The WDFW has officially announced that sockeye fishing will close on Lake Wenatchee. Although most anglers have stopped fishing up here, I believe the department wanted to give anglers the opportunity to fish over Labor Day Weekend.

Most of the fish have moved toward their spawning grounds on the White River and sockeye condition has declined rapidly as we approached the end of August. Anglers can still fish for sockeye through Monday, Sept. 5.

This was a great year for sockeye anglers on Lake Wenatchee. I know of one person who put over 100 fish in his boat, and others that went over 80 fish for the season, and they quit a couple of weeks ago. Sockeye fishing on the main stem Columbia wasn’t as good this year as the opener was delayed to allow fish to escape up the Okanogan River.

The more fish we can move up to Canada the better, as the new hatchery near Penticton B.C. can release up to five million sockeye smolts each year.

Imagine what that would go for the sockeye fishing on the Columbia in the years to come. Also, popular Grimes Lake, near Jameson Lake, is now closed until next summer.