Last week one of my favorite new fisheries opened up on the 20th: Lake Wenatchee Sockeye fishing. This is such a fun place to fish as I got to experience it for the first time last year. I could not wait to get the boat ready and be out on the water for the weekend. This trip was also a very special one as I got the opportunity to take my girlfriend, her mom and her nephew. All of which had not caught a salmon before, so this trip was going to be a special one.
We left the house at around 3:30am to make it to the launch before the crowds pilled in. To my surprise it was not too crowded when we arrived and we were able to get launched and ready to go get into the fish. I decided to stick to where I was successful last year up by the Glacier Peak area and deployed the gear. With the recent installation of a third downrigger off the stern, I started off staggering my depths 10 ft apart with the rear rigger at 35ft. It didn't take long and Kyler was the first into a fish. And be at that, his first salmon ever. The new Elite series Velocity rods got their work out today!
Shortly after the first fish, Vanessa was up! Her new rod slammed to the water releasing off the clip and peeling some line. She fought the fish like a pro and soon after she had her first salmon in the boat. I could not have been more proud and excited for her. What a great way to break in the new pink velocity rod!
Lois was next up as the sun finally broke the mountain tops. Gold was the hot dodger color as this was the 2nd fish in short order for the pink rod.
The bite began to slow with the increase in boat traffic and we began moving around to find some more active biters. I started chasing schools with the 3rd rigger off the back and was rewarded with a 30ft take down. A nice scrappy hen with some good looking eggs. Such a fun fight on the Velocity 902L rods.
As we approached 11am, the heat was starting to take affect. The bite slowed way down and the boating pressure was maxing out. We decided to call it and take a joy ride to cool off. I love fishing this lake so much, and the location could not be any better. With 4 nice fish in the box to take home, I could not be bummed at all for a trip like that. I was blessed to be able to bring out everyone and find a few fish as well.
Out hot gear for the day by far was the Gold Barrett Dodger with a 3 red hook rig and a small smile blade. This accounted for 3 of the 5 fish we landed. (One dolly varden was released). The new Velocity Rods pictured below performed wonderfully and would highly recommend them. I was so happy we found some fish to play. I cannot wait to get back and take what I learned and bring home a limit.
God Bless,
-Rick
