by Dave Graybill, June 25, 2014

It has been a very busy week. I floated the Cle Elum River last Monday, tried Lake Chelan for kokanee on Thursday, and on Friday traveled to Omak for the Colville Confederated Tribe’s First Fish Celebration.

Rollie Schmitten and I had floated the upper Yakima River, above Cle Elum, early this spring, and we set up a float on the Cle Elum River with Troutwater guide Johnny Boitano right after we got back. The Cle Elum River enters the Yakima above the town of Cle Elum and when we drifted past it, Boitano told us how special the fishing was on this stream. Schmitten and I were both excited to give it a try.

We put in about three quarters of a mile below the Lake Cle Elum dam and headed down stream. Boitano had told us that the Cle Elum wasn’t a numbers river. He meant that we shouldn’t expect to hook a big number of fish, but the fish we did catch should be big. He was right. Not long after we launched Schmitten hooked one of the biggest cutthroat either of us had ever seen. It was over 20 inches. He caught some more big cutts during our float, and I caught a mix of rainbow and cutthroat. The rainbows I got were very heft. Some were close to 19 inches, with very broad shoulders and heavy girths. Schmitten and I landed a half-dozen dandies each, and released a couple of smaller fish. We missed a good number of fish on our indicator and double fly rigs.

Boitano had told us that the Cle Elum isn’t a river to try without having been down it first. We sure saw what he meant on the float. There were a few false channels that would lead drift boaters or rafters into certain trouble. There are also a number of log jams that appear on corners and if you don’t know your way through them you could easily get hung up. We saw the debris of rafts that didn’t make it under the water below some of these jams.

If you would like to experience quality fishing for big cutthroat and rainbow, perhaps without seeing another boat during the day, the Cle Elum is worth a look. I would advise doing it first with Johnny Boitano from the Ellensburg Troutwater Fly Shop or with Jim Gallagher from the Cle Elem Troutwater Shop. They are both very familiar with the river. The flows on the Cle Elum are controlled by the dam on Lake Cle Elum and it’s in great shape right now and will be all summer long.

I had heard that the kokanee bite had picked up on Lake Chelan, and since I hadn’t seriously fished there yet this year, I decided to give it a try. Marcos, who in sales at Bob Feil Boats and Motors, and I first made a sweep around Lakeside Park and found nothing. I noticed several boats off Rocky Point so I ran over there. I saw Austin Moser, of Austin’s Northwest Adventures, and he said it was very slow. We saw just one fish landed, so I started looking further up lake. I spotted a few at Mill Bay but no biters. I ran all the way up to above the Yacht Club and only got a pike minnow. Trolling through Monument Bay I did pick up one rainbow. This was a pretty poor day for kokanee on Chelan for me. I talked to Moser on my way home, and he said that about a half hour after I left Rocky Point, the bite came on. He wound up with 15 kokanee, and lost a bunch. I just should have been more patient and stuck it out. We would have had a cooler full of kokanee if I would have hung around. Oh well, I guess I won’t be in such a hurry next time.

The Colville Tribal First Fish Ceremony last Friday started at 5:30 a.m., but I made to a gathering at the Omak Longhouse, which is on the road to Omak Lake at 9. There were presentations and videos played that showed how the Colville Confederated Tribes and Okanogan Native Alliance Tribes are bring back the salmon. A new hatchery is just being completed on Skaha Creek, near Penticton, that will soon be releasing up to 5 million sockeye fry into the Okanogan River system. The new Colville Tribal Hatchery in Bridgeport is already releasing fish, and produces a combined total of 3 million spring, summer and fall-run salmon into the Columbia. I was able to meet representatives from the Okanogan Native Alliance and the Director of Fish and Wildlife for the Colville Confederated Tribes. The tribes have much to celebrate with the new salmon facilities and partnerships with Grant and Chelan County PUDs and others that have formed. We will all benefit from their efforts. The future just gets brighter and brighter for salmon returns on the Columbia.

If you missed the seminar at Town Ford last week, you will have another opportunity to learn from the experts on summer-run and sockeye fishing before the season opens on July 1st. Hooked on Toys is putting on three seminars on Saturday, June 28th. Stuart Hurd, Jerrod Gibbons and Austin Moser will be providing presentations. Bob Feil Boats and Motors will have some new fishing boats on display that day, too.

The Icicle Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has a kids fishing day every year at the Blackbird Island Acclimation pond in Leavenworth. This year it will take place on Saturday, July 5th. The pond will be loaded with rainbow, and chapter members will be on hand to help kids catch fish. Bring your own gear and bait. The fishing fun starts at 8 a.m. and ends at noon.

I haven’t given up on Lake Chelan. I am going to give it another try. Heck, I have a whole list of lakes that I want to put the new Smoker Craft on. I don’t have much time, though, with summer-run and sockeye season right around the corner!

FishingMagician.com