During the second day of the father/son opening day weekend. We decide to forgo the generally slow Sunday fishing at Wapato Lake. Drive from Chelan, via the BB bridge and up McNarry Canyon RD to the North end of Jameson Lake. First thing we notice is a rusty color to the surface of the water. Hoping this was a reflection and not the evidence of the red algae that chases us away years ago. Windows on the truck down as we roll in on a sunny Sunday morning. I get a whiff of Jameson lake smelling a little swampy. Red algae in full bloom. Looks like 2 boats on the entire lake. Last time I launched in these conditions my boat had red water for a bow wake! Not to mention staining the hull red. Talked to several people fishing or standing around staring at the lake in a perplexed fashion. Who confirmed the fishing was slow on Sunday. Fish were small with a few large dude's in the mix of limits. I prefer to fish the smaller lake on the North end ( from end to end by road would be 45 miles minumum). But that was too far a drive when considering the lake water color, smell, and a half day to fish, leaving us that much further from home.

Back to Wapato we went, even though it would be slow fishing. Writing this off as a Sunday drive to a Lake me and pops had a long opening day tradition with. But ended years ago due the declining opening day fish size and water quality issues.

Arriving at Wapato Lake around 12:00 am. Sunny and warm, no wind, blue sky with random clouds. Over the next 1 1/2 hours we tried trolling the same flasher/fly/wiggle fin/rapala/flat fish combo's from the surface down to 15ft. At this point I took off all lead and dropped my offerings between 20 -30ft on a downrigger. FF showed fish hugging the bottom down to 40ft, but no biters were found. Chatting with many folks revealed the fishing to be significantly slower for trollers and bottom bait soakers alike. I very much dislike anchoring up, and soaking bait. So we wind drifted power bait, eggs/marshmallow or power bait/cheese marshmallow/power bait concoctions. Once locating the productive depth we encountered non stop action during a 1 1/2 hour period. Missing many, loosing a few, breaking off 3. The first 10 fish caught were kept, 7 were the 14-15" trout and 3 that were 11" fish and smallish by comparison. The Sunday slow down has been a ongoing conundrum for me. Unlocking the right combination on Sunday, for this years trip was rewarding. Wind drifting is not knew to us. But maintaining a specific depth range in a specific area of the lake was key!

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