The Fishin' Magician: Kokanee on Lake Chelan

I got back up to Lake Chelan to get after the kokanee again, and this was my best trip so far. There were a lot of boats launching at Mill Bay and big packs of them off Rocky Point when we made our way down lake. We started off near Peterson's and a very slow start. We moved further out toward the middle of the lake and things changed. All of a sudden our rods started going off in quick succession. We got doubles, triples, and even at one point had all four rods go off and we landed all four of them. I had one fish one that took a couple of nice runs before breaking my 13-pound leader! We had nine fish in the boat in no time. Then the bite died, as it often does when fishing for kokanee. We trolled and trolled without success for about 40 minutes with nothing, and then it came back on. We ended up with 16 fish ranging in size from 12 to 17 inches, and got most of them at 90 feet. Don't forget to buy your new license before April 1. You'll need it for the "April Fools" opener in the Columbia Basin and to fish in the new Triple Fish Challenge Derby at Banks Lake April 6 and 7.