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.
Back on the water on Sammamish. It's been a while.
It's COLD in the mornings now. Vehicle said 48 degrees at the launch. When I dipped my toes into the water to launch, it felt so warm. Rather jump in the water than. LOL. Was showing 68 degrees, no wonder.
Anyways, wasn't sure what to expect, but I hit my usual 1st point. Ran a couple of different depth cranks through there. Then a swimbait. Nothing.
Tried the DS around there and no hookups. I do see baitfish on sonar and felt a few nips here and there.
I backed off into deeper water. I've been watching my sonar as I creep up to a spot and went to about where I saw some fish markings in ~30'. . Started off in ~18' or so. Instantly catch a bait SMB. Back up a little more and I see a single line on sonar on bottom. Drop DS straight down and after several seconds of jiggling, I get a bite and pull up dink ~10" SMB. Small, but they are growing.
Start fan casting the area and landed a dandy perch at almost 11". I'm out in about 25' of water now and casting it around. Landed 2 more dink SMB. One of them was caught in 32' of water. The other was 13" and skinny. It had a profile of a trout to me. Took a pic of this little guy since it looked so odd.
Spent an hr at this area and decided to leave. I start heading up north. Stopped off along the east side on an area that has been productive for me. Fishing in about 10-12' of water. I see bait fish following my swimbait, but can't tell what they are. Too much ripple. Start tossing out the DS around. Get my first decent SMB in about 13' of water on the DS @ 15".
Hammering the spot and get a couple more dinks. I decided to go across and try to west side.
Since the West side is directly in sun, I tried around the docks first and started working my way out a bit deeper. Tried a new crankbait for a while too. Spent about 40mins there and only got perch.
Decided to keep moving up the lake and stop off at another spot on the east side. Tried a couple of deep docks and didn't get anything. It's getting a little bit breezy on the lake now. Not crazy, but definitely have to pay attention. I move myself into deeper water in the 15-16' zone. I want to call it a flat, but I'm not sure that's right. Fishing the outside weed line too. I see baitfish lighting up. They kept harassing my lures. Tossed the DS out into a little bit deeper water and fish on! Oh snaps, I see another fish fighting with it. Can't tell for sure about size, looked to be about same or maybe slightly bigger. Scoop my fish into the net, 16" SMB. Not bad. I toss it back out and follow the edge. Landed 5 more SMB. 2 were dinks, the other were 15-16". The hot depth in this area was 16-18'. All on DS.
I continue north and want to stop off at fart hole. I pull up a little bit behind and work my way towards it. I'm maybe 20 yards away from the actual spot. I toss my DS out into 12' of water and felt a bite. Set the hook and it doesn't feel like a big fish. After about 5 seconds or so, it really came to life and started doing head shakes and pulling some drag.... HMMMM. Play with it for a bit and it starts to shoot up towards the top and jumps out of the water. Yep, a quality SMB. Play with it some more and able to scoop into the net. 19" SMB @ 3.79lbs. Not bad at all I say.
Worked that spot for a bit but nothing else bite. Definitely saw fish on sonar, just wasn't active. Get to fart hole and pounded it without a fish.
It's 12:30PM now. Trying to decided to fish some more or head back in....Lets keep fishing. I wanted to fish a point farther up.
I get there and don't see anything on sonar, but still fished around. It's quite breezy now. Ran my swimbait and cranks first. Pointed the nose of the boat into the wind and tossed the DS in front. Pitched it on the shadow size of a piling and nothing. Wind blows me back a bit, so I pitched it on the sunny side in ~20' of water. Feels like a bite... set the hook and fish on!
It's pulling a little bit of drag, so I know it's a decent fish, but not a biggun. I get it near the surface and wow, I see it has 2 decent size buddies following it around. I tried not to spook them, gingerly played with my fish. As I got it closer to the boat, they swim away and my fish kinda justs slides into the net. Another 16" SMB. I continued the area and 10 mins later, I get another SMB almost same size. Must have been one of the buddies.
I wanted to see if I could get a crank fish today so I tried to cast my new lure out into the wind.... Big mistake. Backlash! BAH! Couldn't get this one untangled. While I was trying to, my line broke on whatever loop it was caught on in the reel. Line starts sliding out of the eyes on the rod. Luckily, managed to grab the end before it came out completely and pulled my lure back in. Didn't want to fix what's remaining on the reel, so set that rod down and was done with it.
Tossed the DS around and I get snagged on something. Broken it off and called it a day, lol.
Saw these 3 guys fishing in a nice blue boat as I was packing up. Drifted right by them since I wasn't paying attention.... I was out in deeper water but that wind..... My bad.
SMB catch was in the double digits. I want to say 13-15. Yes, a few bait-dink SMB in the mix. But had a bunch, to me at least, 15-16" SMB. I want to say 8-9. Those 1 3/4-2lb size. Fun buggers. I stopped taking pics of the cookie cutters. I really should though to keep a better track.
quote: I stopped taking pics of the cookie cutters. I really should though to keep a better track.
Last year and this year I've been writing down every bass I catch in my B.A.S.S. Fishing Diary and Planner. Doesn't clog up my picture folders on the computer. I usually only take pictures of 3 lb and larger Bass, unless I'm desperate and NEED a fish picture, then near 2 pounds is good. lol And a picture folder for each lake that I have pictures of fish from, and separated for each year.
With my new phone, it has the date and time stamped on the picture file. I just transfer them onto a folder on my computer. On the computer, I setup a folder for each lake I go to. In those folders, I'll have folders separated out by dates. I hope WALA never goes away. I always go back and re-read my reports so I cant remember some details.
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Available Guide
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.
