I managed to get out on the water just once last week. I tried fishing for kings at Chelan Falls and then made the run up to Wells Dam. The idea was to get some sockeye. I found the fishing tough below the dam.

I had high hopes for a good day of king fishing at Chelan Falls. My fishing buddy Brian Anantatmula got a dandy in my boat last Friday and I wanted to get one or two for my brother-in-law Tom. Conditions were great when we launched and, in fact, there were far fewer boats fishing here than the week before. King fishing opened on the Brewster Pool last Thursday and that drew a lot of boats up there. I trolled and trolled and refreshed baits, changed baits and even tried spinners for a while. All to no avail. Not a sniff. Judging by the action we were seeing on the other boats, it wasn’t exactly hot at Chelan Falls. There were fish being taken but not nearly at the rate as the week before.

So we pulled our gear and ran up to Wells Dam. Maybe we could get some sockeye. I had a couple of rods rigged and ready and I had a fresh jar of shrimp on board. We were ready to get some sockeye. When we arrived we found conditions almost frightening. They were dumping water through the spillways at the dam like crazy and there were huge rollers in the big eddy on the Douglas County side of the river. There was a fierce current, more than I had ever seen before. It was like being on the ocean. We got a couple of sockeye bites and lost one and one fish took 160 feet of line before breaking off my gear. Durn kings.

It is not unusual for a king to grab your shrimp that is intended for sockeye. It doesn’t happen as often below Wells as it does in the Brewster Pool. When this happens where there is a strong current, good luck. When it happens in the Brewster Pool, which is more like a lake, you actually have a good chance of landing kings on light tackle.

Although I had a tough time catching sockeye below Wells Dam last week and blame the heavy spill and wild current for my difficulty, I still have time to get some fish. As of last Saturday, the count over Rocky Reach was over 190,000 and only a fraction of that number have run up over Wells. The thermal barrier has yet to “set up” off the mouth of the Okanogan River but that could change very soon. We have a stretch of very hot weather ahead of us that could put it firmly in place and that means great fishing for both sockeye and summer run kings in the Pool.

I have been busy getting ready for trips to Banks Lake for walleye, Rufus Woods for walleye and triploids and possibly even Lake Roosevelt for rainbow. I also spent some time tying leaders for the anticipated sockeye fishery on Lake Wenatchee. The counts are very encouraging for a possible opener toward the end of the month. There are over 30,000 sockeye “between the dams” (Rock Island and Rocky Reach) and we need about 23,000 for a season.

Everyone is crossing their fingers for a season on the lake this year, hopefully at the end of the month or early August. When I fish Lake Wenatchee, I will probably use two downriggers and two lead balls rigged on sliders out the back. Depending on how deep the fish are I may just use the lead ball rigs. Typically the fish are very shallow in the early morning but last season we did best at 40 feet on the opening day. I will use the downriggers as they are the best way to accurately put my gear in front of the fish I see on the screen. Many times, though, the lead ball rigs fish just as well as the downriggers and you can get your baits out much faster with these set ups.

The leaders I tie for Lake Wenatchee are either 12 inches or 10 inches long. Some I tie with hoochies and others are plain hook rigs. We have found that a three-hook leader, with no hoochies, is very effective on Lake Wenatchee for sockeye. I tie these leaders with heavy monofilament or fluorocarbon. I am not using heavy leader material because the sockeye could break it or cut it with their teeth. The stiff 20- to 30-pound line helps give action to the hooks behind the dodger.

Keep your eyes on the fish counts over the dams for big numbers of sockeye to show up in Tumwater Canyon on their way to Lake Wenatchee soon. Not only is the fishing for sockeye usually terrific on the lake, it is one of the most scenic areas to fish in the state. The photo in this week’s column shows Glacier Peak in the distance while fishing on the lake.

I am really looking forward to my trips to the Coulee Dam area. I am taking Kevin Brown, who found and returned to me my favorite fly rod, and his Dad as a thank you. Kevin is interested in learning more about walleye fishing methods and I am happy to show him what I know about walleye fishing on Banks Lake. I hope I can put us on some fish. We will probably do some smallmouth bass fishing while we are at Banks too and I think they will really enjoy the scenery on the lake. I never get tired of the spectacular basalt cliffs that surround the big impoundment.

The fishing for big triploid rainbow trout and walleye was pretty good the last time I was on Rufus Woods. I hope they are cooperating on this next trip. I would really like to send them home with some fat triploids. They should be impressed with how great these fish are when smoked.

Since Lake Roosevelt is also right in the neighborhood, we may spend a couple of hours trolling for rainbow before they hit the road. They have about a six-hour drive ahead of them, but I sure would like to introduce them to the terrific rainbow fishing on Roosevelt. The quality of these trout is hard to beat and they are really fun to catch, too.