A family wedding brought my daughter Whitney to the east side of the mountains last Saturday and that gave us the opportunity to go fishing the next day. I knew that she would want to be back in Seattle fairly early, so I suggested that we go to Lake Chelan. She had been to Chelan with me a couple of weeks ago, and she brought four friends along, too. We had a terrific day, so it wasn’t hard to get her to go back.

I checked the weather, and although it wasn’t going to be hot and sunny, at least the wind wasn’t going to blow too hard. We launched at Mill Bay, where I saw one of the guides who had a nice bunch of kokanee he had caught for his clients. We ran down to the area above Lakeside Park, where several boats were trolling, and put the gear out. As we passed another boat we exchanged greetings. The two anglers in the boat told me that they had launched at 4:30 that morning. They said if they had landed the fish they had lost they would have been done a lot earlier. They confirmed what I had been hearing about the kokanee fishing on Lake Chelan. That is, that you had better be on the water early. That’s when the best bite of the day occurs. You can catch fish after that, but the action is much slower.

I never did mark a big school of kokanee, but we were getting a fish here and there and really enjoying our time together, in spite of the cloudy, cool weather. Before she hit the road for Seattle she told me to plan a trip to Banks Lake soon. She’s pumped! This week’s photo is of Whitney and me on Lake Chelan.

I have reported that there is a new license fee structure and some new fees for access to Coville Tribal Reservation lands. If you check out some recent posts on my Fishing Magician.com Facebook Page you will find a chart showing the fees and also a link to open the page to get your licenses and permits online. The link to open the Colville Fish and Wildlife website to the page where you can find the regulations and the link for online purchases is www.cct-fnw.com/regulations-permits.

Whenever there is a new program like this launched there are some questions and issues that needed be addressed. I talked to Cody Desautel, Natural Resource Division Director, about some of these questions. The most important one is that, just like Washington State’s Discover Pass, you just need one access permit for your party. For example, if you are going to fish at the middle net pens, make sure the driver of the vehicle has the access permit. Your group is covered, as long as they each have the state or tribal license. 
When I purchased my access permit and tribal license online I didn’t get anything to display in my vehicle, like the Discovery Pass. Cody suggested that you copy and print your license, showing the purchase of the access permit and put that in your vehicle. Be sure to put your license plate number on the copy. That will work for now. You can also take a photo of your license, showing your purchase of the access pass, tribal license etc. with your smartphone. 
Desautel explained that the revenues from the new fees will help fund the on-going demands of maintenance required of parks that are currently open to non-tribal members, and planned improvements and expansion. He mentioned that stocking Twin Lakes, a very popular fishing destination for non-tribal members is paid for by the Colville Tribe. 

I hadn’t been out fishing for over a week. There are so many good choices right now that I decided to let my brother-in-law Tom Verschuren choose where we would go next. I came up with a clever way to help out. I put three destination names on slips of paper and then let him draw one. I had Banks Lake, Moses Lake and Lake Chelan on the slips, and he chose Lake Chelan. That was fine with me. I had a great time there catching kokanee not long ago with my daughter and her friends from Seattle. 

We were all set to go after he got done with an early physical therapy session in Wenatchee—until I realized that I had an appointment in Wenatchee on Wednesday, too. We were going to be short on time, so, I made an executive decision and said that we would go to Evergreen Reservoir. We have fished Evergreen in the past and have had some good times catching smallmouth bass, which Tom loves to do. I have also had one of my best days catching largemouth at Evergreen with my wife Eileen. 

I always launch at the eastern end of the lake. This would put us near to the areas that we have fished in the past. As I drove down the highway between Quincy and George I was watching for the sign for Public Fishing. There used to be a blue house at the turn, but it was gone, so you have to really look closely to see the sign. I didn’t see it, so turned around and went back. Still didn’t see it and turned off the highway onto a side road and wound up going all the way back to the road into the Quincy Wildlife Area.

As we entered the Wildlife Area we saw a sign that said that the gate on the road to the boat ramp we were looking for was locked. This was due to continued vandalism. Great, I had wasted way too much time of our short day looking for an access road that was closed!

I wish I could tell you that the good fishing saved the day, but that’s not the case. It was awful. There was only one other boat on the whole reservoir, and that should have given us a clue. I will give Evergreen another try when I can get there early. As it was, the temperature last Wednesday hit close to 100 degrees. The only good thing was that I brought my portable mister to keep us cool. That only made it easier to prolong the misery!

I have got to get back to Chelan. I need a good day of kokanee fishing, and now’s the time to do it.