I have had a tremendously fun week of fishing. Lake Wenatchee opened to sockeye fishing on August 4th, and I have been hitting it almost daily. I have had my best success ever, and most other anglers are having the same kind of good luck this season.

I have the benefit of keeping my boat tied to the dock in front of Rollie home, so I just load the boat and go. There are only two public launches on Lake Wenatchee. The State Park at the bottom end of the lake is famous for long lines of eager anglers who arrive super early in the morning to get on the water. The wait is repeated as the sockeye fleet returns after fishing. The other known launch is at the very top end of the lake. It’s the Glacier View Campground. There is limited room on the beach here and not much room for boat trailers. There are others that launch the evening prior to fishing and anchor up and stay on their boat through the evening.

On the opening day the fish checkers reported that the sixty some boats they checked all had limits of sockeye. I have never heard of this kind of success. I took my friend James Lebow and Michael Erickson out the first day and we landed six sockeye by six o’clock—less than an hour. We left the dock, and I pointed the boat south, in the direction of West Point. I was surprised at how few boats were fishing in the area. We got the gear out on the way down, and before we reached the point we started getting fish. I turned the boat around and headed back up lake. We had our fish way before we got near the spot where we left. 

The following day was special family day. On board with me was my brother Lane, his daughter Sophie, and my niece Ellie Coen. It took us a little longer to limit the boat, but we had our eight fish by 7 o’clock. Sophie did an excellent job of netting both my fish. I have been fishing a line from the Rollie’s dock down to West Point and back and am catching fish off my riggers set at 70 feet. I have a rod out with an eight-ounce lead ball that is also catching fish at 100 feet. I am using size 0 prism dodgers with two or three red hooks on a leader that is only ten inches long. My boat speed is 1.5 mph. There are fish being taken all over the lake. Check out their photo in this week’s column.The weather had been great both days I fished Lake Wenatchee. Clear skies and not much wind at all. The forecast for Friday looked really bad for wind, though, and I cancelled the trip I had planned. I got a call from Rollie wondering where I was. Turned out the wind wasn’t bad at all, and he limited his boat in less than a half hour. 

I rescheduled my folks for Saturday, since the wind was going to blow, but I wasn’t going to cancel again and find out it wasn’t that bad. Well, it was. It was blowing hard. I had my buddy Brian Anantatmula and his son Josh on the boat and another longtime friend, Dan Davies. These guys were very experienced and that paid off big time. My bow mount failed early on, and I was struggling to keep the boat straight and control our boat speed. At one point I was running the big motor with the kicker in reverse to slow us down. Thanks to a crack crew we got eight sockeye in the boat by 8 o’clock.

Sunday turned out to be almost as bad as Saturday wind wise. I had two women and two youngsters on the boat and once again ran into issues with my bow mount. I tried running up lake first and that didn’t pay off. I only got a bite or two and I only saw one or two nets out. I pushed back down the lake toward West Point, and we did get two fish in this area. By then my passengers were cold and wanted to take a break, so we just headed for the dock. 

I have a couple more trips planned for Lake Wenatchee, and I also want to get out and try some walleye fishing in between. I just talked to a friend in Moses Lake, and the skies are clear. It’s going to be hot, but if you get on the water early and get off early we should be fine.

I am still working on a short video about how to fish for sturgeon on Lake Roosevelt that I did with Kevin Witte from B&K Fishing Adventures I did in July. I will alert everyone when I have it done and posted, which should be very soon. I wanted to remind folks that fishing for white sturgeon continues to be open on Lake Roosevelt, and a new section will open on September 1st.
Sturgeon is open on Roosevelt, from Grand Coulee Dam to China Bend Boat Ramp (including the Spokane River from Highway 25 Bridge upstream to 400’ below Little Falls Dam, Colville River upstream to Meyers Falls Dam and the Kettle River upstream to Barstow Bridge): Remains open seven days per week through Sept. 30, 2021. Lake Roosevelt, from China Bend Boat Ramp upstream to the Canadian Border: Open seven days per week from Sept. 1-30, 2021. 

Daily Limit is 1 sturgeon. Annual Limit 2 sturgeon. It is legal to retain sturgeon between 50 inches and 63 inches fork length. Fork length is measured from the tip of the snout to middle of the fork in the caudal fin (tail). All harvested sturgeon must be recorded on a Catch Record Card (Catch Code 549). Any sturgeon that cannot legally be retained must be released immediately. Two-pole fishing is allowed. Closed to night fishing. Anglers may continue to catch and release after obtaining a daily limit but must cease fishing after the annual limit has been taken. All other statewide rules for white sturgeon must be observed.

I will keep you posted on the sockeye fishing and walleye if I get out this week.