My girlfriend has property on lk. chellan.For quite awhile I have heard of the infamous lk. Chellan SALMON derby in may.These fresh water chinook salmon fisheries have always intriged me.Last weekend we went over to get the property ready for the summer and what do I see but the lk. Chellan Mackinaw derby instead of the salmon derby.Anybody know why they have switched the target??

I have heard the chinook are a little harder to come by these days. The macks, on the other hand, are thriving.

I am sure there are other members who would know more about the Chelan fishery and could give you a better answer.

Yay that is what a little research on the puter kinda told me.Mike C has a good amount of reports for chelan on his site.

I also took alook at the regs and found there is no limit on the lakers i.e macks.That scares me.How long wi it be before there is just a few of them left.

Going back over thursday thru monday to burn some more grease wood and cut a few more trees.We are trying to tame it back as the fire crews have spent too much time, in the drive way, in past summers, as it is.I am hoping to get some time to go exploring around 25 mile creek though.

Got a dock and a bouy,might have to tow the HighLaker over and do some laker, burbot fishing this summer!

Since you guys are on the subject.....I see a lot of pics of kept fish (lake trout, mackinaw). My question is how do they taste? I'm assuming good.

L.F.
I have never fished them out here, but growing up back in Michigan we did a lot of Lake Trout fishing in Grand Traverse Bay and the Lakers are pretty good smoked, do it just like a Salmon.

Thanks. Now that I have the DR's on my boat I'd thought it would be fun to try for a few few.

Ah, lake Chelan mackinaws. Anton Jones is this site's guide expert for lake Chelan. You can click on his link at the lake Chelan section and he will be happy to answer questions.

I can tell you what he has told me. The Derby: last year the amount of chinook caught was so pathetic that the Derby folks decided to just do macks. Seems the chinook fishery is just about toast. Lake trout NO Limit: yup - WDFW has decided that the TROPHY lake trout fishery on lake Chelan is not what they want on the lake. They want to fish out the macks (like that's going to happen) and instead focus on cutthroat, rainbow, and silvers. Seems they think lake trout are too hard for the average angler to catch and they want to have fish that anyone can catch. Plus, they want to reintroduce the original species which lakers aren't. Haven't heard about them removing the non-native dam at the end of the lake...
Macks taste great smoked. Baked they are rather mild in my opinion, but not bad.
Anton sent in some more reports of great fishing and some larger fish being caught - 11 and 13 pounders. Plus a whole lot of 3-5 pound fish being caught. It's a deep water downrigger fishery that is red hot and has been for months.

So the lakers are not native.That I did not know.I did stumble on some wdfw info that seemed to be really pushing the native cuttys,looked like they were going to phase out stocking the bows.

I am looking forward to exploring a couple of the bigger tribs in hope of some quiet trout fishing.

So is it safe to say that we fished out the kings?Those freshwater chinook fisheries always intrigued me.For about 4 years straight I would spend a week up at the resort at lk. Cusman renting a boat trying to catch them buggers, never did.The old boy that used to own the resort had a stack of polaroids,just to keep me intrigued.Like you said though it is a sonar, down rigger fishery.Cushman does have some trophy dollys though!

Anybody headed over the hill for the derby?

I'm no expert by any means, just know what Antons told me. It's not even an issue of the chinooks being fished out. One thing is that the lakers spawn in the lake while the chinook use the tribs - and with the dam and water levels changing it makes for poor reproduction. Which is what the cutts will face I believe. The lakers just addapted real well to that lake. I'm showing my bias but I don't understand why you WDFW wants to ruin a trophy fishery. This state has more than enough average trout lakes.

The state never has made to much sence,at least not to me.I guess being a fifty mile long, lake third deepest in the nation,it would be hard to fish it out.I wonder which tribs they use for spawning?I have just begun to explore this erea.Would be interesting to hike the spawning tribs in the fall to see what come up out of the lake.

I did also read of an old,historic, comercial fishery on the lake that supplied somewhere around 100lbs of fish a day.The story also mentioned silver salmon,I wonder, if in the day, they actually got up the columbia and up the falls. Of course raising the lake way back when would of put a stop to any androminous fish making it to the lake.If they did make it there they would of had to be some tough fish.Them chinookies had to come from somewhere.

I basically grew up fishing on Lake Chelan, before the lakers and chinook. It was a wonderful trout fishery, big rainbows and cutts, and lots of kokanee. The government messed with lake's water levels, ruining the natural spawning grounds of the trout and kokes. Then the state threw in chinook, lakers and mysis shrimp and of course some purina dog chow fed trout with beat up fins. Chinook started off well but dropped off. Lakers are thriving, which is okay because they are easy to catch(downrigger show) and stay deep away from trout(they do snack on kokes though). The native trout fishery is nearly gone. It should have been a made a trophy fishery with single barbless hooks and only one fish limit. But over fishing and poor spawning grounds took care of that. Kokes are hit and miss, with some years better than others.

If I sound a little upset it's because I remember the good ole days. Good luck in your fishing. The lakers hang out by the "monument" and in the narrows by the yacht club. Stay deep and slow.

snake,
Thank you for that info.I was begining to wonder what was native and what was introduced by the state.So the macks,chinook and the shrimp were introduced by the state.How come that does not surprise me.It seems that every time the state has tried t make something better they end up backpeddaling and trying to bring it back the way it was.That explains the no limit on the macks.What time frame did all this happen?My girlfriend is a 4th or fith generation watson{watson resort] but nobody I have talked to yet has been able to give me anyfishing info.

No need to apologize to me as I have the same passion for what the hood canal tribs used to be versus what the state has made them into.

I am actualy more interested in fishing the upper lake for some of these native bows than I am in trolling for macks.Sunday i hope to begin my explorations up at 25 mile creek.I am looking forward to exploring up there.By the way I am a single barbless c/r fishermen,when I target anything native and wish the state would of gone that route with these native fisheries a long time ago,not after it is almost too late.

ItlCLEO, fishing uplake was my favorite way to fish Chelan before reg changes. Now you can't fish the many creek mouths until summer when the trout are scattered. Before that a black roostertail was killer. In August, the upper lake is infested with yellowjackets. So try the yellow/black roostertail then. 1/4 oz. When the trout are scattered between the creek mouths, troll small thin spoons on very light line. The lake is gin clear, so small line and a long troll behind your boat is best. Good luck! If you can, practice catch 'n release, so these trout can get huge and make more trout for all of us.

Thanks for the info,it is greatly appreciated.I havent kept a wild fish for a long time but I am a fan of photos,so no worries there.

thanks again
greg

I think having a "different" fishery that produces record size fish is worth keeping around.