Beautiful Day on Baker Lake - A FISH PRINCESS ADVENTURE

Wasn't sure I was going to get a shot at one of my favorite lakes this summer so I'm sure glad to be writing this report on another banner day spent with my young lady on Baker Lake!

Decided I was going to sneak in a sockeye trip on Sunday and consulted with the Fish Princess on her preference of Baker or Wenatchee (considered Brewster too, but opted out due to water temp and reports of slow fishing during last week - thanks AFK and others!). Would have been happy with either choice yet especially glad she chose Baker as it is one of my favorite places on the planet!!

We awoke at 1215 on Sunday AM on the heels of a brief 'nap' and were hitched-up and down the road by 0105 after a quick stop for fuel. Arrived at Swift Creek campground around 0345. Let a few rigs that came along after move ahead of us to launch as it takes some set-up time with everything packed in the sub for the long trek from home. Finally put in at about 0430 and went off to find a place to park (not easy given the amount of trucks already there for the weekend). Found a spot and squeezed the truck in (however, not without Mr. Tail Light meeting Mr. Fir Tree - OUCH)!

Motored up along the north side of the lake and set-up our trolling gear to start there. Ran 4 rods staggered at various times of the day from 15' to about 55'. We used our tried and true set-ups for the most part. These consist of a No. 1 Abe & Al flasher customized with gold scale tape back and front and are treated with some Nitro glitter krill paste in the 'diamond' at each end of the flasher. These are followed by leaders of 14" - 20". At the terminal end I have one rig that includes a pink UV bead and a 1.5" mirror pink smile blade, another rig with a Mack's Double Whammy Sockeye Special with pink beads and pink smile blade, a third rig with red UV bead and 1.1 pink speckle smile blade and one with a rasticle/pink hoochie combo. The Mack's Double Whammy brought 3 take downs and the large mirror pink smile blade rig brought 3 take downs and the other hook-ups for the day were spread across the other rigs. All of these are double hook leaders with hook sizes from 1/0 to 4/0. Bait for the day was cooked cocktail shrimp, sand shrimp tails, and cured coon shrimp chunks. The sand shrimp and coon shrimp did not get bit for us during the day. The old stand-by cocktail shrimp did all the damage. My recipe for success is to split a pound of critters 4 ways into qt zip lock bags then add just enough water to cover the shrimp. Next add Bad Azz UV red bait dye until the shrimp/broth are intense bright red. I added Pro Cure shrimp/prawn oil to one sack, Mike's Glo Scent shrimp oil to another sack, kosher salt to a third sack, and Pautzke Fire Power to the final sack. These all marinated overnight. The shrimp/Prawn was the most consistent producer with the shrimp a close second. The salt shrimp did not get bit and we finally figured out a trick that produced aggressive bites on the fire power shrimp. The key tactic was to put one fire power shrimp on the top hook and two pieces of Pautzke Fire Corn in magenta/red on the bottom hook - this combo produced 2 of our later hook-ups.

We began our trolling pattern at about 0515 and the Fish Princess boated our first sockeye of the year promptly at 0545. We were in good spirits and thinking it might be a quick day and then reality set-in. It took another 2 hours to get the next take down and what's worse, the fish grabbed the Mack's Double Whammy and as I played this fish the leader failed at the hooks in mid-fight without the fish even jumping. My drags are typically set pretty loose, but in this case may have been just a hair tighter than usual. This rig caught a few fish at Brewster last season or season before so I chalked this one up to 'old' gear. At least this convinced us there were still some willing biters and kept our hopes alive. We worked both the Swift/Shannon side of the lake and the Noisy side of the lake over the next 4 hours without more than a drive-by. We fished deep and we fished shallow. We worked in and out of shady spots and in full sun and we changed baits regularly. It was slow going for a while but we paid attention to what was going on around us and kept at it.

We noticed that there were occasional fish being taken just off the alluvial shelf below Noisy Creek (our 2nd fish bit here) and along the edge crossing the lake. I also remembered recent reports from RSEAS and Mike Carey and heeded their advice (thanks Gents)! Randy's mantra of 'stay out of the crowd' kept echoing in my mind and Mike's advice to stick it out into the afternoon also rang true for me. About 1130 traffic on the lake began to thin as others gave it up for the day. We were trolling northbound across the lake from the Noisy side to the Shannon side. Just as we crossed the transition from the deep water (about 105') to the shallower water (about 85') we got a take down and the Fish Princess jumped back into action. As she was playing her fish we had another rod pop off the downrigger (thanks to the passersby in the boat behind us that alerted us to the release!) and I got a hold of another feisty sockeye. Just about the time my fish realized it was hooked and started to charge, the Fish Princess reported that her fish was off. As it turned out, her fish bit on a brand new Double Whammy Sockeye Special that I tied-on after the first one failed. This one failed in exactly the same manner as the other one and this time the drag was adjusted perfectly and again the fish was lost without even going aerial. So, at this stage I attribute both of our lost fish to poor quality workmanship and materials on the part of Mack’s Lure. Unfortunate to have a product that attracts fish but is not tough enough to hold onto them - feedback left on their website! Anyway, the good news is that we landed my fish and finally had number 2 in the box. We got everything reset and back to fishing and somewhere just after noon (with even less traffic on the lake) we got into another double with the Pautzke Fire combo enticing the first strike of the pair. I was on the first fish and had it almost to the boat when the second fish hit. Fish Princess set down the net to grab the other fish so I netted my own and had it safely aboard the Get Reel with plenty of time to dump my guest and scoop-up the young one’s fish. This put numbers 3 & 4 in the fish box!

In all of the mayhem a couple of rods were tangled and it took a bit of time and effort to get it all unraveled and back to fishing. I also had an experimental rig out that was getting ignored and took this opportunity to bring that line up to swap back to more proven terminal tackle. I still had the top rod on one side fishing in about 40’ of water and I got the other two rods set at 42’ and 27’ stacked. I had just retied the terminal tackle on the 4th rod and was about to reach for the bait box when I noticed the single rod at 40’ bouncing. I whipped it out of the holder, popped it off the release, reeled down and drove home the hooks then handed off to the Fish Princess. As she’s playing the fish the top rod on the other side releases. I drop the net and get to work on this fish. The two fish swim together on the surface and we deftly triage the situation and go over and under until the fish are swimming freely again. About this time I see the only rod that’s still fishing blast off from the downrigger with a third fish in on the action and I begin to wonder what we’ll do with 3 fish when we need just 2 to close out our limits - at this point we had yet to boat even one, so not to worry. After a nice aerial display and a few dashes I’m able to get my fish to net first and I quickly and unceremoniously dump the flapping fish on the deck and prepare to nab the Fish Princess’s guest. All the while fish number 3 is peeling line off the other reel, playing himself quite nicely against the pole holder. We get fish number two in the boat and the Fish Princess pounces on our new guests and deposits them into the waiting ice bath as I grab the other pole. All this time there is a boat about 75 yards away waving and cheering us on. Given that it was slim pickings for most boats and they just watched us work-up a 3-bagger I suppose I understand their enthusiasm. Now, I was going to just land and release the fish, but I get a better idea. This other boat maintained a respectful distance as we played our fish and were very boisterous in rooting for us. They also had a young one aboard so I decide to pass off our last fish in mid-battle and let them boat it. They worked their way over to us slowly opposite the side where I was playing the fish and we managed the hand off and they landed the fish then returned my gear. This was only their second fish of the day so I left them with all of my unused bait and well wishes.

In all we went 7 for 9 with our only two lost on faulty terminal tackle (until Mack’s gets it together it appears I’ll be tying my own Double Whammies). Things really picked-up for us as the traffic thinned out and we had fish cleaned and boat packed-up and back at the Swift launch by about 1415. Unfortunately, with the Sunday crowd in mass-exodus mode and a duct tape repair job to perform on the munched tail light it took nearly an hour to retrieve the boat before we could batten everything down and head for home.

It was great to build another fond memory with my kiddo and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of fishing in such a beautiful and pristine place. The chamber of commerce weather didn’t hurt and we finished off the adventure with out traditional victory burger at Cascade Burgers (thanks ladies)!

Good luck and tight lines all!

Fish Dawg
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