This report is for 6/9, 6/10 and 6/11.

Family had their annual camping trip, this time at Chelan State Park.

Friday(8th) we unpacked our gear and tried to make an attempt at the lake in the rain but called it early before catching anything.

Saturday(9th), we had three people in the boat and fished a few areas near the state park. I C&R'd the kokanee in the picture and we lost a few hookups.

Sunday(10th) we hit the lake pretty hard and was definitely more memorable. I'll try to post a full length story in the freshwater forums, an incident happened that's too funny not to try to tell in depth. So Sunday morning, took off, fished several different areas. Had two people in the boat and I was driving so I taught my brother in law how to use the downriggers and all the gear. He hadn't fished since he was just a boy and that was one time. He did a great job quickly learning how to operate everything and ended up losing a few fish. But then as we were swinging around to get in position for another run a kokanee hit his line in 200 feet of water, but the downriggers were set to 35 and 45 I believe, either that or 45 and 55. Anyways he ends up landing his first fish as an adult and goes on to mention it being one of his favorite camping memories. I'm just happy for him and hope it sparks more of an interest in fishing. Never can have enough fishing buddies. Sunday afternoon my Dad shows up and the three of us hit the lake again. We're trolling three poles at different depths. Getting the occasional hit and long range release. Going after kokanee still. I think this was the time out where the kokanee were real sneaky. Constantly taking bait but never hooking up. We decided to pull up gear and move to another spot. We jet back across the lake just south of the state park a ways and begin trolling again. We end up getting a triple in 150 feet of water. I believe we were down around 15, 35 and 45 feet. How we landed these three fish was pure comedy to me. I was in tears driving the boat while the other two landed them. After regaining ourselves it was getting time to head back in. We keep three lines in the water and fished a bit shallower and hit the shelf along the bank towards the state park. Finally hooking up with one last little kokanee for the day before calling it.

Monday(11th) We load up the boat with everybody. Free fishing weekend is over so it's just my Dad and I doing the fishing while the rest of the family is in the bow with their dogs relaxing, perfect day to do it, later in the day temperatures read 84 degrees. I believe we were on the water in the late morning around 10am. We shoot across the lake as always and try a few spots with no luck. My Dad convinces me to drop the downrigger balls to go after lake trout, so we send one down 150 feet I believe and just check out the area. After a dry spell we call it at that area and shoot back across. We set up near the road and drop the cannonballs down to 160 and 170. They're a bit on the light side being 8 pounds so I'm having to estimate a lot of where exactly they are down below us. We hit 140 feet and still didn't snag up. I throttled from 1.4 up to 1.7 and my Dad's pole hooks up with something. He ends up landing his very first lake trout! Go Dad! It was an even pound. But still very cool for us never having gone after lake trout or anything that deep before. After he lands his fish I swap out my lure for a wooly bugger fly I'd tied up. It was a sparkly green and had a few green beads and a smile blade in front. It didn't take long for that lure to produce once it got down there. My Dad and I switched and I watched the poles and shortly after I had a long range release. People up front were starting to get too hot so we decided to pull up and call it for the day. We'd only been at the lake trout 30 minutes it felt. So then I break down my Dad's pole, call to him to watch my pole but he doesn't hear me and I shrug it off. I then move onto my pole, break it free from the clip that's below around 151 feet and I feel tension. It's fighting real good so I know we hadn't been dragging it and I'd bet it was that 30 seconds I took my eye off the pole to break down the other. Anyways reeling in the fish and it's hard to gauge it's size because of the new poles. We ended up landing it and it was my first lake trout! Just shy of 2 pounds. After that my Dad didn't want me to break down that pole, he thought he'd troll around a while when everybody was packing up the camp gear. After dropping the three of us off and the two dogs my Dad proceeded to troll around in front of the state park. It seemed like every time I looked up he was out there jerking his pole from the downrigger clip. Apparently he had several strikes but wasn't able to land anything. We are rookies and found out that our fluorocarbon has a bit too much stretch when down 150 feet for us to easily tug the line free from the clips unless it's just absolutely perfectly placed and even then sometimes it'll release on the way down. I think we'll put some super braid in the mix eventually. That ended our fishing trip. Had an absolute blast. Weather was beautiful, mosquitoes stayed away, and I get to walk away with dozens of new memories that I hope will last me for the rest of my life.

For bait we used regular white corn that you'd buy at any grocery store. We wanted to try the firecorn but never made it into town. For lures we used a cha cha squidder behind a dodger which had good luck with kokanee. We also used a traditional wedding ring which also had several hookups, it was used alone on the downrigger or longlined behind the boat with a couple flashers and weights. Caught one on a black rooster tail. Casted an orange arctic fox over that shelf in the shallow area near the state camp resulting in several followers and a hookup with what I believe was a kokanee, looked to be a good size but he got off. Lastly was the custom rig, it was just a green sparkly wooly bugger, not a large one, with a couple of small beads and a smile blade in front. I've had luck using these little rigs for a few different areas and also different species of trout.

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