My son and I went to Baker saturday to try and get some sockeye. He was pretty excited because this was his first chance at salmon. I had just bought some downriggers for the first time and was anxious to try them out.
We got to the dam launch about 6:00am and decided to go from there. The lake was pretty low and I wasn't trusting the other launches. Besides, we both enjoy the trip across the lake.
We got to the white rock area and started setting up using a green 2/0 dodger and pink squid on one line and a chrome 2/0 dodger and pink smiley on the other. Both were tipped with cured sand shrimp. We ran mostly between white rock and noisy creek all day.
Not three minutes after the first line was set, we got a strike. Unfortunately just getting used to the new downrigger, we did not get it up fast enough and the fish wrapped the cable and cut the line. That's one way to learn a lesson.
About 15 minutes later the other pole hit and we pulled in a nice sockeye. The fishing was good for about the first 1 1/2 hours then slowed down some.
In the process of moving around I managed to break one of the poles in half.. Bummer.
My son Keith did manage to get his first salmon in the boat so he was real pumped about that.
The final tally for the day was: 2 sockeye boated, 3 lost, 1 dolly varden released unharmed and one pole broken. It was a great day for both of us and weatherwise you couldn't ask for much better.
