I have been busy chasing walleye and smallmouth bass at some of our big reservoirs lately, so it has been weeks since I got out on Lake Chelan. I still have room in my freezer for more kokanee, and I like to have a bunch for smoking, and I also like to make fish cakes with them. My wife and I weren’t in any hurry to get to Chelan, and we arrived at the launch above the Chelan dam mid-morning last Friday. I was surprised to see some open trailer slots in the parking lot here, and since we were going to fish off Lakeside Park this put us close to our destination. I put out four rods off the park and were into fish immediately. However, there were a lot of cutthroat in this area, and we caught several before landing our first kokanee. I trolled up the lake toward Pleasant Beach, catching fish all along the way. When we got above the Blue Roofs I started marking kokanee schools very deep. I didn’t get any more cutthroat up here and we landed more kokanee. Kokabow blades and spinners did the trick for me once again.
Cutthroat trout were very abundant I the area off Lakeside Park on Lake Chelan.