I used to have a cabin up near there and fished it quite a bit back in the late '80's and into the '90's...at times it was off the hook, and though most of the fish were the size and color the ones Parker is holding in the last post, there was the occasional chromer, and some of the fish got pretty big...really big for hatchery springers.

Unlike most everywhere else, the landowners on the river own the river bottom out to the thread of the river, so while you can row or drift away to your heart's content, you're trespassing if you drop anchor in a lot of places, or get out of the boat and step on the bottom.

The locals tend to be not so friendly, from what I remember...I think they like feeling that in addition to the river bottom they own the water and the fish, too.

Either launch in the wee hours, or do an afternoon drift...it won't matter, there will be people in all the good holes if there are any fish around, you won't be able to avoid it.

There's one decent bank fishing zone at the very north end of the hatchery complex property...the river makes a 90 degree bend to the left and one of the best holes on the river is right there...it's shoulder to shoulder with bankies, and the boaters dredge up the head of it.

There used to be a great hole right at the bottom of the river as it entered the Wenatchee, but like Parker said, unetchical poaching MF'rs would toss their chit way out into the closed Wenatchee River, so the Dept./NMFS just moved the "closed" boundary about 600 feet upstream to stop them from poaching up the ESA listed Wenatchee springers.

Get caught fishing there and you will be violating federal law, and you'll get more than a slap on the wrist.

They used to open the Wenatchee right around the mouth of the Icicle, too, and that provided the best fishing area by far...but it's not likely to ever open again, so you're stuck with the Icicle.

Even if the water was running clear I always did best with big lures...driftfishing with rags and big globs of eggs, wrapped K-15's flatlined, bait divers with big spin-n-glo's and big globs of bait, or herring. The plunkers up by the hatchery oftentimes plunk with whole herring.

Fish on...

Todd