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.
I decide to head towards the south side along the Kent Kangley road. As I'm sneaking up there, I see my sonar is lit up at the 18' depth range. Anyways, I mentally marked it and went towards a couple of lucky docks from the past. There was no wind at all on the water. Even though it's late, I decided to try top water and see what happens. 1st cast right at 9AM.
Tried wacky and DS for a bit around the area without a bite. So I backed up the boat and went to where I saw my sonar light up.
I drop the DS straight down and immediately felt the nips. A couple of casts later, I feel a bigger bite and set the hook. To my surprise, it was a dink LMB. Drop DS back down and pull up a couple more dink LMB.
I leave the spot and watch my sonar while moving shallower. I look up and I see a boat with 2 guys in it ahead of me. They must have been there the entire time, I just didn't notice them I guess. I'm thinking bummer. I watched for a few seconds and it doesn't look like they are targeting bass. So I continued along this shoreline for a bit. Caught several more dink LMB at about the 8-10" range on the DS.
I remembered there was always these 2 guys that would water ski right at 9AM. I was surprised there wasn't any motor boats buzzing around by now, with how nice it is. Pleasant surprise.
Decided to go across the lake to the north side of the lake. Instead of working the docks, I was out in slightly deeper water working what I would call a flat using DS. Caught numerous dink LMBs. Finally get a couple SMB in the mix. I'm seeing lots and lots of dinks and LMB fingerlings. I get to a dock that I remember a LMB chased my senko last year or before. I skipped it underneath the dock and nothing there. Oh wells.
I go back out into deeper water and drop the DS on the outside weed line. Feeling the constant pecking of what I'm assuming is LMB dinks. I cast it out a little farther out and see my line jump. I set the hook and oh man, I got a biggun! I'm not sure what it is yet, but all I know is it's peeling drag like mad and is stuck down in the grass! Maintain pressure and I get the fish up near the surface and see it's a large LMB. It goes back down and just pins itself to the bottom. No headshakes. Maintain pressure and it starts tiring out. Gets near the surface and scooped it into the net! I am jacked up. Dinks galore and this tank comes out of nowhere! When I weighed it, I was slightly disappointed it was "just" 4lbs even at about 19.5".
I release it into the water and have to get myself a new bait. I've been drifting a bit, so now I'm in the shallow side and inside weed line. I see what I assume to be the fish I released, but I see another one just slightly smaller accompanying it.
I drop my DS nearby to see if I could catch the smaller one too. Follow up with the wacky rig, but I lost track of it.
Continue along and catching a whole bunch of dinks on the DS. I don't remember catching this many LMB before, but the LMB to SMB ratio today for me was easily 3 to 1.
Caught an ok 13" along a small patch of lilly pads on the DS.
Now I'm to an area where there's deep water docks. I've caught plenty of SMB around these areas in the past. Hit the usual spots and landed a few dinks. I then went out into slightly deeper water and worked the outside weed edge again... Feel a bite and set the hook. Oh snaps! Feels like another biggun! This is a much feistier fish compared to the previous LMB. I'm feeling the headshakes and fast turns. I'm confident this is a SMB. After what felt like 20 seconds of fighting the fish, it finally surfaces and it's a TANK! I'm thinking 5 pounder !!!!!!!! Biggest SMB I've seen in a long time. It made multiple drag rips afterwards and tires out. Scoop it into the net and pumped up son! Wasn't sure if it would stay on. This thing looked huge in my net. It was like a football. Even though it looks like it's only 19" in the picture, it must be the angle, bc it hit 20". I weigh it expecting to hit over 5 pounds and I can finally post it in the trophy thread. But WTF, it's "only" 4 pounds 6oz. *sigh*
LOL was still a fun and tank of a fish.
Caught a bunch of dinks afterwards. Went back to the other side of the lake where the drop-offs are and caught dink SMBs. Got another ok LMB @ 13" out in deeper water.
I went through 3 packs of DS lures today. DS tore it up! Caught 1 dink SMB on a crank. Everything else was on DS.
Nice man! I was there on Thursday and it totally sucked. The DS was catching fish...almost all Perch for me, so I just decided to focus on Perch. Ended up saving my morning. 2 weeks ago it was great. Funny, that lake used to loaded with 1-2 lb LM like 5 years ago. It is better now that it was in the last few years. You did really good though :) You me and AMX should go there some morning and have like a 3 hour weekday tournament for fun some time.
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.
