Kokanee On The Bite In Lake Chelan

What’s heating up is trolling the edges of Lake Chelan for jumbo Kokanee. Also, providing pretty good fishing is trolling the trench on Lake Chelan for Mackinaw. Roses Lake should provide excellent rainbow trout fishing for at least a few weeks. On Chelan, the word is getting out that we have some dandy kokanee being caught. Most of these dwarfed, landlocked sockeye salmon are from 15 to 17 inches. They are absolute acrobats on light gear. Work the edges of Lake Chelan in depths of 50 to 100 feet. Look at your sonar and troll a Mack’s Lures Double D dodger trailed by one of Mack’s Lures orange or pink Mini Cha Cha Squidders baited with some Pautzke’s Fire Corn just above the fish. Speeds of 1.1 to 1.3 mph will work best. The bite can be very erratic so be ready to turn on those fish when you get into them. Lake Trout continue to bite trolled presentations in the trench. Worden Lures U20 Flatfish in purple glow and Silver Horde’s Kingfisher Lite spoons in Cookies and Cream continued to be the most productive lures. Roses Lake will produce winter hold over rainbows at a good clip at least for a few weeks. Fish from the bank with a slip sinker rig and Pautzke’s Firebait in American Wildfire or cast Worden Lures Roostertails. If you are trolling, try a combination of Mack’s Lures mini Cha Cha Squidders and Wooly Bugger flies with an action disk by wiggle fin. Your fishing tip of the week is to shorten up those leaders when fishing a dodger in front of a wedding ring or mini-cha cha squidder. Try about 16 inches to trigger the early season bite. The kid’s tip of the week is to use the early spring bounty of nature to get those school age kids involved in ranching. Worm ranching that is. With the warmer weather and spring rains, night crawlers will be out on the lawns at night. A head lamp or flashlight and a small plastic container is all that you need to start. Then some loose soil with coffee grounds and a bit of compost will keep you in worms for the season. An extra old “outside” frig to store them in once the weather gets warmer will maintain marital harmony. The safety tip of the week is to watch out for the hump on the downlake ramp at the Mill Bay launch as well as the rock pile a bit downlake of the Mill Bay Boat Launch. They are both prop eaters… Our thanks to Anton Jones of Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service for providing the report. If you would like an outstanding fishing trip with Anton or Jeff give them a call at (509) 687-0709. Would be a fantastic outing for the kids during their spring break.