It's been a few years since I've fished Chelan late in the year for bass. So after spending a couple hours yesterday cleaning up the boat from a tournament, I was awake this morning and said what the heck. I got on the water at Mill Bay at 730...what a stark contrast to the summer trips - one would think the lake was closed to boating! So, not only did I want to experiment with time of year, I also wanted to try some different areas. Note to self: remember science class and don't introduce too many variables at once! Although it was nice to have the lake virtually to myself, venturing into the unknown did not pay off. I've never caught many bass from the Yacht Club on up to 25 Mile Creek regardless of time of year, and today was no different. Maybe I just need to spend more time there in June or July. I did have an interesting bag of fish though. 1 Cutthroat, 1 triploid (rather nice at about 3 pounds and very scrappy), 1 smallmouth, and 1 jack chinook that acted like a Mack Truck when it hit my Husky Jerk. I should have drop-shotted for lakers and I would have had quite a bag! Winds were a little bitter early on, out of the southeast, with a spit of rain. Then it calmed down and was comfortable. Water temps were 55 everywhere I went. I suppose I could have caught more bass had I ran the spots that produced this year, but it was time to try something different. It was a great way to close out the bass season for me. Now it's time to get after walleye.

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