by Dave Graybill, August 08, 2013

This was a big fishing week here in Central Washington, and I got to enjoy a lot of it. The Budweiser-Lowrance King Salmon Derby in Brewster came off in spectacular fashion. I got in on the sockeye fishing at Lake Wenatchee, and caught sockeye in the Brewster Pool prior to the derby. I even got to spend a couple hours casting a fly to rainbow on the Icicle. You just have to love August in our area.

The derby in Brewster sold 365 of a possible 375 tickets, and anglers caught an amazing number of fish. I heard estimates between three and four hundred, with just over one hundred officially weighed in. The rest of them were wild kings that had to be released. There was a big crowd hanging around derby central on Sunday afternoon to learn the results and win raffle prizes. Once again J.D. Smith and his wife Rebecca and their whole crew did a fantastic job getting sponsors and prizes for the derby. There is a huge list of people to thank and you just have to come to next year’s derby to learn about everyone that helps out behind the scenes.

The first place winner with a king weighing over 26 pounds was Daryl White. He picked up a check for $1,600.00. In the youth division, age nine to 14, the top place was taken by Trey Krause. He won a whopping $800.00. For the first time the derby added another category to the youth division, for kids under eight years old. This was won by Alex Davis, and he was awarded $150.00.

It was a perfect day to be fishing on Lake Wenatchee last Sunday. It was flat calm, and the sockeye were biting. I was Rollie Schmitten’s deck hand again, and we had a great crew on board. His wife Barb joined us as did retired WDFW Region 2 Director Dennis Beich and his wife Monica.

There were some surprises this year. Typically we find the sockeye at 30 to 40 feet deep in the morning. This season they are much deeper. We caught most of our fish at 50 feet. The usual gear, size 0 chrome dodger with a double hooked leader worked great, and Schmitten was adding a bright orange Colorado spinner ahead of his pink hoochies. Another surprise was the late bite. It didn’t really get rolling until 6:30. After that we had good action and got limits for all aboard. The fish are big, too. The Lake Wenatchee sockeye are two to three times the size of the ones I have caught on the Columbia River this year. The sockeye fleet was the smallest I have ever seen, too.

Last Thursday Eric Granstrom and I were invited to come along on a guided trip with Jerrod Gibbons, Okanogan Valley Guide Service. His clients were Mike and Pat Martin of Kettle Falls, and they didn’t mind having Eric and I along to shoot a video for the Fishing TV Show on salmon fishing the Brewster Pool. There was a good crowd of boats out on the “pool” that day and we saw a few kings caught, but not many. We had two good king strikes and lost one fish not far from the boat. At about mid morning Jerrod decided to switch gears and put out the sockeye gear. That’s when the fun started. We had people flying all over the boat, playing fish, netting fish and having a great time. The Martin’s got their limits in no time and then let Eric and I catch ours, too. It was a blast.

On Saturday I was able to grab my 2 weight fly rod (thank you, Tom Bartlett), and fish the Icicle. I spent a couple of hours scrambling over boulders and catching and releasing small rainbow. The Icicle is getting very wadable now, and I can reach a lot of great water. I tried some different flies this time, but found my favorite; a Parachute Adams worked the best of all.

People often ask me where to go to fish the Icicle and my usual answer is just go above the Snow Creek Trailhead and get to the water. As I drive up the valley I see a number of well-used pull outs and they are all worth exploring. Just don’t fish near the camp grounds. I suspect that a lot of the kids that are staying in them are given some salmon eggs or worms and turned loose.

On Saturday I attended the memorial service for Don Bolstad. If you were a member of the Wenatchee Valley Fly Fishers, The Methow Valley Fly Fishers, the Icicle Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited or the Wenatchee Sportsmen’s Association, you knew Don. He would attend meetings for all of these groups and contributed his time to all of them. One of his favorite activities was coming to Salmon Fest every year and helping youngster tie flies. Don was an example of what every club or organization runs on—enthusiasm and a deep desire to give back to something that has provided them so much joy over their lifetimes. He was a great help to me by keeping me apprised of what the various clubs and associations were working on, so I could share it with my readers and listeners. We will all miss him.

I have all the details about the trip to Costa Rica on my web site now. Just log onto FishingMagician.com and click on the Travel button. Once again, space is limited on this trip, so call Journey Travel and Tours in Wenatchee for more information. Call Shari Werner at 1-877-335-1153.

I plan on getting back out on Lake Wenatchee at least one more time this season. These big sockeye are not only fun to catch, they are fabulous eaters. I want to get back out on the Icicle with my fly rod, too, and maybe get up to the Entiat. I like the cutthroat in this steam. After seeing the success of the derby participants in Brewster, and I sure would like to get back out on the “pool” and try for kings. Where else can you live and have these kinds of options? I’ll say it again. It’s great living here!

By Dave Graybill

FishingMagician.com