So once again headed over this week to Lake Chelan to participate in the annual something catchy derby with hopes to have better luck than last year when my power head went out on big motor and knocked me and DJ Butler out of the derby. Jeff Prehm who runs Penny's salsa and donated a lot of the produce for last years bbq asked if he could come this year with his wife and 4 year daughter who they were trying to get into fishing.

Of course I said yes as that is what this derby is all about- so made plans to head over on Thursday afternoon and do a little pre-fishing on Friday to locate some schools of silver bullets. Well I fished mainly across from the Mill Bay boat launch and worked monument to party point and across and only scratched out one little kokanee!

Met up with Jeff and his family around 5 pm and we went over to the state park for the captains meeting and there learned from some other fellow fisherman that most of the fish were up lake. So we put a game plan together to meet at 6 am and head up lake as far as we could and work down lake in anticipation of reports of wind kicking up by noon.

DAY 1: Saturday- Met at Mill bay to get the boat checked in by derby officials and was greeted with a very anxious and excited 4 year old to go fishing! Gotta love that! We were on the water and motoring up lake by 6:15 and got ready to get our lines down around 6:45 just across from the yacht club. Started with the lead core line out 4 colors with a watermelon brads cut plug with cured corn on the business end and a half fast dodger. Before I could get the second lead core out it was FISH ON!! Brecklyn brought it in like a pro and the skunk was off the boat!
Put the line out again with a second lead core and as I was getting the down rigger rod ready that rod started bucking and was second fish on! Again she glided that fish into the net and we were on fire! Or so we thought as it usually goes with fishing.

We worked hard for the next one as I was finally able to get both down rigger rods deployed and started marking fish at 80 feet so set both down and BOOM both rods go off and it's double trouble! We get 1 out of the 2 in the net and then moved over to the other side of the lake where we spot a few more schools at around 60 feet. This time I say I"ll reel this one in and of course it came upbuttoned so Brecklyn says maybe I should catch the next one haha! Okay that is why we brought a 4 year old on board anyway!

By 11:30 we have 8 kokanee in the boat and are trolling south when the lead core line starts peeling line so Jeff's wife Renee reels this one in and it's a nice cutthroat trout! Now the wind is picking up and the kid is getting close to nap time so Jeff and I run them in and then back out just in front of monument and pick up 1 more to finish day 1 with 9 kokanee and1 cutthroat, Limited success but no limits for this day but big smiles from Brecklyn!

DAY 2: Sunday- So after seeing so many bigger fish coming from the upper lake we decided today to run up further by Mitchell creek campground and work our way south as today's wind was supposed to be worse then yesterday. We got up there by 6:30 and put lines down to 50 feet on both riggers as we marked some schools there and started trolling up lake while it was still calm. Suddenly we have both down riggers go off and it was once again double trouble but just like yesterday came away with 1 for 2 on this round. 30 minutes later we get one more and suddenly around 8 am that fore told wind started to rear it's ugly head and blow down from the north so we rode it south until it calmed down which put us around the state park but didn't get another bump. To find out at the awards picnic that after the wind storm no one could muster a fish as it just turned off completely!

Results for 2 day derby: 11 Kokanee 1 Cutthroat. Brecklyn took 9th place for biggest fish. Renee took 1st place for largest cutthroat and $100 and our boat came in 34th place overall! All in all another great time had for young and old alike and good to see a lot of familiar faces and chat it up all weekend on this beautiful but finicky lake! See you on the water!

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