by Lance Merz, June 23, 2014

Fishing season has finally arrived and the Mack's Lure staff has been on the water, in full force! During the month of May, Bob Schmidt, Bobby Loomis and myself have been primarily fishing the Washington lakes and rivers with tremendous success. We have all met and fished with a lot of great people during our fishing expeditions and I'd like to take this time to share it with you, the reader.

On the 1st of May, Bobby Loomis fished with Doug Allen at Potholes Reservoir just outside of Moses Lake, Washington. Mack's Lure has been a long time sponsor of the Washington Walleye Circuit. The Rod Meseberg Walleye Classic was held on the Potholes on 3-4 May. Doug and Bobby pre-fished this lake to target the bigger walleye on the lake, with a tremendous amount of success. They were using Mack's Lure Double Whammy Walleye®, Slow Death Rigs® and Wally Pops® to target the fish, which they did, in abundance.

On the 3rd and 4th of May, Mack's Lure sponsored a “Get together” with Washington Lakes dot com, which turned out to be a huge success. On Saturday, there were many people on the water who had never fished Lake Chelan before, and were attempting to catch the ever elusive Kokanee. As the day progressed however, the winds picked up on the water, making fishing very difficult. Later that evening, the hosts (Mike Carey and Aaron Borg) conducted a pot luck dinner which provided great food and great people. Mack's Lures' rep Lance Merz fished the entire weekend with all the members and also gave a brief seminar of fishing for Kokanee on Lake Chelan at the potluck.

Kokanee fishing on Lake Chelan is somewhat different than other lakes within the state. The lake itself is the third deepest lake (1,486ft) in the country. The water clarity of this lake is amazing as well. You can literally drop your down rigger ball to 50 feet and still see the ball!!! The best rigging that I have had success with is the Mack's Lure Double D Dodger® with a 1.5” Cha Cha Kokanee Squidder® in either pink or orange pattern. Tip your hooks with two kernels of white shoe peg corn and drop those lines between 90-65 feet and once you find the fish, you will have success. Fishing this year on Lake Chelan is sporadic. One day, limits can be caught relatively easy. Other days however, you may only land a few in the boat. That's what fishing is all about!

Overall, it was a great weekend. I got to see some old friends and make some new ones as well. I came back to my hometown for a reason; to be closer to family. It was great to see families on the water catching fish on a consistent basis. I was afforded the opportunity to fish with my cousin and share the experience of fishing on Lake Chelan; a memory I will cherish for a very long time. The beauty of fishing is the ability to share these stories with friends and family, and there's no doubt that this weekend will be talked about for a very long time.

On the 7th and 8th of May, Bob Schmidt and myself were afforded the opportunity to fish with TJ Hester, Dennis Dauble and Justin Wolff on Drano Lake and the mouth of the Wind River on the mighty Columbia for Spring Chinook Salmon. We went to this area to conduct a video shoot for “Springers”, which turned out to be quite successful. TJ is a part of the Mack's Lure guide staff who is extremely knowledgeable of this fishery and us on some very nice fish. Mostly all of the fisherman in the area were using short bus flashers with a hearing or prawn rig and not catching very many fish. Our boat however, was using a Gold and Silver Hot Wing on top of a 7.6” Double D Dodger with a Mack's Lure Prawn Rig, with tremendous success! There were many people trolling by the boat that day who asked what we were using and how it was rigged up. Fishing the day prior for these “Springers” led to the success of a very good TV show, which should has already aired on the Fishing Network.

On the 14th of May, Travis Dawson (Sportsman’s Warehouse), Matt Phillips and myself headed to the Upper Lake of Conconully to fish for Kokanee. Not too many people know about fishing for these fish
on this lake, so I thought we could give it a shot; I'm glad we did. We were on the water by 4:30am and within minutes, our first fish was on. We were using Mack's Lure 4.4” Double D Dodger with a 1.5” Cha Cha Kokanee Squidder in pink, orange and blue. It seemed that the blue did the trick with catching these fat Kokanee. The biggest fish caught went to Travis with just over 18”. We went through an entire can of corn with so many trout that were biting!

It was a lot of fun catching (and releasing) all the trout, but we were targeting the Kokanee. If you ever want to take a kid fishing and consistently catch fish, take them to Conconully. You'll be glad you
did. If you decide to, make sure you bring different colored wedding rings and you'll limit out in no time.

On the 16th and 17th, I fished with Zack McGlothern of Northwest Sportfishing Guide Service on Lake Stevens, WA. We fished the 5th Annual Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby which turned a very good Bob Schmidt and Lance Merz with two Spring Chinook Salmon on Drano Lake.crowd of anglers from all across the state. At times, it seemed like the derby was “combat fishing” because there were well over 70 boats on the lake. Mostly everyone on the day of the derby was using some sort of wedding ring for these fish. Because of this, I decided to change things up a little and try a 1.5” Cha Cha KokaneeSquidder with a 4.4” Double D Dodger. Shortly after changing to this rig, we started catching fish.

John Kernaghan and his son Dakota ended up winning the biggest Kokanee limit at 10lbs 15oz as well as 2nd place with the biggest fish at 1 pound, 21 ounces. John said that he was successful because of Mack's Lure, which he uses all the time. He was using a Flo Chartreuse Wedding Ring® with a double hook set up (which is also known as the Double Whammy Ringmaster®). John and his son are firm believers in Mack's Lure products. He fished with these Wedding Rings all day long and had a stack of fish that looked like footballs!

Fishing in derby's can be a lot of fun. Fishing with that many boats can be challenging, especially when every boat is using the same product. Sometimes switching things up can make a huge difference in the success of putting more fish in your boat. The key however, is having the faith in the product that you use. Mack's Lure can be a product which will give you that faith and, more fish in your boat.

Look for us on the water!! We will be out there, fishing right next to you as we can learn from each other with one common goal in mind; catching fish. We would love to hear from you and what your experiences are with using Mack's Lure products.