Pete Lake in Chelan County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Chelan County entry here is Pete Lake, in Washington. The bank is 4,931 feet above sea level. This is a pocket water of some 3 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. Our Chelan County list holds plenty of bigger water. Gold Bar at 26 miles is the nearest place to stop. After that come Leavenworth at 27 miles and Sultan at 31 miles. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Pete Lake

  We hold no depth figure for this one. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Open biodiversity records for Chelan County list cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon and largemouth bass. At least one recorded species is protected in parts of its range; read the local rules before targeting anything. Pete Lake responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  August is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 57°F, while December sits near 23°F. Fishing here follows the temperature more than the calendar. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near mid April. Break-up sits around mid April on average, with the water closing again about late November. The strongest runs come at either end of the open season. Plan any trip to Pete Lake around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Our records carry no access rule either way. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Little Pete Lake, 0.2 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Ask locally about Pete Lake if anything is unclear.