Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
I had planned to fish Baker Lake with one of my work associates and his kids but as luck may have it plans changed and I ended up fishing solo. Being that I was fishing solo and have a freezer full of fish I didn’t need to put a fish in the box so I went exploring. My goal was to find where the big numbers of fish are this year. I did not achieve the goal but did learn a few things. Thursday morning a large number of fish were stacked up in 25-40 feet of water in a shallow bay at the extreme eastern end of the lake. Once the fish were located it was like shooting fish in a barrel, bringing 6 or 7 fish to the net in an hour. The fish were all smaller, maybe 2-3 pounds each and all were released no worse for their time at the end of my line. On that note I should mention that right off the bat I had accidently dumped all my shrimp overboard and I was fishing all my offerings naked, well the hooks were anyway.
In that I was fishing shallower water I figured that the fish would be more wary, both of the boat noise and presentation so I changed up tactics a bit. I went with smaller swing blades and just my sockeye files. I dropped them back from the clip 90’ or so and ran the riggers at 12-15 feet. The tactic worked great but with the long lines and if there had been a lot of boats back in there it would be a zoo. I also explored the remainder of the flats and found some other pockets of fish including fish holding in the river channel in the actual lake. Due to the large stump population this area would be difficult to fish trolling conventional sockeye gear and alternative techniques will need to be developed. Now where is my fly rod…
It was getting later in the morning so I moved back out into the main lake to try and get a fish or two to haul home. Using my standard sockeye gear less bait I ran two rods off the downriggers. I was running at 1.0-1.2 mph and ran the downriggers at 38-56’. Other than a few drive-bys I did not have any luck but did talk to a few boats that said there was a good bite between 6:30 and 7:00. I blame my lack of success while fishing the deeper water to the fact that I was fishing baitless. I did hook a nice dolly but it popped off while I was looking for the camera. I fished the deeper water for a few hours then moved back up on to the flats and back into the corner where I was still metering fish. The move did not result in any more fish and I messed with some different techniques for an hour or so then moved back to the deeper water for one more pass along the north shoreline before calling it a day.
A great day on the water and I learned a few things. I think that for my next trip I am going to bring some different gear and figure out the shallow water fish. I met some great people at the boat ramp. One in particular, swapping Southern California fish stories while we prepped our boats for the drive home.
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
