Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal)

Freshwater – Baker Lake

Baker lake was slow on Sunday. Lots of boats. We got a few at 40 feet and lost two more. Awesome day on the water.

Report submitted by Dane and Gabe of Team Rod-Dog Arches.

Freshwater – Lake Chelan

The Vandenbrink Family and friends from Bellevue, Ephrata, and the Spokane Valley, WA with their mornings catch of Mackinaw

What continues hot is trolling for Lake Trout on Chelan early in the morning on the Bar with the best chance of the year for big fish.   Also continuing hot is trolling the face of Manson Bay for numbers of Lake Chelan Lakers.

On the Bar, look for depths from 120 to 170 feet deep.

Evenings are best in Manson Bay in depths of 120 feet near Wapato Point and up to 270 feet deep in the center of the bay.  As always, fish within 3 to 5 feet of the bottom and keep your speed around 1.2 mph.  The Mack’s Lure Bead and Blade combo our guide, Jeff Witkowski has developed has been very productive.  He uses a bead combo to give the rig about a 4” long profile.  Similar in profile, the Needlefish squid rig by Silver Horde / Goldstar has also worked.  Bait these rigs with a chunk of Northern Pikeminnow.  The T4 Purple Glow Flatfish seems to be the “go to” lure for bigger fish on the Bar.

Brad Southam of Bothell, WA with son Bryson (14) and daughter Kassy (11).

Your fishing tip of the week is to rethink how you fight fish on Lake Chelan.  Remember, the only way these fish will get away is if they tear or shake the hooks out of themselves.   They are trapped in open water with no structure to get into and they are not a fast swimming / hard fighting fish.  The trick is to do everything in moderation.  The rod tip should be at a moderate rod angle.  Don’t point it at the fish, but don’t raise it to a high angle to increase the leverage the fish gets when it twists and turns or shakes it’s head.  The retrieval speed should be moderate.  Not glacially slow, but not fast.  When the fish isn’t doing anything, go a bit faster to keep moderate tension.  When the fish is twisting or shaking, slow down to reduce the leverage the fish has.  Keep your drag moderately light.  A good average is netting 3 of every 4 hooked fish.  If you are getting less than half, review what you are doing.

The kid’s tip of the week is to suck it up and let the kid make mistakes.  Guide them and instruct them, but you doing it / explaining it over and over again without them getting their hands dirty will not teach the skill or hook them on the experience.  They have to try and make mistakes to become that fishing  partner you want.  While you’re at it, be gentle with the criticism…

Your safety tip of the week is to really keep your head on a swivel now that we are in the heart of our busy summer season.  There are lots of inexperienced boaters out there traveling at various rates of speed.  Remember to get your head around and look before altering your course.  Also, with hot weather coming, I can’t say enough about keeping hydrated!

For more info call Anton & Sandra Jones of Darrell & Dad’s Family Guide Service;darrellanddads.com; antonj@aol.com or call (509)687-0709 or toll free at (866)360-1523.

Freshwater – Potholes Reservoir

This past Saturday was the conclusion of the Big Bass series of four events to qualify to fish the finals. In the qualifying events each hour had a winner for a cash prize. Points accumulated then permitted 38 anglers to fish this one day event. Cash prizes were paid out with the 6th place taking home $500 for a 5.07-pound largemouth. The winning team of Jake Boomer and Tim Carvo earned the Big Bass Champions with a 7.15-pound largemouth  they had caught the week before. The winning cash prize was $6375 and bonuses brought them up to $7000. The primary sponsor of this event was Limit Out Marine with the owner Russ Baker as master of the ceremony. Overall it was a very good event with no fish dying in any of their events. This event was held at the recently remodeled Mardon Resort.

The lake is dropping but much slower then normal with cooler temperatures. Walleye and perch fishing is slow but will be getting better as the lake drops. I ran into a longtime and retired guide, Skip Davis, and as always he had lots of stories to tell. Most recently he was on Corral Lake before 5am and working down the lake he looked up on one of the rock walls to see a cougar. A first time in all his years to see one, so it is not a common sight.

Report submitted by Tom Pollack.

Vancouver

no report this week

Oak Bay

Rich Allen, son Tom, Greg Wild and son Jack caught halibut with weights of 54, 52, 51 and 43 lbs in southwest Haro Strait.

Salmon fishing was SLOW this past week. There are some fish in the area, just not too many of them and they were scattered. Anglers fishing with bait have been using anchovies or tiny strip in Glow teaser heads.  Good trolling lures have been Coho Killers, Bon Chovi or Outfitters Skinny G spoons and APT Needlefish spoons. Drift anglers have been using Needlefish Darts or Deep Stingers.

Halibut fishing was GOOD this past week. The halibut being brought in were ranging from 20- 60 lbs. Rich Allen, son Tom, Greg Wild and son Jack caught halibut with weights of 54, 52, 51 and 43 lbs in southwest Haro Strait. They were using salmon and greenling heads to fend off the dogfish and fishing  in 275 feet of water. Anglers that were fishing were using extra large herring, salmon bellies and/or octopus for bait. Also working well was the 9” Jumbo Squid in Green Glow. Also working well, and discouraging to dogfish, was the 9” Jumbo Squid in Green Glow.

Submitted by Tom Vaida, Island Outfitters, 3319 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC (250) 475-4969 info@fishingvictoria.com; www.fishingvictoria.com