This channel is created to share not only great fishing in the Pacific Northwest, but also the great food that can be created with these natural resources.
Matt and I are brother-in-laws that have been fishing, hunting, camping, etc. together for over 25 years. Although we have years of experience, not all have been good to us. We are now in a season of life to be able to do more. We both are hardworking individuals in the worlds of education and veterinary medicine. When we get opportunities to get outdoors we go all out. We want our viewers to not only learn our ways on how to catch these PNW fish, but also to try new recipes and techniques to enjoy them.
What viewers can expect from us is honest reviews, bloopers shown, garden how-to’s, and fun spirited catch and cook shows.
If you’d like to get ahold of us our email is boat2belly@gmail.com
Currently working on Facebook and Instagram.
Welcome aboard and we hope you enjoy the content the Matt’s share!
Nice video. Such a great location to fish. What size weights were you using, how much line on the counter and what depth do you think you were at? Thanks much.
The fish this year were 50-60’ down and as the morning went in we had to drop our gear even deeper. We did best using 6oz and 8oz cannonballs between 60-100’ behind the boat. Just had to tinker with it until we had consistent hits. I’m years past we use lighter cannonballs as the fish were a lot closer to the surface in the mornings. We didn’t have any success up top this year.
Let me know if you every need a camera man😜I like using a treble for the sockeye but I go small, #6 gamo's with a pretty long setback from the top hook. My buddy prefers much larger single hooks. I think the rod/line/drag plays a big role too. Fast action rod with braid and big hooks helps sink them deep fast. Slow action rod or mono and you might want to downsize to make sure they get the barb in them. Lastly, those sockeye are wierd up there. Some days they will slam gear and hook themselves while other days they barely grab the bait.
Dude, sorry to hear but at the same time happy for Matt getting his boat. I've enjoyed your videos and useful information. Maybe develop a new format with both of you guys taking the wives and interweave adventures and edit them into a new endeavor. Maybe call it "He and She vs She and He!" Just a thought! I've been wanting to go to the Brewster pool for the Sockeye before the closing. Problem I have is I'm retired and it's difficult to find someone to tag along on the boat with me that knows what they're doing. I know it can get a bit crowded up there and having a novice onboard is a bit scary. This is especially worrisome during launching as I know the dock can be backed up and when it's your turn you gotta be quick. Also, I understand that parking can be an issue if the launch area is full. Any insight on the parking problem? Good luck and look forward to more in the future from both of you guys.
What we have found to be essential to finding good parking and not wait long it to be willing to get there early to launch. 3am on weekdays and 2:45ish on weekends. We were in and out within 15-20 minutes every day we launched. We would then go out into the river (or spot lock with bow mounts) and start to setup everything. That has worked very well for us and we don’t have to fight the crowds. If you miss those times by 15-20 minutes you will be waiting. Good luck to you and slay the sockeye. Troll slow.
I like to use Velocity Ninja’s and Velocity Samurai’s as they have great feel and backbone to handle these fish. Mo prefers the Lamiglas Kokanee glass rods. Both work very well for us.
These summer run fish are great table fare. The sockeyes are the best eating salmon and the chinook are very good as well. The flesh isn’t as firm due to some fat loss due to the long travel but they are still great to eat fresh. We try not to freeze the chinook. Sockeyes hold up well when frozen.
We fish the top 15-30’ of water. The back rods have 1-1.5oz cannonballs at 30-40’ back. Front rods have 2-3oz at 15-25’ back. Good luck if you go! It was beautiful there today.
We’ve used Mack’s in-line trolls, Kokabow in-line trolls, bigger Ford fender Lake trolls. We have just done better with the beer can trolls with 2 blades. But they all will work.
I personally don’t like the heavy gang trolls but they do work. They make noise and flash which makes the kokanee check your setup out. That’s all you need for Rimrock. That being said, the simple Arrowflash dodger to a wedding ring worked well too and is much lighter.
They were tasty! If they don’t have any they’ll make them fresh for you. We got them at the Entiat Shell station on Alternate US97 (west side of Columbia river). Enjoy Chelan! A favorite destination of ours.
We are going to try and find out soon. They love the flat area by Chelan and the Mack bar between there and Manson early in mornings. See them much deeper later in the day.
Air. Due to the depth we were fishing these Mack’s can bloat up due to the pressure changes in their swim bladder. We try to go with a slower retrieve but it doesn’t always work out. If they don’t release their air bubbles on the way up they will die. That’s why we kept these for dinner.
Sorry went in vacation and just now saw this. We will be doing a video solely on Mack’s in the next couple months. We used a 2oz jig head with a large soft plastic crawfish on mine and Mo had a large 5” squid soft plastic. Really it doesn’t matter too much. They like the thump of lead on the bottom coupled with the smell of bait fish.
I’ve been thinking of getting a couple and trying them for chinook on the Columbia. In place of super baits. Little gel scent. Should work… Can you only buy them on their website?
We’ve thought they’d slay cohos as well. Yes only in their website. They have the 2.44” now on the website as of today. They have the larger versions for salmon as well.
@@boattothebelly I’m always nervous to switch from what works to try something new. But they have a good action. Good colors. I think I’ll try one for fall chinook. Thanks!
@@kcp7042 That’s why we like to have more people on the boat. We can play around and see what works. It’s nice to be different amongst the swan off normal gear in front of these fish. Haven’t tried it yet. But this year we will and give a report on them.
One point of clarification: The OG1 has an erratic action that trout, kokanee, and similar freshwater fish respond to. The OG2, our salmon lure, has a more stable, side-to-side, action. (We've tested the OG2 for trout; but, the OG1 consistently out-fishes it. And, we've tested the OG1 for salmon; but, the OG2 consistently out-fishes it.)
Hey guys, just retired last August and I'm back in the water with my new Alumaweld Stryker. I really like that you guys hit the areas that I'm really interested in. Spent a lot of time chasing salmon and steelhead on the westside but couldn't stand the rat race over there and came back home to the eastside of the state in 1989. Really enjoy your enthusiasm and humor when your doing what you obviously love! Fish on brothers and I'll keep an eye out for you in my travels.
Thanks for the kind words! We do love to fish! Hopefully this year will give us a lot more opportunities to have fun and spend time with great people. Hope to meet you out there some day! Adios Adipose!
@@boattothebelly hey, do you guys shorten the leader on the OG lures at all when fishing for kokanee or do you use them right out of the package with the pre tied leader it comes rigged with?
@@clownmatrix3003 If they’re brand new we use straight from box. Typically 31”-32”. We like slightly bigger hooks when fishing places like Lake Roosevelt so we’ve tied them between 24-28” and been successful. If we chose a good “standard” length, we’d choose 28-30”. Hope that helps
Thanks for sharing. Wish you were guides. Could you recommend someone. Tried trout lake last year, not knowing how to fsh it. Too much Algae. I seem to miss the timing of Lake Wenatche season. I will be back in 2023.sept 3rd . Could use some advice to local guides. Thanks for your videos. Well done! Mike Chiurato
Sometimes we wish we were guides too but our real jobs just don’t allow us to do that yet. I’ve heard great things about Moons guide service and I’m sure if you called Upper columbia guide services, Shane Magnuson. He could probably turn you on to some more.
I agree they can bend and aren’t the same quality but when I can make over 30 small boards for the price of 2 it depends on who wants to save the money.
I’m heading to lake Wenatchee to try and catch sockeye on the 27th any tips you could give me to put my family on the fish what bait did you use just red hook? Nice catches by the way!
It is a no bait or scent, barbless hook fishery. You can use up to 3 single barbless hooks. I generally use 10-12” leaders from an O or OO dodger. I put a 5-6mm red bead between each hook. The key is depth and speed. I’d start at 60 feet deep and go down from there.
Watched both your Brewster and Lake Wenatchee videos. Great videos!! Honest question, is the extra drive time from Yakima, and the chaos (both at the ramp and on the water) worth the almost guaranteed limits at Brewster? Or is the more laid back lake Wenatchee a better choice?
The boat launch Friday-Sun at lake Wenatchee can be a bear. During the week easy peazy. Gates open at 4:00am and it’s slow going. Pick your poison. 2 hrs to lake Wenatchee from Yakima, 3 hrs. to Brewster. Both are catching fish still right now. If I had to choose I’d go Brewster just for the chance of kings as well.
@@boattothebelly my buddy and I went to Brewster a couple of weeks ago. Thought we were getting to the launch early Saturday morning. One hour later we had launched the boat!
@@kcp7042 Saturday morning launches put you at the line around 3:00am or earlier. You’d still have to wait. Matt and I just chill in the boat once launched. Some take a nap 😂 When the state park opens at Lake Wenatchee at 4:00am, it seems to be the same long line when fishing is good. All part of the sockeye dance we all hate but it’s worth it.
I doubt they will close the fishery this year. There’s just so many fish that are staged in front of the Okanogan that if they have a good sustain thunderstorm or heavy rain that cools off the Okanogan river, all the sockeye will go. I don’t see that happening anytime soon with the weather supposed to happen but if it does those fish will be gone forever.
I’ve had them at the 1 year mark and they still taste great and hold a firm flesh. I don’t like to go much longer with them. Usually within 6 months they’re all gone unless I miss a package 😂
so what were you doing on the set up? down and distance? lure? tuna? Like 10oz at 38 on line counter with 24 inch bumper and 36 inch leader to a hot tamale superbait filled with Tuna sauced with Garlic and shrimp?
That rod had a Brads mini cut plug with tuna with sandshrimp and garlic scent from NW Bait and scent. Matt had two hits on a superbait and 1 hit on spin fish. All with same tuna. Quite honestly can’t remember the rest except we were using 12, 10 and 8oz cannonballs. As we get better at it we will remember depths and lengths. We were close to the bottom that’s all I remember.
@@boattothebelly you better get a fishing notebook and start tracking all of that. water temp, speed, rod, lure, leader length, bumper length, type of flasher all can make a difference on any given day. The Addicted fishing guys have some great videos on Chelan falls when they go over set ups pretty good. Good luck and have fun. Thank you for all the videos
We did some math on all the boards we were able to make with the 4 foam sheets. Using the cheapest boards available here locally, we saved about $250-$300 by making them. All for $10.
