It was blowing hard when I arrived at Lake Wenatchee on Monday morning. I had a good crew with me and decided to go for it anyway. My brother Rick and cousin Greg were very experienced anglers, and Greg’s son Tim was young and strong. We drove slowly and set up rods and riggers on the way up the lake, figuring conditions would be better up there. Everyone else has the same idea and there were lots of boats in the area. We found that a depth of 55 feet on the downriggers was the best, and the same distance on the lead ball rigs with eight ounces of lead. Double dodgers worked really well, and I tried to keep my speed at under one mph. Due to the wind forecast, I suppose, the turnout was the lowest I have ever seen for an opener. People will be out in force when conditions improve. I estimated that 70,000 fish would be in the lake by the opener, and I was way off. The sign at Tumwater Dam for July 19th said over 119,000 had passed through by then and they were still coming at over 2,000 a day!