My brother Rick had a serious itch to catch a Chinook salmon on Lake Chelan. He and I got a chance to scratch that itch on Tuesday. Rick had organized all the gear we needed, and we put four rods out after launching at Mill Bay and pointing the boat down lake. The rods were spaced at different depth from roughly 200 to 120 feet deep. The hooks were behind dodgers and dressed up with either his special salmon flies that he ties specifically for Lake Chelan or plug cut herring. We ran down to about as far as the Blue Roofs and then turned back up lake, trolling at about 1.7 mph. We hadn’t made it very far when the bell on a rod that was at the 140-foot depth jangled, and the line popped free of the rigger. We both saw the line coming up and knew it was a king. I cleared the other rods and got the net. Soon we had a bright lake Chelan Chinook next to the boat and I netted it. We both celebrated and shot some photos of the 6-pound fish. The fish is on display at Hooked on Toys in Wenatchee.
This Lake Chelan king my brother landed on Tuesday was the highlight of our trip.