Northwest Fishing Reports

This is the biggest of the 8 Mack's that we caught at Chelan on NewYears day

Holy Cow! That's one huge fish! I heard that Chelan had some monsters, but that's a giant. Great trip eh?:cheers:

Ya, The smallest was about 5lb's the rest was in the 12 to 17lb range of course my son the one holding the fish caught all the big ones I caught 3 including the smallest This is what see ate before he caught her, Also really small sceen of eggs

Awesome fish and nice pics

How did you fish for those? Trolling deep? or?

Those Mack's are fun fish to catch....

Caught them all trolling shallow with just a K-15 quickfish

thats a super nice fish
are those also macks that it ate, or rainbows or something?

you should post a report on the main page to so everyone can see !!

Freakin awesome Mack I need to go try Chelan one day.Bravo yall.:thumright :thumleft:

Not sure how

holy freakin moly! What do those taste like? Do you have to smoke them, or are they good just cooking like salmon?


oh yeah, nice fish!

yes, please post this report. JUst go to the top menu, Reports, then Submit Reports, then Submit Lake Report. Just follow the report form from there. It would be great to havethat report in our data base!

My son tells me they taste like a really moist trout, They have alot more fat. We normally catch and release but this fish inhaled the lure so we had to keep it. I wish they would put a limit on the macks before they get fished out like the chinooks

Sounds like the perfect candidate for smoking!!! Again,,nice catch.

Well, if you want the story on lake Chelan's macks, it's this: WDFW would rather they weren't in there because they are not a native species. They took the limit off for that reason. They would rather have cutthroat trout which were I guess a native species. They also feel the macks are not easy to catch unless you have specialized gear (i.e. deep-water DRs) so they are not a good species for the average Joe to pursue.

If you ever get a chance to go fishing with guide Anton Jones he'll tell you some amazing stories. He's taken WDFW out on sampling fishing trips, even all the way to the far end of the lake - and the macks are just as abundant up there.

As to taste, mild, tons of fat due to the miosis shrimp they feed on, great for the smoker. But you should also check WDFW as there are some mercury issues with the macks. I hav no idea what the recommended daily limit is but there is a concern about it.

Yes, you should post a report on Lake Chelan. It sounds like you had a really good time and by the look of those fish, did well too. Congrats, and keep up the good fishing!

OUR FAMILY CONDO IS IN LEAVENWORTH. HOW FAR FROM THERE ARE YOU FISHING?? IVE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TRY THEM IN THE MANY YEARS WE HAVE HAD A RESIDENCE THERE, BUT, HAVE NEVER TAKEN THE TIME. YOU SAID YOU CAUGHT THEM SHALLOW, WHAT DEPTHS?? AWESOME PIC, WAY TO GO!!!

Chelan is about an hour to an hour and a half away from Leavenworth.

The deepest water we fished was 100' but mostly in the 50 ' range