Got out Sunday morning for some fishing time before the family got busy for the day. I am trying to focus on kokanee this year and maybe some of the smaller lakes. Wanting to head uplake, I started fishing in the bay above the Yacht Club on the West side of the lake.

I have a two pole endorsement, so I ran a red wedding ring on one side and started with an orange one on the other, both behind 4/0 dodgers. In Chelan, when I can, I run the balls down 20 feet before I hook the release clips and lines in. Red was at 35 feet and orange at 45. I marked small fish consistently from 15 feet down towards 60 or so. In 2 or 3 passes through the bay, I probably had 10 kokanee to the boat, but they were all in the 7-9 inch range, so they all went back. Almost all of the hits were on the red wedding ring with a white Berkley power maggot at 35 feet.

Got a little frustrated not getting something bigger, so I switched over to Mackinaw, breaking out my jigging rod for some "spot and drop" jigging. I started just downlake of the Yacht Club by the rockslide. Spotted two good arcs and dropped a jig down to them... one actually came up to meet the jig as it fell... kind of fun to watch on the depth sounder... It missed, but after letting it hit bottom, then jigging a couple of times, I had one on... about 5 pounds and good enough for a fresh dinner. I tried one other arc and got a twin up to the boat. I tried for about 15 minutes to release it, but the swim bladder wouldn't adjust, so I finally bonked it. The family doesn't need much while here on vacation, so I wish there was somewhere to donate them or something... they are fun to catch! Called it a day.

MotoBoat

7/15/2010 10:06:00 AM

What is the reason for sending the rigger ball down 20ft before clipping on the gear to the cable? How far back do you send the gear before clipping the line into the clip? Interesting concept for sure.

TomD

7/16/2010 7:56:00 PM

So I may be totally all wet, but I think that in the clear waters of Lake Chelan, the fish get scared off by downriggers etc... I know that some of the guides run gear way back behind the ball to minimize that effect for Mackinaw... Kokanee usually aren't spooked by gear. With the 4/0 dodgers and wedding rings that I run, I set them 6 to 9 pulls out before clipping them in, so not far behind the cable. I have had better luck in Chelan putting the balls (I have 14 pounders for Puget Sound that I am using in Chelan) down below the fish where they don't seem to bother them as much... I tried no drop, then 10 feet and have settled in on 20 feet as working pretty well.

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