I ran into Travis Maitland, who is the WDFW area biologist in the Wenatchee office, and he answered my question about this year’s return of sockeye to Lake Wenatchee. According to Maitland, there was a return of 99,000 sockeye a few years ago, and this season is beating that number handily. I mentioned that the last report I saw said there were 102,847 over Tumwater Dam, and he said that was a few days old and that they lost several days of video counts. There could be at least three to five thousand more fish in the lake by now. We have had some stormy weather and the temperature gauge has bounced from cool to hot the past week, and I think that had something to do with a less than hot bite on the lake. The morning is still pretty good, but it dies off quickly. Last Monday I had my niece and her friend Kellen out along with my brother Rick. We got two fish right away and then they had to leave. We dropped them off at the dock and Rick and headed back out. We were getting few fish and when we got to the top of the lake I noticed a boat that was rowing with a net. We towed them into Glacier View and decided to head home before it got too hot out with seven for the day.
This sockeye my niece caught on Monday was still bright and feisty!