait to go back to the Eastside for another fun in the sun fishing trip. Every moment of the weekend was enjoyed especially the fellowship. My only complaint is at 53 years old there has to be a better way to pack, unpack, set up camp, tear it back down, repack, unpack back at home and put everything away. It seemed a whole lot easier when I was just 52!

[Bodofish]

Dusty's is always a mandatory stop on the way east! I'm so glad you guys all had a great time! Maybe I won't be working on the next one. The City Park is a home away from home, I stayed there almost every weekend for years when I was flying foot launch.

[bassplayer17]

Let's try to do this again next year!

Splendid idea!!! Just hit it a little earlier so we can all clean house like you did on your first trip! Im going over in a few weeks just to try it again.

Us too. One last shot. Staying at the Fisherman's Hideaway with Anton Jones and family.

http://www.darrellanddads.com/hideaway.html

Wow that's a nice place Mike V I P all the way!!

[bassplayer17]

Hey, Rseas here. I glad to see some interest in our little get together. I think that it will be fun to host a some level of potluck for a number of the meals. I plan to do the primary meal for Saturday night and then a delayed breakfast (we'll be fishing in the morning) late Sunday morning/early afternoon. For both meals I will provide the main course and associated accompaniments. I think that I know what I am making but I am still fine tuning the plan. Participants will need to provide their own drinks and any special dietary needs. We're looking forward to meeting everyone and some fishing in the sun!

We going to do this again? First one was a blast!!!