by Dave Graybill, March 18, 2013

What a great week I had. I fished the Upper Columbia and the Methow for steelhead, and Lake Chelan for kokanee. I finished my steelhead fishing for the season in style, and got into spring fishing for kokanee much earlier than usual. It looks like there is going to be a lot to look forward to on Chelan this year.

I wanted to give the fishing at Bridgeport a try once more before I hung it up for the season. I have had some terrific steelhead fishing here in the late season. I drug my fishing buddies Rollie Schmitten and Jim Passage up there, and we gave it a good effort, but had zip for results. I gave till noon and then suggested we put the Kingfisher on the trailer and head elsewhere to find steelhead. Schmitten, Passage and I have a favorite hole near Chelan Falls and we felt sure that there would be a couple of fish waiting for us there. Well, we did get a fish at Chelan Falls but not where we expected it. Instead of the bridge hole that had been treating us so good all season, Passage took a hatchery fish well above here. He had switched to a different jig and added a bead as a dropper, and that did the trick. Whew. It was a near thing, and thanks to Passage we didn’t get skunked on my last day of steelhead fishing on the Columbia for the season.

The next morning I met Keith Roe, maker of Raven Jigs, on the Methow. It was a perfect day. The sun was shining, the river was in great shape, and there were fish in the river, too. I spent most of the day watching Roe catch fish. He got a nice wild fish at the first spot we tried. He took me from hole to hole and gave me the first cast and the best spots each time, but I came up empty. We worked our way up the river to a good looking hole and worked it hard. Roe caught three steelhead and a bull trout. I spent my time just running for the camera. I finally did get a bull trout for my efforts, and we were just about to leave when my bobber went down. I set the hook and immediately knew I was in trouble. The fish came up and flew out of the water. It was a big, red streaked powerhouse. I was just hanging on while the fish jumped and ran up and down the hole. It jumped a total of four times and it took me over 20 minutes to get it to the shallows to release it. Roe got one more fish out of this hole, too. Our total for the day was six steelhead, including one keeper and two bull trout. It was a pretty good way to end the season on the Methow River.

I got word that there were kokanee biting at Lake Chelan. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t even start thinking about kokanee on the lake until May. I was assured that there were fish to be caught and that they were BIG. That made it even harder to believe. We had what everyone called the best season for big kokanee on Lake Chelan ever last year, and I didn’t think we would see fishing like that again for a long time.

It was true. I was invited to try it out with Shane Magnuson last Friday. Dan Schliefers, Eric Granstrom and I launched at Mill Bay and made our way down to Rocky Point. We took three fish right off the bat. They were all 15 to 18 inches. Those are big kokanee for Lake Chelan. Every bit as big as the ones we were getting on the lake last year. We only were able to scratch up one more fish that morning, but I was eager to get back up here and try it again.

I did just that last Sunday. Gary Feil, Eric Granstrom and I launched at Mill Bay again and after a brief sweep past Rocky Point, headed across the lake to the area near Peterson’s. As soon as we go there we were into fish. We immediately hooked a double, and lost one of them. Got another double and landed them both. Got another double and lost both of them. When the dust settled we had hooked four doubles in an hour and a half. We had five in the cooler and had lost six. Wow. That was some great action. Then it died. Just like it did on the previous trip, the bite really fell off at about 10 a.m. Then the wind started to blow. It had been blowing most of the morning, but now it was really blowing, and we headed in. Once again the fish were all from 15 to 18 inches, and it was a ton of fun getting them. We were using small trout dodgers, pink and clear mini hoochies on a short leader, baited with a piece of shrimp on the lead hook and corn on the trailing hook. We found our fish from 50 to 75 feet.

Don’t forget to buy your new license. You’ll need it by April 1st for the annual opening of all those lakes in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Refuge. Also, the following weekend is the first Triple Fish Challenge at Banks Lake. Top prize is an Achilles inflatable boat and motor, and there will be lots of other great prizes handed out. Go to my web site and click on the Pepsi logo to get all the details. You’ll want to get your registration in right away.

I’m headed for Ellensburg to fish the Yakima with the guys from Troutwater. Boy, is that going to be fun!

By Dave Graybill

FishingMagician.com