Sunday on Lake Chelan with Tyler Walker and Big Bass Dez, spring fishing for smallies. Dez had told me to be prepared for some good fishing and he was right, at least for part of the day.

Started off on my first cast, bam caught a nice 3ish smallie on a rattletrap. We were fishing an off-shore rocky area which two weeks from now will be an off-shore underwater hump as they raise the water level on Chelan. Tyler and Dez were tossing a KGM crawfish plastic imitation on a football head jig, and they soon started consistently catching smallies in the 2 ½ to 4 lb range. I switched up and tried some drop-shots, without success.

I eventually switched up to the KGMs as I couldn’t stand watching those two catch all the fish. It was kinda tough, definitely requires a soft touch. I hooked one that jumped out of the water and spit the hook – “Better work on your hook-set Mr. Carey” Dez comments shaking his head. A little while later I had a super aggressive fish chase after my retrieval and hit it, but again, no luck. Meanwhile Dez and Tyler are sight casting to cruising smallmouth and watching as they would come over to look at the crawfish and slurp it up. Unreal!

The bite got tough after 1ish with both Dez and Tyler being the only ones with any level of success. Me, I filmed and enjoyed the ride. It was a great day on the water, despite a bad back which was definitely affecting my day, ouch. We caught about a dozen fish in all. Thanks Tyler and Dez for taking me out. It’s a treat to get a ride on a Phoenix, and see what a real bass boat is like.