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.
With this nice weather, things had to have changed from last week. Get to the launch and it's blue skies with little to no wind. See the water temp is up almost 10 degrees from last week. I immediately headed up north to where I found the group of LMB last time. When I got there, the water conditions in this area definitely changed. Water is murky and algae slop all over the place on top. Water looks stagnant.
Right before I get there, I get a strike on a swimbait, but didn't hook up. I get to the spot and make casts along the bank with a variety of setups. Nada. I move slightly left and now I'm spotting a small group of LMB, but these are much smaller. Maybe 10-12". I also see a bunch of bluegills and perch in the vicinity. Threw my weightless setup first. Wow the fishes scatter immediately. They are skittish. I pull back and go through the motions of setups. When I got to the DS, first 3 casts, 3 bites, but 0 hookups. I'm thinking the first 2 were perch/bluegill and the 3rd a bass. When I set the hook on the 3rd one, the fish when sideways and looked like a LMB, but flashed too quickly to confirm. Not big, maybe the 10" range.
After about 15 mins of trying to mess with this group, I start drifting to a different spot. Spotted a ~14" LMB hiding underneath a patch of this slop. The past is maybe 12"x12", and you could see it's tail sticking past , lol. I cast my weightless well past it and start reeling it to get it close. As soon as it does, the fish drops down and disappears heading the other way. :(
I decide to leave this sloppy mess and find cleaner water. I go around a turn and start burning my swimbait along the shore. I drift towards the outside weed line. I tap my trolling motor to reposition and I see this big LMB go darting off! Guessing at least 3# class. Hmmm, so I start fishing on the outside weed line at where it starts to drop off. Tossing my swimbait, weightless, and a tube. I continue along and find 3 more LMB! So there appears to be 4 LMB just cruising along this edge. 3 of them are big. Other, probably only about ~16", so ~2# ish. 2 of the other big ones, had to have been pushing 5+. They were pigs! Looked like they belong in the Basspro aquarium.
I finally get one of them interested in a senko, but wouldn't bite! Went up to it and sniffed it, thought about it. Then decided to go on a Jenny Craig's diet. BAH!
As I go in and out from shore, I spooked a SMB. See it darting full speed away from me. lol ugh. But that was a clue. Hmmm, this is a shallow flat area. Looks super fishy, but I've never caught anything later in the season from it. There's almost no wind. The water is super clear here. I see several empty beds. As I get even shallower, that's when I finally spotted the SMBs. I see one hiding underneath a dock in maybe 3' of water. As soon as my lure hit the water, even though it was way past it, it darts away. I'm looking all over the shallows and now see 2 SMB roaming. I see a bed close by, but they were on it. I make my cast with my swimbait and halfway to the boat, they dart away! Wtf. Spooky little things. With no wind, I could see quite the distance. If the lure landed anywhere within 10' of these SMB, they dart away. Along this stretch, I must have seen ~10-15 SMB. Half about 2#. A few ~10-12". A couple that looked pretty big, maybe 3#.
My first fish landed was a ~15" SMB that weighed 2.02# on a swimbait. Didn't even see the fish. I was just burning it along a dock first and bam! I kept tying on something new and different. Eventually, I found something that the SMB seemed to respond a little bit better, but I was still leaving a ton of fishing with no bites.
I finally found a bed where a fish was sitting right on top of it. I first toss a DS at it and watched it move my lure about 5' to the left of it's bed. I didn't set the hook. I just wanted to see if it would move it like they show on TV, lol. It's not a big one, maybe 16" SMB. Ok, now I'm going to try to catch it. I toss the DS back and it starts moving my lure again. I set the hook and miss. I toss it back and it gets snagged before I could cross the bed. I break off, then immediately toss a soft plastic at it. I see the fish take it and set the hook. Fish on! Then pop, it breaks off. FFFUUU. Oh no, I see my lure attached to the fish's, just outside it's mouth. I can see the fish swimming in circles trying to shake it off. I reach down and toss a tube at it. I see the fish pick it up and bam, fish on again! The fish jumps and runs around. On it's 2nd jump, I see my old hook go flying off and sinking into the depths. I get the fish to boat side and as i'm bending over to grab my next, the fish comes unbutton. Damn barbless hooks!
In total, I want to say I caught 6 SMB, only 2 right at about 2#, the rest slightly over 1#, and 1 perch.
But due to the poor seeing and catching ratio, I'm very disappointed. Must have spotted ~10 LMB, 3 of which were tanks! Maybe 20-25 SMB total.
I caught the basses on a variety of setups, but 1 did perform a little bit better than the rest. It did get more interest from the other bass, even though they didn't bite.
Oh, I almost found, also caught myself a stick fish. 1st one of the year, just a dink though.
Ya shoulda seen the stick fish I hooked today. About 12 feet long with lots of little twiggies. It might have been still attached to the biggie tree. I wiggled the senko a bit trying to get it loose. Then a little 10" Largie helped, and removed the wormie from the twig and on into my boat. Thanks little man. lol
I was out there Wed. Lots of empty beds. Looks like the males have started making the beds but not yet committed to them yet which is why they are so spooky. Seeing this and being limited to that darn single barbless hook rule I threw a small perch colored swimbait around and between the docks knowing those fish would be cruising. Caught about 20 fish largest was about 3 lbs. caught a couple on the dropshot but the swimbait seemed to get the best reaction. First time ever fishing this lake and I really liked It some really cool stuff out there.
I was out Weds also, fishing for cuttys. You are right about the water, floating algae crap and lots of it. But the cutty fishing was great and the weather was fabulous. Did my best to hook a stick fish but no luck, whats your secret?
I fished this morning from 7 to 12 when I got blown off the lake. Fishing was as you guys described it. 10 smallies in the 2 to 3# range and a giant squaw. The lake still has the floating junk on top but hopefully it will be gone soon. The bite is light and the fish are easy to scare. I also saw the huge carp about half way up the lake and on the east side. Im curious about the swim baits, ive never had luck with them on samm but now i want to give them a shot!
Only the best of the best catch stick fish. As AMX stated with his pro-tip. Having exposed hook increases your chances of catching these exclusive and elusive specimen.
I got no stick fish today. The darn Bass kept getting in the way.
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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.
