Lake Chelan Smallmouth

[ttb31183]

Last weekend I fished Lake Chelan in central Washingto State. It was for the final qualifier for the TBF and it was an awesome experience. The lake is unlike any other I have fished: very deep, huge smallmouth and ultra clear water. I grew up fishing Lake Mead and Chelan is as clear, or more even more clear than Mead. It was fun seeing schools of big smallmouth swimming in 20,30 and 40 feet of water. Catching them was another story as they often just cruised along not even paying attention to your baits. The lake is right in Washington wine country and is a huge tourist lake so there were hundreds of jetskis, paddle boards, wakeboard boats and more cruising around at all times.



The forage is trout, suckers, perch and pikeminnow and my theory is that the smallmouth just cruise the lake feeding on them. They are here one day and gone the other from my limited experience. I was able to catch several 3lb or better fish in practice but all from different areas.



I struggled in the tournament, weighing a limit for 10.99lbs on the first day and just three fish for 5.25lbs on day two. It was enough to put me in 12th place for the event and I made the Washington State Team for TBF after finishing 7th in points. I caught all of my fish drop-shotting a Roboworm and also using a weighted wacky rig, hula grub and a new sculpin bait I have been experimenting with. It's a walleye bait but has been catching some big smallies lately.

Here is a video I did of my pre-fish day where I was sight fishing using a wacky-rigged senko.



The winning weight for two days was just under 30lbs and there were several bags of 15-16lbs weighed in during the event on all smallmouth. Not bad considering it was middle of tourist season and the lake was packed.

Standard Nav Charts

Navionics SonarCharts