Another trip up to Baker Lake, running solo I decided to hit the road at 2:30 to try to be gear down by 4:00. In spite of having to thread my way through a 2 mile long raft of floating debris, logs, sticks and stuff I was at my chosen location with the gear down by around 4:00.

I was running both rigs off the downriggers with standard sockeye gear. The hooks were tipped with cured shrimp. With the raft of flotsam the fishing was a little difficult because the holding area and floating debris seemed to coincide. I had to be continually steering around the larger logs while fending off the smaller stuff from the gear. I know, I could have moved, but I had a good concentration of fish on the meter and it was the same area we were metering fish on the 5th. Also I didn’t move because between 4:00 and about 4:45 I had the lake to myself and had three fish on. This is where it gets interesting. Fighting a jumping fish in a raft of floating timber can be a challenge. First to get the fish to bite I had to be trolling between .6 and .8 mph. Second I tried running both, but the single red/smiley blade was the only rig that would get bit. I think that the double hook set-up was trailing a “don’t bite me” banner because running exactly the same gear at the same depth only the single hook would get bit. Third, you had to fight a lightly hooked fish around various floating sticks, logs and waterlogged branches, some of which were floating just under the surface. These early season fish are proving to be a bit of a challenge and as it turned out nothing but leftover cured shrimp went home in my Katchkooler.

So what have I learned? There seems to be a pattern developing in the early AM holding area for these fish. For now I’ll just say it’s in the general area of Noisy Creek. Fish early, the bite shut off as it started to get light out. Fish slow, based on my experience yesterday .6-.8 mph was the ticket. I think that using the motor to help set the hook may have been a good idea but with the floating minefield it would have been almost impossible. I could have increased the clip tension but didn’t think of that until I got home and was reflecting on my trip. It seems that the early season fish prefer the single red hook set-up but that gets my creative, fish bonking juices going and I’ll have a couple new sockeye flies on the boat for the next trip. The 50/50 “0” dodger is definitely the ticket, so far the early season fish are just ignoring the others. Finally, chase meter marks, every fish hooked was hooked off a school of fish after seeing it on the FF.

As the bite shut down I moved out of the debris field but fished the same general area with no luck. I did C&R a couple more kokanee but that was it until I made a move over to the north side of the east arm of the lake. While fishing for sockeye between Swift Creek and Chadwick Creek I hooked and released 8 nice dollies up to an estimated 3 pounds or so. Each time I hooked one it never left the water while I released it and I would change depths or otherwise change my fishing tactics to try not to target the dollies. The whole area seemed to be plugged with dollies so I moved across the lake and continued to target the sockeye with no success.

It was a spectacularly beautiful day on the lake and fish or no fish I was blessed to be able to spend the day on the lake.

Toni

7/8/2012 9:53:00 AM

Always a nice report!

MotoBoat

7/8/2012 10:27:00 AM

Very incite full, thanks for sharing. "Fighting a air born adversary, in a minefield of floating debris". That pretty much sets the scene for a well fought war! The adversary, hunkering under the shaded blanket of line cutting, wood debris cover. WOW!!

Was your attack depth, the same as the last few trips? Using power pro 20lb or mono? And finally, Once the troops arrived (other fisher's), did you see much fish catching action? Is there a website or online source, to view the Baker Lake fish checker daily tabulations?

Snoop

7/8/2012 5:55:00 PM

As far as number of fish in the lake. If you go to the WDFW website, click on the fishing tab, scroll down and click on Fish reports, Stocking Reports, and Fish Counts, Scroll down and click on Baker River Sockeye Counts. As of July 6, 1,302 fish trapped, 330 of those have been moved to the lake.

Thefabman

7/8/2012 7:32:00 PM

Well we tried Baker on the 6th with no avail also. Same area as Rseas and came up on all that floating debri in the dark also, luckily catching it in time.

HBomb

7/8/2012 8:13:00 PM

Nice report, rseas. Is the debris getting pushed or is it stationary? HBomb

rseas

7/8/2012 9:07:00 PM

The lake level is very high so much of the debris will be trapped on the shoreline as the lake level receeds. The current debris raft moves around depending on the wind direction and speed.

rseas

7/9/2012 6:03:00 AM

MotoBoat; there wasn't a specific depth that the fish hit at. I was trolling circles around a pocket in the underwater contour where the shallow side was around 60' and the deep side was 110'-120'. When I would see a few schooled up fish on the meter I would lower the riggers to 5'-10' above their depth and wait. In my experience the sockeye will follow your gear out of a meter mark before they attack. Speaking about attacking and consistent with last years fishery single meter marks don't bite. In my experience it is only the schools or multiple meter marks that come out to play.

Regarding the line, both. I use Power Pro with a 20# mono or fluorocarbon top shot. When fishing for Baker Lake sockeye (and any other fishery) I make the top shot the same general length as my clip to dodger distance. That way I don't have to count pulls when I am setting out the gear. I just run the gear out to just above the braid to mono connection and attach the clip to the braid and I am ready to go.

The Baker River/Lake fish count can be viewed at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/sockeye/baker_river.html . The count is running a few days behind so the next update should be interesting. The Lake Washington sockeye counts and information can be viewed at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/counts/sockeye/index.html

Acefishon

7/9/2012 10:31:00 AM

well you all like this just got call the idains are selling right at baker river out of truck fresh cought sockeye now that throwing it in our face somthing really needs be done.I have way in mind but it won't make some of people mainly infain lovers happy,but this practice need be done they are not two hundred years old and they get money from there tribes.

Fish-or-man?

7/9/2012 11:16:00 PM

Thanks a ton! This report is top of the line!

Thor

7/11/2012 12:37:00 PM

Excellent report! I only wish that I would have read it before heading up to Baker a few days ago.

Leave a Comment:

Login

Flag

×

Why is this comment inappropriate?

Close Submit

Delete this comment? Provide reason.

No Yes

Edit

×

Cancel Save