by Mike Carey, August 01, 2001

This year marked the first time in ten years that WDFW allowed a sockeye fishery on Lake Wenatchee. A healthy run of 30,000 fish allowed this opening. I was fortunate to have a day off and took the kids to see what the fishery was all about.

My sons and I arrived Tuesday afternoon and immediately ran into good luck. Just as we put in the boat, five other rigs came behind us. We found the last parking spaces on the small multi-purpose parking lot. It was 4:30 so we took the five mile run to the far end of the lake, where the salmon pens are. I figured this was the best spot to check first. I'd heard that anglers were catching limits using the Lake Washington sockeye rig of a bare hook and dodger.

There was a small crowd of about two dozen boats scattered about. We didn't see much in the way of raised nets going on. After about an hour of trolling we hit our first fish, a reasonably bright 4 pound hen. The rig - blue 5/0 hook 18" behind a O dodger, fished dead slow at 80 feet. We managed to hook two more fish but lost both of them. My sons were reacquainted with the expression "reel faster!" as the fish headed straight up and lost their hook sets. At 8pm we called it a night and anchored the boat to await the coming dawn and, hopefully, a better morning bite.

5 am arrived and I was awakened by the sound of anglers putting in their boats at the launching area. After a quick run back to the end of the lake, our gear was lowered into the water. The method I've settled on, and what seems to work best for me, is to stagger my lines off the downrigger in ten foot increments. Anything closer seems to produce tangles. I also tend to keep my gear somewhat close to the rigger ball, say ten feet. For salmon I have not noticed much difference in going farther back than that, except for plugs. So our setup looked like this: deep line - varied from 80 to 100 feet. Then ten feet up, a stacked line, then on the second downrigger, ten feet higher from that. Each line had the exact same dodger. Color of hooks - blue, red, black.

Our first fish hit within 15 minutes of lowering our gear. The fish came in at around 5 pounds, a buck with some color to it. Not bad, but definitely more than the last night's fish. This morning we were fishing closer to the salmon pens. I think that made a difference in the coloring of the fish. Around us I began to see nets coming out as other anglers started hitting fish. The hot depth seemed to be 80-90 feet. I experimented a bit with depth and settled on the 90,80,70 feet range. Things went quiet for a bit, until we hit a double on the two deep lines. After that we lost a couple, then hit three more scattered fish to reach our limit, 8:10am. 2 1/2 hours of fishing and we were done. Not too bad for a morning bite! Always kind of an ego boost to be packing up your gear and cleaning your fish while others are trolling around you.

A few observations on this fishery, which runs through Aug 19th. First, the catching technique is the same as for last year's Lake Washington fishery. However, it seemed even more important to go deep. The curious thing I noticed from this morning was that 5 out of 6 fish came from the deepest rig. I frankly don't understand it, unless they're ALL down deep. I did not notice any color preference on the hooks. I rotated rods to the deep rigger and all colors caught fish. The condition of the fish I think is related to the distance from the salmon pens. However, I have only the seven fish to compare. The evening fish came from an area farther from the pens. I also saw a few nice, bright fish back at the boat ramp. I would speculate that if one was willing to fish farther from the pens the fish might be brighter. But I would also guess that unless you ran through a school of fish, the action would be less fast. The fish were definitely stacked on that NW side of the lake. Finally, the size of these fish are smaller than last year's Lake Washington sockeye. I can't say if this is a seasonal thing or a genetic factor.

There's a few days left so you still have a chance to go after Lake Wenatchee's sockeye. The crowds were not bad, although you will run into potential parking problems. The boat launching area is adequate though small. The question though, is do you want to drive inland to the lake (for those of us on the west side of the state), or do you want to go after the pink salmon which are in thick at Humpy Hollow? The pinks are much brighter. The fish size is about equal, with the sockeye maybe 1/2 to 1 pound bigger. But the sockeye are to my taste buds the best eating salmon around. Plus, it was nice as always to fish in a freshwater lake for salmon. No saltwater hassles, no tides, no drift logs. I'm glad I took the drive over. Who knows when next we'll get a chance to target these fish - maybe another ten years? Good luck fishing and be sure to bring ice for your fish!