Northwest Fishing Reports

My wife has been interested in going to Lake Chelan to camp and enjoy some water sports. Camping might turn into a cabin rental instead because I'm thinking some of her friends might go along as well. Do any of you have any experience on a decent place to stay where we might rent some water toys to ride on?

Another thing, is it realistic that I might be able to get some fishing in? I know next to nothing about the lake besides some pictures I've seen on here. I only have a 14 ft aluminum boat with an electric motor and a 9 HP gas motor.

I camped at the state park in June with the family and had a blast. Weather was crummy for one of the days but the others were great.

We fished from a 16' deep v boat and had absolutely no issues. From what I saw if you fish the mornings you'll be fine there with your boat.

I'd recommend contacting one of the guide services there. Get a place scoped out and ask them if they could recommend a decent place to find fish in that area. More importantly, ask them about where the winds and storms can pick up from. I got some invaluable information from them regarding where the storms would usually come off of and where to keep an eye out. I was also able to get some information on three solid places to fish.

We ran downriggers but it might be possibly to just add some weight. I also heard about some people just doing vertical jigging but I don't know if that paid off.

One spot I didn't hear about that provided a little fun... Some areas of the lake there will be an aqua colored bottom and then it'll drop a good several feet to a weed bed providing a shelf. When I tossed lures to the shallows and brought it over the shelf I'd get bites and the occasional hookup. Only tried this for a few minutes but if you don't have downriggers you might try something like that early in the day.

I wrote a short story about the camping trip in this section of the forum, it's probably back a page or two now, I believe it was called Family Camping Trip at Lake Chelan, or something along those lines.

As for the water sports, pack a wetsuit, haha. Maybe not seriously but the water was 58 degrees when I was there in early June. I've heard the water doesn't get warm there.

Hope you have a great trip and hopefully you'll share a story with us when you return.