Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

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Gringo Pescador
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Gringo Pescador » Mon May 05, 2014 7:40 am

Had a great weekend and really enjoyed meeting all of you! Fishing was not "red hot" but there was blood in my boat both Saturday and Sunday and I learned new things both days (either about the lake itself or how my boat can handle 2-3' swells).
Got to meet and chat with many of you all and hopefully I will catch more of you next year! :cheers:

Thanks to Steelheadin360 and his crew for joining me Saturday and Lance from Macs for keeping me company on the lake Sunday.

Thanks to Mike and Aaron for setting it up, Master chef rseas and those who put up the great grub and all of the sponsors for telling us a little about your products and the swag.

And thanks to the family camped next to us (sorry I forget your user name) for bringing your little ones, my daughter had a blast playing with yours and can't stop talking about her new best friend [thumbup]
I fish not because I regard fishing as being terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant, and not nearly so much fun. ~ John Volker

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Toni » Mon May 05, 2014 8:02 am

Sounds great =D> I am sorry that I couldn't make it. But I am missing dead fish pics. Were there that few caught?
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He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Mike Carey » Mon May 05, 2014 9:42 am

On the lake right now Toni. Most averaged 1-4, some as always did better. We have 4 and lost 1so far today.
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Gringo Pescador » Mon May 05, 2014 10:13 am

Sorry Toni. Not used to trophy pics with such little fish yet :-"
We went 4 for 6 on Saturday and 4 for 4 Sunday. Pretty slow all over from what we saw. Biggest fish in my boat this weekend was 18". The rest were 14-16".
I fish not because I regard fishing as being terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant, and not nearly so much fun. ~ John Volker

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Toni » Mon May 05, 2014 11:24 am

Gringo Pescador wrote:Sorry Toni. Not used to trophy pics with such little fish yet :-"
We went 4 for 6 on Saturday and 4 for 4 Sunday. Pretty slow all over from what we saw. Biggest fish in my boat this weekend was 18". The rest were 14-16".
But as far as kokanee go those are nice.
Look for Wannafish A Lure on FaceBook
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Mike Carey » Mon May 05, 2014 1:14 pm

We ended 4/5 biggest 17 1/2". Full report with pics this evening. Time to hit the road.
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Kokanee Kid » Mon May 05, 2014 6:46 pm

Too funny Mike, I sent you a pm with my number. :30 later i got my ppersonal best at 18.5"

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Mike Carey » Mon May 05, 2014 6:54 pm

Kokanee Kid wrote:Too funny Mike, I sent you a pm with my number. :30 later i got my ppersonal best at 18.5"
Nice fish, Congrats! [thumbup]
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Mike Carey » Tue May 06, 2014 8:01 am

Here's my report and some pictures. Thanks to everyone that came out and joined us to make this such a successful event!

My body is telling me I’m still on the water but I am, alas, back home. Four days of fishing Lake Chelan and our Kokanee Get Together. What a great weekend it was!

JoAnn and I arrived Friday morning, having gotten up at 2:45 to make the drive and hit the morning bite. As many of you are probably aware, fishing this year has not been as hot as last year. The fish are harder to find, harder to get to bite, and generally (a tad) smaller. More 13-14” fish and less 18-20”monsters, but still plenty of quality 16-18” fish are out there.

Rather than day by day I’ll give a summary of our success.

First off, we fished a lot of different gear, bait, locations, and depths. Standard kokanee type gear in mostly pinks and oranges, with corn, sometimes shrimp, sometimes maggots. We did stay in the lower basin, fishing from Monument down lake. Some days we focused more in the Mill Bay/Monument area, some days more in the Rocky Point/Blue Roof Condos area. By far most boats were concentrated around the Blue Roof Condos.

Weather conditions were for the most part outstanding. Saturday was the day of the “Big Blow” and it was a challenge for sure. We fished until noon that day even with our deep-V and windshield had more than a few waves spray over us. My hat’s off to the open boats that braved Saturday. And the other days? Perfect, just beautiful Lake Chelan in all its glory. I think there’s no finer lake to fish on in the spring.

The fish are definitely up shallow this year first thing in the morning. And drop deep as the day progresses. It was great having so many friends out on the water and getting intel. Rseas texted me he was hitting fish down to 90-110 feet on the downrigger. Early AM fish were at surface to 30 feet deep. More than one person had a fish rip the bait as they were hooking on the clip on the DR.

The fish also seemed to like a bit faster presentation. Last year 1.2mph was the golden ticket, this year 1.4-1.7 was working well.

Our “scores” were a big disappointment from last year, but I’m still overall pleased. We went 3 for 4 Friday, 2 for 4 Saturday, 1 for 1 Sunday (ouch!) and 4 for 5 on Monday. Lots of people I spoke with scratched out 1-3 fish a day, so I guess that makes me average, LOL. As always, there were a few that caught 10-12 fish, hats off to them! We had a 50/50 mix of 13-14 inch and 16-17 inch fish. Beautiful chrome kokanee and I already know how good they taste!

On Saturday we had our Kokanee Get Together. The event couldn’t have been nicer. The wind had calmed down and were had a beautiful day. I am blown away by the incredible turnout to this event! There were over sixty WashingtonLakes members. I met so many new faces – it was hard to keep track. With all the activities going on it was also hard to meet everyone, so my apologies if I didn’t get to visit with you. This was by far our biggest event in the history of the site. We had people that drove over three hundred miles to come specifically to fish and join us at the pot luck. We had tons of delicious food. Rseas and his wife cooked us fish tacos and beef brisket, it was incredible. Thank you so much Randy and Karen for your hard work behind the grill.

After diner we had presentations from our Sponsors, Mack’s Lures Lance Merz, Hevi Beads Reed Swallow, and Fish With Gary Gary Gordon. Not present (sadly) was Wannafishalure Toni. Maybe next time Toni! Following the sponsor presentations they gave away gear. All our Sponsors were incredibly generous and people were blown away with how much free goodies they got. Thank you so much to our Sponsors. Also, thank you to Anton Jones of Darrell and Dad's Family Guide Service for his generous half price fishing trips. Our free raffle and more gifts for the WALakes members was the icing on the cake that ended an amazing event.

My heartfelt thanks go to everyone that came out and made this such a successful event. It’s going to be hard to top it, but I’m willing to try next year!

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by eenakok » Tue May 06, 2014 8:27 am

Thank you for putting on the event. It was a great time! Great post and pics!

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Toni » Tue May 06, 2014 12:47 pm

Thanks for the pictures.
Look for Wannafish A Lure on FaceBook
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Mike Carey » Tue May 06, 2014 12:50 pm

Toni wrote:Thanks for the pictures.
Toni, guests were grabbing your favorite setups, thanks for your support. We missed you not being there - hope you can make it next year!
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by sickbayer » Tue May 06, 2014 4:28 pm

Looks like you all had a great time! Gringo 2 to 3' swells holy moly I know its a big lake but that's nuts lol.

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Steelheadin360 » Tue May 06, 2014 6:10 pm

sickbayer wrote:Looks like you all had a great time! Gringo 2 to 3' swells holy moly I know its a big lake but that's nuts lol.

They were more like 4. We got pounded lol

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Skaha » Tue May 06, 2014 6:46 pm

--Thanks from B.C.
-- Great to talk to so many people that are hooked on Kokanee.
-- I distribute for fishwithgary in BC but until this weekend had never met Gary in person.
-- Kokanee just have not gotten the respect they deserve in BC but we are working on it.

--I really like the concept of a meeting of kokanee fishers without a derby. Sharing ideas and helping each other become better fishers.

--Chelan is much like our area in the Okanagan here... even the wind feels the same.

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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by rseas » Tue May 13, 2014 8:51 am

Sorry for the late entry, between work, my kid’s SAT testing and prom; life has been a bit crazy. After very long dry spell we finally got to go fishing. This report summarizes our entire Chelan trip. Thursday afternoon arriving at Lake Shore in Chelan we set up camp and while I had planned to launch the boat for a little exploratory research, I accidentally took a nap instead. All for the better because as the afternoon/evening progressed, various Washingtonlakes members began arriving and there were many meet-n-greet opportunities at hand.

Early Friday morning we launched at Old Mill Park and headed towards Rocky Point. Gear down we started the drill, running various dodger/lure combinations before I settled in on a white dodger/pink and orange hoochie combo on one side of the boat and a painted wonder bread/custom tied shrimp fly on the other side. Eventually we were running 4 different setups on stacked rods. Trolling at 1.2-1.7 MPH we fished 12’-110’ on the cable and chased meter marks (few and far between) to put 3 of the 6 or 7 kokanee we hooked on ice. Knowing that wind was likely in the afternoon we decided to move in shallow and fish the underrated rainbow bite. Pulling 3” Rapalas the bite was on immediately and after about an hour or so which included multiple doubles, we had 15 quality rainbow to 22” to add to our kokanee and pulled out of the water just as the afternoon wind kicked up. Our fish were all taken while trolling at 1.2 MPH with 100’ of 6# fluorocarbon between the rod tip and the lure. The rainbow were all chrome bright, feisty and had pink meat. Back at camp we were fortunate and had the opportunity to meet a continuous stream of Washington Lakes members and finally add a face to the name.

Rolling out of bed Saturday morning we were met with a stiff breeze and the gang decided to stay at camp. Fishing solo for the day I arrived at the Old Mill Park launch around 5-5:15 or so to greet WashingtonLakes members as they prepared to launch. As my hat blew across the parking lot I advised the smaller boats to come up with a different plan. About 6:00 or so with most of the WL boaters on their way to somewhere I launched the boat and headed towards the Monument area. Gear down it became apparent that my plan was not going to work. With the narrows and the large bluff the wind was coming from everywhere at once and trolling in any direction was impossible. Due to the many individual meter marks, the clouds of shrimp on the sounder in the area and the fact that I had a double right off the bat I stuck it out until common sense got the better of me and I headed further into the basin where at least the wind was coming from only one direction. Again gear down and instant wham-o I had a double going and ended up losing both. Net at the ready and gear down again I get back to business I fight the wind trying to troll up wind for best boat control. At that point I was running two rigs, a mystic shrimp pattern that I tied behind a UV dodger and a wonder bread dodger followed by a trimmed orange n cerise hoochie. I had a third hit on the shrimp fly and as I was changing out the hoochie rig to a shrimp rig the thing got hit before I got it in the clip. Another fish lost and scratching my head I started running both rigs in the top 20 feet of water. I guess that I was ringing the kokanee dinner bell because for an hour or so I was having fairly consistent action. With the wind my trolling speed was very inconsistent but generally I was running from .08-2.00 mph. I put another 2 or 3 fish in the boat but I had 10 or 12 lost fish or drive buys so with the wind I was a busy boy. Finally deciding the pull the plug on the fishing for the day ( I had a meal to prepare) I reached over the back of the boat…no not that plug but I did secure the boat for a drenching ride back up the lake. Arriving back at the boat ramp soaking wet I watched the wind fueled chaos at the ramp for a few moments and decide to beach the boat and just go get the trailer for a drive on trip out of the water. With the wind and swell blowing across the floats the launch was a zoo but there were no major mishaps.

Back at camp I was in peddle to the metal mode, I had a dinner to put out. WashingtonLakes had the shelter beginning at 2:00 pm and with Zack’s (Steelhead 360) help I was moving the camp kitchen in on the second ring of the bell. Kitchen set up, food prep done and the main courses in work I settled into the routine of feeding 60-70 of my new best friends. A huge round of applause to Karen and Aubriel for assuring we had a continuous supply freshly fried fish for the fish tacos. Steve (Mav) and Tony (bassplayer17) were instrumental in assuring that we were more or less on schedule and helped with the food prep. Tony did an awesome job as the official flank slicer and kept the line moving smoothly. Many thanks are in order for the incredible variety of snacks, sides and deserts. Everyone did an awesome job and the success of the event was fueled in part by everyone’s culinary creativity. Again thank you to everyone for your enthusiastic participation. Once we were all well fed the sponsors presentations were informative and the swag appreciated, as said before, thanks are in order. The event concluded with a WashingtonLakes raffle where an assortment of gifts went to the lucky few. Thanks to the WashingtonLakes team and sponsors for hosting this awesome event.

Sunday morning back to fishing and although still windy the wind was much better. I was solo and the fishing was more of the same with a steady but slow pick on the kokanee. I was really putting my new kokanee fly through the paces so any success was celebrated. I wrapped the morning up with another shot at the quality rainbow fishing and was not disappointed. Running small Rapalas rigged with single hooks, a limit of 5 very nice rainbow were retained with many more caught and released up to number 5 going on ice.

Monday morning was our last day on the water and we thought we would try our hand at catching lake trout. We worked meter marks in water 250’ to about 300’ deep between Wapato Point and the Monument using a squid rig baited with either pike minnow or sardine. We had a number of releases from the clip and 4 fish on solid but lost all of them somewhere around half way to the boat. We decided to bail on the lakers and fill our rainbow trout possession limits before we headed back to the monument area to explore the various schools of kokanee we saw on the meter while hunting lakers earlier. Our rainbow detour was successful and in short order we put 10 additional rainbow to 3.3 pounds in the box. Back across the lake to hunt kokanee I ran a swing blade followed by a small orange hoochie and a dodger/shrimp fly combo. Chasing meter marks the swing blade blade/hoochie combo saw a lot of action and accounted for 3 fish during our short trip to the Monument area. A bulk of the action was at 75-110’ of cable.

The second annual WashingtonLakes Kokanee event was a blast with lots of food, fellowship and fishing. Although the kokanee fishing was challenging at times many participants caught their personal best with kokanee up to 18” or so. It should be noted that kokanee are not the only game in town. For our boat the rainbow trout fishing was stellar for fish to 3 ½ pounds. All the rainbows we caught had rich pink meat and were delicious, both on the grill and smoked. We grilled enough for dinner one night and ran 3 batches through the smoker. We also caught smallmouth and Lake Chelan offers Lake trout and Chinook salmon. Kokanee or no kokanee Lake Chelan is an awesome multi-species fishery and I look forward to my next opportunity to explore it’s fishery.
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Re: Lake Chelan Kokanee Get Together May 3-4, 2014

Post by Toni » Tue May 13, 2014 10:29 am

Awesome report, Randy, thanks.
Look for Wannafish A Lure on FaceBook
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

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