I'll be fishing Lake Chelan for the first time on the 14th and could use some help. I've got a downrigger and would like to target Mackinaw and possibly Chinook. I've read some past posts, but could use some current information. What lures or bait have been producing and at what depths? What bottom structure do I look for and for the biggie, what general area? I pretty much catch & release and don't like to handle the fish, but I'll try to snap a few photos of any noteworthy fish. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks all

There's a great article about how to catch Macks in this issue of Salmon/Trout/Steelheader and it references Lake Chelan.

You may want to throw in some Kokanee gear, too. This is their hot time and the best places are the same as the Macks, except a little shallower. Try the Monument area and the Narrows.

Good luck!

First, go to the Lake Chelan reports section on this site. You'll see very current reports from Anton Jones. He is THE guide for Chelan and knows the lake as well as anyone. There are several articles with links - a couple trips I took with Anton and one he wrote called controlled depth fishing (this one may be under the Story/Articles section of the web page). After you've read all that material you shouls have a LOT of your questions answered. It'll be well worth your time. The fishery can be great as you will see from Anton's posts. You will be fishing deep - down to 230-240 ft. The silvers are shallow - 20-40 ft. Anton likes to run sliding weights down the rigger cables for the silvers. It's a nice way to fish for both species. Good luck and sent me a report as to how you do!

have been fishing here at least once annually for at least 10 yrs. First fish for lakers only the chinook fishery was grossly overrated and is almost nonexistant now.Gear= steelhead rod,baitcast reel(amb 6500),good mono 12-15(izor 15). Tie mainline to bead chain swivel,4ft leader to hotshot style snap. Clip on a u20 size flatfish,best color is the silver with blue scale pattern,also called a coho pattern,have caught them on others,but have caught more on the u20 coho far and away.My best area= head down lake from the state park about a mile,stay almost in the middle of the lake,alittle to your right hand side, start fishing at 210 ft,beware the bottom comes up to about 150 fairly fast.The real deal,first make sure your plug is true,then put it in the water,adjust your trolling speed till you get a nice even side to side wobble,this probably is slower than you would think,it is much slower than any salmon trolling I've done.Let the lure out behind the boat about 50 ft. Put mainline in rigger clip,let down slowly till rigger ball touches bottom,look at depth finder and make your rigger counter read same depth as depth finder,now the work begins,keep the lure 2-5 ft off the bottom at all times,almost impossible alone,I run 2 riggers while my father inlaw steers the boat,when a fish takes the lure it looks like a trout bite fast nibbles,all these years have only had 3 lakers take mainline out of the rigger and only 1 was a big one(20 lbs),so forget those slams like you get out in the salt. Also every so often drop your ball to the bottom and readjust rigger counter to depth finder this seems to change often, the best depth for us has always been 160 to 190 ft,we fish all water from 120 to 220,our biggest fish(26 lbs) was caught at 205,2 yrs ago father in law caught twin 22lbers in one day,one at 137,the other at 200 so go figger,not much sense in trying to release these fish,when you bring them up from this deep they develope an air bubble inside them they can't take back down,no problem with small shrimp for a diet they are excellant table fare and smoke great,this is a fairly easy fishery but you will find you will catch 6 small fish(3-6 lbs) for every one larger,last note take lots to drink out there it can get damn hot in middle of the lake

A few years back, Rick Graybill wrote a booklet on fishing Lake Chelan that had tons of good information in it. I got mine at Hooked On Toys in Wenatchee. If it's still available it's a gold mine of detail on how to run downriggers super-deep and on where to fish. It's mainly written for chinook (which as mentioned earlier are just about gone) but it has plenty to get you going on macks too.

You'll want super heavy downrigger balls for this fishery-- I got 15-pounders at Hooked On Toys.