Lake Chelan 9/25 - 9/27

Planning on heading out to Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park next weekend.  Going to teach myself how to use my new downrigger.     If anyone else would like to go, let me know.

Lake Chelan is 54 miles long and just off 25 Mile creek the water gets up to ~1500 feet deep.  The lake is beautiful, the water is sooo clear, and there is NO MINIMUM SIZE, NO DAILY LIMIT for Mackinaw (Lake Trout) which can get VERY big.  State record was caught in Lake Chelan at 34+ pounds.  The lake is also stocked with Triploid Chinook as well as some wild reproducing Diploid Chinook.  There are catch restrictions on Salmon during May, but the rest of the year they count towards the Trout Daily limit of 5 (landlocked salmon rules).  The Kokanee daily limit is 10 for this lake, so if that's your thing, you'll love it here too.

Weather is predicted to be in the 80s for the 25th, so it looks promising.

Complete fishing rules for the area around 25-mile creek:

CLOSED WATERS - within 400' of the mouths of all tributaries.

LAKE TROUT Year-round No min. size. No daily limit.

KOKANEE Year-round No min. size. Daily limit 10.
All Other TROUT Year-round No min. size. Daily limit 5. Release wild CUTTHROAT. LAKE TROUT(MACKINAW) and KOKANEE not included in TROUT daily limit.

Other Game Fish Year-round Statewide min. size/daily limit.
SALMON May 1-May 31 Min. size 15". Daily limit 1. No Catch Record Card required for
salmon .

Forgot to mention, Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park is a pretty nice campground.  There is a canteen (think convenience store) on site, overnight dock mooring, and two ramps for launching.  All the camp sites are in easy walking distance with a wheel-eze or similar setup. 

When I was at this place in July, there were only 3 powerboats pulling skiers/wakeboarders around, and no personal watercraft terrorists.  I think they all hang out in the lower lake near the town of Chelan and the other state park.

Good luck, Lee.

Most of my experience on Chelan has been down closer to the other state park and Manson. The lower basin is not so deep, and I've mostly bounced jigs off the bottom.

Looking forward to hearing how you do up there.

Trip didn't go so well for fishing.  Friday was pretty calm, and I ran around in 150 to 300ft of water a few times.  Saw lots of fish on the FF but nothing would bite.  Found out about 2 hours later that the new swivels I picked up didn't work very well, and caused my line to pop.  Turns out I was trolling a 6lb lead lure, and nothing else.  Apparently the fish don't like that a whole lot.

Saturday was a wash.  Super windy around 25 mile creek.  Waves were constantly splashing over the top of the marina wall (Its like 8 feet high)  Went into town and fished from the bank.  GF caught a 12" LMB off of nightcrawler and trout ball.  The lower end of the lake was peaceful and calm on the drive back.  Some spots like glass.  When we got back to 25 mile creek though, it was still extremely rough.   

Fished from the dock that night.  Caught a 10" rainbow trout from a 3" rapala lure with some split shots on it.  My GF caught a ~14" squawfish right at the dock from a wedding ring setup with a lunker. 

Sunday started out beautiful.  Light winds and no chop.  Trolled by the park a few times, no luck.  Paddled to the far side of the lake (took 20 minutes to get across), dropped the downrigger to 150 ft and started my troll.  Wind picked up, depth went from 150 to 30 (cliff underwater grrrrr) snagged my lure.  Pulled up the downrigger and finally got unsnagged (wasn't about to lose another ~$15 setup) and started heading back.

The return trip was a hell of a paddle.  White caps and paddling against the wind the whole time.  Took me 90 minutes to paddle back, and I had waves coming all the way to the cockpit area the entire time. 

Long story short, didn't pull a fish into my new boat yet.


The kokanee were spawning right next to our campsite.  Bright red with green heads.  Looked really pretty.