After a less than definite plan to fish Baker Lake comes together the boat and I are floating somewhere around 3:00-3:30 Saturday morning. Between the weather, kids stuff and the 1:30 AM alarm blues I almost didn’t make it. Arriving at the lake it was raining and dark, not just a little dark but the “can’t see your hand in front of your face dark”. Apparently so dark that I couldn’t find a flashlight or headlamp in the boat but somehow I got the boat rigged, launched, parked the trailer and then back down to the water without tripping and breaking my neck.

In the interest of not hitting a log in the dark, motoring up the lake at littler more than idle found me in place with the gear ready to go just as first light began to reveal just how nasty it was out there. 1:30 huh, what was I thinking? Boat pointed downwind I get the gear down and start the hunt. Fishing solo in the wind presents a few challenges, especially when running two downriggers in traffic so generally I tried to stay out of the crowds. I was looking for fish on the meter and I have to admit that I was at a loss. They have transferred almost 18,000 fish to the lake and I am seeing very few fish on the meter, where are they? Between the wind, rain, less than effective raingear (I was soaked to the bone), lack of activity on the meter and as it turned out no coffee I was considering pulling the plug and heading back to the launch. When…

I had an actual school show up on the meter. I marked it, held my course and waited. In my experience the Baker Lake sockeye will follow your gear out of meter mark. As expected a short while after I went over the fish both riggers start bouncing. They turned out to be drive-bys but it was enough for me to forget the weather and get focused on the fishing. I reset the gear and loop around to intercept the school of sockeye I had previously marked on the meter. Again a bit after going through the school one of the riggers pops and I am into my first fish of the day. What coffee, who needs coffee when there are sockeye to help clear the cobwebs from one’s mind? The fish was a scrappy one but a short while later I slid the net under it and the stink was off the boat. The action from that point was steady; I would locate a meter mark, save the location and then work the spot over until the school got wise to my efforts. I had many drive-bys, caught and released a number of kokanee, dollies including one that was probably 5-6 pounds (no on the water pictures, more on that later) and was blessed with a few more sockeye for the box.

I was running a variety of standard sockeye gear, chrome or white “0” dodgers followed by pink or orange lures with or without a mini hoochie. The pointy offerings were at the end of 10” leaders with the custom lures being a combination of beads, spinner or smiley blades and/or hoochies. My trolling speed was 1.0-1.4 with the slower speeds being more effective. All lures were tipped with a small tidbit of “Fire Cure” cured shrimp. I had no set depth but saw action between 43’ and 70’. I was chasing meter marks and constantly adjusting the gear to intercept the few meter marks encountered. Most of the action resulting in a fish in the box was with the downriggers running at 56’-58’. The hot set up for the day was a white “0” dodger followed by an orange hoochie.

Lessons learned and a “Three Stooges” moment. First; especially when departing in the rainy wee hours, don’t forget the coffee! Second; as it turns out when your fingers are all swollen and wrinkled from being in the rain for hours, the finger print recognition security feature that I decided to try out on my phone the previous evening does not work. No phone-no pictures and I had to wait for my fingers to return to normal before my phone would recognize my fingerprint. Next never give up, stick to and believe in your game plan. Did I mention a “Three Stooges” moment?

At one point I was in the middle of a semi hot bite. I had a double and after making sure that both fish were out of the clip I started fighting one of the fish. After a short while the line goes slack and I reel in nothing but a frayed hunk of mono. What the heck but I have another fish to deal with. The second fish was a feisty one and while focused on the battle I hear this weird metallic clanking noise. I look over the side of the boat and see my recently departed dodger swimming alongside the boat. While still fighting fish # 2, I reach over the side and grab the dodger but I can’t hang on to it. I grab the boat hook and try to hook the leader/dodger/fish combo but that doesn’t’ work either. At that point I lock the rod with the fish on it in a holder and try to net the other fish and dodger. I’m running the boat in reverse trailing the two deployed downriggers and the other fish while that crazy fish and dodger play hide and seek with me. Ultimately I was not able to net the fish/dodger duo and lost the second fish but what a crazy couple of minutes. A few boats even stopped to see what this deranged guy was doing running in reverse, working the net behind the boat while trailing a fish off the bow. Sorry guys, no coffee makes one do odd things! Shortly thereafter I put two more fish in the box and was done for the day.

Ultimately the weather did get better but I never did dry out. That said I’m glad I stuck it out. The day was one for the books and I was headed home early, ahead of my curfew with a limit of 5-7# sockeye.

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