Richard Robinson of Leavenworth shows off one of two lake trout he landed while fishing for kokanee on Lake Chelan.

      I finally made it to Lake Chelan to find out if the kokanee had moved into the lower basin, and if I could catch a few.  They were in the lower basin and I did catch, just a few.  My fishing buddy, Richard Robinson from Leavenworth, and I launched at Mill Bay and started trolling on the outer edge of the bay.  The first fish we caught was a lake trout of about 6 pounds.  It hit the squid rig baited with corn, like a kokanee was supposed to.  I did get one kokanee here and another laker before we headed for Lakeside.  Here were caught a few more kokanee.  We wound up with a total of five kokanee, but there were a lot of them in the area.  Most hit a black squid with a smile blade on the front.  The kokanee are small this year. They were all just 10 inches long.  I want to let boaters know that the lake level is very low and to take care when launching and motor out at Mill Bay.  There is only one ramp deep enough for larger boats, the one furthest up lake, and I would suggest that you keep you motor tilted up until you get a ways out. 

Gary Fifer with Brian Whitney and Donn Vey of Manson with a 4 guy limit of Roses rainbows.

     What continues hot is trolling Lake Chelan for Lake Trout on The Bar early in the morning.  Kokanee are biting all over the lower end of Lake Chelan.  Also, continuing hot is trolling for planter rainbows on Roses Lake. 

    Troll the Bar early in the morning for nice quality fish.  Use Worden Lures U20 purple glow flatfish. 

    The Kokanee bite is going strong throughout the lower end of Lake Chelan.  Trolling those Mack's Lures mini Cha Cha Squidders and Kokanee Pro Wedding Rings rigged behind Mack's Lures Flash Lites caught plenty of 11 inch Kokanee.  Bait those presentations with Pautzke's Fire Corn in Natural and Orange.  Fishing just above or at the bottoms of the schools you see on your sonar to get you into the bigger more aggressive of those delicious dwarfed landlocked sockeye. 

    Roses Lake is still fishing great for planter rainbows with some nice 16 to 18 inch triploids thrown in for added excitement.  Trolling Mack's Lures mini Cha Cha Squidders in rainbow worked terrific. 

    Your fishing tip of the week is to use the process of elimination to catch fish.  On a recent trip to Roses Lake we trolled 5 different presentations for a complete lap around the lake.  It took about an hour.  We had 4 trout.  Three of those fish and 4 more bites came on one rig in a 300 yard long section of the troll.  We loaded up all 5 rigs with those Cha Cha Squidders and focused our efforts on that one portion of the troll.  We had limited all 4 anglers in about an hour and a half.  Eliminate the unproductive water and the presentations that aren't working.  Increase your effectiveness. 

    The kid's tip of the week is to understand your kid or grandkid's stage of development and personality makeup to help them grow.  Sometimes that 4 year old just needs to turn that reel handle a few times for them to feel included, competent and important.  That 11 to 13 year old boy needs to finish the deal on a big fish to get to that stage of confidence and self-reliance that we want young men to have.  When to push and when to just let it go can be a challenging parental decision.  You don't want them to fail, but you have to risk it for them to succeed in an uncertain world and have real confidence.  Fishing imitates life... 

    Your safety tip of the week is to continue to be very cautious operating around the edges of Lake Chelan.  With lake level at 1083 this late in the year, any number of shallow water surprises can occur.