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I decided to fish Sunday to wrap-up my week of vacation in style. Was debating between a return trip to Pt Defiance to tune-up for the upcoming PSA derby or make the trek to Baker Lake. Consulted with the Fish Princess and she settled the matter with a resolute, “Baker Lake, Daddy!”
So we packed-up the car and boat on Saturday afternoon and left Maple Valley a little past 1900, arriving at the Swift Creek campground by about 2215. Used the restroom, paid the overnight use fee, and got a couple of things done to prep for an early launch. Slept uncomfortably and restlessly for about 5 hours until 0300 on Sunday. After another quick pit stop, we got busy loading the gear from the car into the boat and completing the punch list to launch the boat. Backing down the ramp in the dark, we had to dodge a massive pile of driftwood washed up on one side of the Swift Creek Ramp and managed to get in the water by 0400.
Took our time motoring to the northeast to our starting spot as it was still pitch dark and I know from experience there are often rafts of flotsam on this lake that could put a hurting on the Get Reel if we ran her into them at speed in the dark. Interestingly, another boat went zipping past us just before we reached the deep water where we planned to begin our troll. They pulled in just about where I was planning to fish and by the time we closed the last few hundred yards to that area they had started trolling and already had a fish on, but lost it trying to net him in the dark.
Arrived on station at about 0430 and got busy adding scent to our flashers, baiting hooks, and setting the downriggers. We trolled east along the north (road) side of the lake. Got nothing for the first 30 minutes so when I reached the point where most boats turn back to the west, I decided to head south toward the Noisy Creek side of the lake. About half way across, at about 0520, I noticed one rod bouncing almost imperceptibly. I popped it out of the release, set the hook and roused the Fish Princess from her napping. She played the fish to boat side where we scooped her up and booted the skunk right out of the boat! Popped a gill and tossed her on ice in the fish box, got the Fish Princess busy filling her punch card, then reset the gear to continue our slow troll across the lake.
Number two hit at 0545 on the south side and west of Noisy Creek and this one pulled the line out of the downrigger release, I grabbed the rod and maneuvered the fish clear of the other line we had stacked on that rigger. The Fish Princess awoke again just in time to grab the net and dip my first keeper salmon of 2013! She was another smallish hen of about 4 pounds. Felt good to finally ink the punch card after having two nice kings on in the last week with one nate and the other lost at the net resulting in no keepers.
Our third fish hit at 40’ at 0605, also on the south side of the lake. The Fish Princess made short work of this fish too, securing her limit for the day. This was another cookie cutter hen in the 4 – 5 pound range completing a matched set with the first two fish.
We did not manage to grab our limit fish before the sun finally came over the mountain top around 0645. I tested out the shade, tight against the south shoreline, in about 80’ of water to see if we could coax another bite from water where there was not direct sunlight but found no takers. Saw a few more fish caught but went into a bit of a drought on active feeders ourselves. On one bait check I found that I had been trolling along dragging a 12” kokanee mostly to death for some undetermined period of time.
It took until 1030 to get our final fish and he proved worth the wait. I had headed back across the lake to the north side and worked my way back to the west out toward the middle of the lake. As we approached the shallows I took a tack north to reverse the direction of my troll and also decided to do a bait check on the port side rods. As I finished reeling in one of the two port rods I noticed that the starboard side top rod had released. While I didn’t see any immediate sign it had a fish on, I grabbed it to investigate nevertheless. Sure enough as soon as I caught-up with the slack the fish took off on a short powerful run and I could tell this fish was heavier than any we had battled thus far. The Fish Princess jumped into action retrieving the other port side line, starting the retrieve on the electric rigger and grabbing the net. We kicked the motor in neutral and I worked the fish around to the now clear port side and played him to net. Took two swings to get him as he was about equal to the hoop size of my Frabill landing net, but the Fish Princess scooped him and we lifted him into the boat together. He was a plump brutish buck of 8+ pounds.
Bled him and tossed him on ice with the rest then got our gear cleaned-up and stowed. Cleaned the fish and spent about 30 minutes exploring the shallower east end of the lake between Noisy Creek and Shannon Creek then headed back to the Swift Creek ramp.
Loaded the boat and packed the gear and we were off to Cascade burgers by about 1300. The tasty burgers and malts made for a fine way to finish off another great fishing day at one of the most scenic fishing destinations in Washington, and with chamber of commerce weather to boot!
We fished our usual sockeye gear consisting of Abe & Al No 1 flashers customized with gold scale tape, a liberal application of Nitro Krill Paste, followed by pink smile blades atop a glow bead and 3/0 and 4/0 double hook set-ups baited with cocktail shrimp dyed with Bad Azz UV red bait dye and flavored with shrimp, shrimp/prawn, and krill scents. The krill flavor seemed to be the favorite today. Both of us have two pole endorsements, which are valid on Baker, so we stacked gear 15’ to 20’ apart on each side at depths varying from 18’ to 75’ (shallow at first light and deeper later in the day). We used 40’ set backs on the port side and 50’ to 60’ set backs on the starboard side. We started out with gear staggered at 4 depths until we found the depth where they were biting then aligned both sides to that depth. We found the active biters mostly between 20’ and 25’ with one at 40’.
Good luck and tight lines!
Fish Dawg
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