Chelan

Air Temp: 76° - 80°
Method: Trolling W/Downriggers
Species: Kokanee
Bait: Corn
Color: Green
Conditions: Windy
Tackle: Flasher
Time: Morning
Water Temp: 66° - 70°
Rating: 4
Views: 4862

Church had a family campout at 25 Mile Creek State Park so we decided to not only fish during the campout but also stay a few days on the other side and focus in on the fishing. We had a great time. There are not a lot of reports for kokanee in August on the site. I searched and didn't find much at all. So I went in with low expectations. In addition I would be fishing from a kayak so I knew my range would be limited. So while I was fishing a large lake, "my lake" was actually much smaller. But I found the kokanee every time I went out out. I have down riggers on my kayak so I was able to go relatively deep for them. But I found them in the morning (earlier the better) from 40 - 60 feet on the down rigger. Later in the day they would go deeper but I could not reach them.

Of course on Chelan it is all about the wind if you are in a small boat. So we would plan accordingly. If you head north out of the marina at 25MC then you encounter the washing machine that is made from the wave hitting the break walls and it can become a mess really quickly. But if you head South (down lake) then you will find a number of points not far from the marina. I focused on those points (between the two green houses) and would find the fish depending on which way the current was that day on either side of them. I was mostly in 85 - 200 feet of water. And the fish were in 45-80 feet. On one day we had overcast and rain all day, and the fish never went down deep. It was a banner day with multiple doubles and lots of fun. Other days I would only get a couple of hours in and the wind would come up and drive us off the lake.

We used a white kokanee sized NTO Scent Spinner with 2 green beads and a lemon lime Arrowflash dodger. This is the lure that caught the majority of the kokanee. On the other side we used a black NTO Scent Spinner with orange beads. For bait we used ProCure bloody tuna and garlic in the spinner and corn on the hooks. This caught kokanee but also caught the vast majority of the cutthroat trout. We would eventually take it off just to avoid catching the wild cutthroat that had to be released..

Big lakes can be daughnting for small boats but hopefully this will help some folks who are camping at 25 Mile Creek and want to find some fish and don't have an ocean liner that allows them to stay out in the wind.

Tight lines.

Here are the videos of some of the fishing action.
Part 1


Part 2




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