Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
After getting skunked yesterday for bass. I decided today, I will try for trout. Get in touch with my fishing roots, lol. After landing my first trolling fish yesterday, starting to gain a little confidence in it.
I have on a red wedding ring behind a small Dick Nites dodger I think. I'm marking fish suspended at about 20-25'. So I put out I think 4 and a half colors of leadcore. According to the reel counter, it was 155'. Trolling at about 1.1-1.3MPH depending on which GPS unit you're looking at.
5 mins in and strike with fish on!!!! Wow that was fast. Reel it in slowly and it's a little 12" rainbow.
5-10mins later and another strike and fish on! 2 for 2 now! Reel it in and it's a 12" peamouth. At least I'm pretty sure it's a peamouth. Looked just like a squawfish, but the mouth was very small. It was a fatty though. Belly was full of something.
I get a couple of nips, but the fish missed.
10-15mins later I get another solid strike with fish on!!!!! Whatever it is, it's doing lots of headshakes and tugging. Not big enough to pull drag or something, but kept making the tip of the rod dance. I'm thinking I got a small bass or something. As I get it to the side of the boat, I see it's a SMALL cuttthroat, lol @ about 10". It was splashing and flopping like mad. This is 1 fiesty fish.
It's pretty cool seeing a fish on the sonar and about 30 seconds later, you get a strike.
For the next hour, I didn't get a single strike. I only saw 1 or 2 fish on the FF too. I should have turned around and make another pass where I caught all those fish, but I wanted to keep exploring.... *sigh*
Anyways, I decided I'll try for bass for about 30 mins. I boated to an area with deep timber and threw cranks and dropshot. Managed to get a perch and had 1 10" LMB follow.
I have to go in early today, so I'm making my way back to the launch. I decided to try trolling one of the small kwikfish I have. So I cut off my wedding ring and tie the kwikfish behind the dodger.
After 1 hour of trolling and marking multiple fish, something is wrong with this setup. Not a single strike. I dont think it has the proper action when it gets deep. It looks fine when I'm testing it on the side of the boat, but I have a feeling it's twirling or something. I was expecting at least a strike..... But by now, the sun was also high, so maybe the bite just wasn't there?
Anyways, still a nice day to be out and gaining more confidence with my trolling gear.
This time of year on Samammish it is critical that you be within a few feet of the thermocline. The water temps in the upper water column are too high and the oxygen levels of the lower section of the water column are too low. Check the lake buoy readings and you'll see what I'm talking about. With lead core, it will take some time before you are able to accurately judge how deep your presentation is running given the speed of troll and the terminal gear used.
I dont have my FF setup correctly to detect the thermocline. Need to play with it more. But if I had to guess, it's somewhere between 25-40' since that's where I mark most of the fish.
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Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service - We fish on Lake Chelan and other North Central Washington waters in year round comfort.
You catch them in COMFORT! Bring your family and/or friends out on our 24 foot Bayliner Ciera Express. For your comfort, it features: enclosed cabin; cabin heat; private/inside marine toilet; games and VCR for children; hot and cold running water available seasonally; stove; and a full line of safety gear. Families and couples are welcomed and encouraged to book our service. The boat accommodates a maximum of six.
Large parties are accommodated. We also offer lodging at our home through VacationinChelan.com for visitors to the Manson area.
