Today we wrapped up our 2012 season on Baker Lake. JoAnn and I fished with my son Matt and his GF Veronica. They are visiting from Montana where they go to school there.

We got up at 2:30am and arrived, boat in water by 5:30am. Hey, it’s salmon fishing kids! We had lines in the on the Noisy Creek side of the lake. I was surprised that while yesterday the fleet was far away, today it seemed everyone was fishing this area that we had success at. I guess word really does get around.

The usual rigs were in play. We ran four rods (no need to add another two just to make things more difficuft). It wouldn’t have matter anyway as every fish came off one rod, that deepest one. I rotated gear around so this rod had a variety of lures and dodgers, but none-the-less, it was the only rod that got bit all day. Weird.

Matt and Veronica each got two fish and we also let them net them, which made their day. Funny, they didn’t lose any fish today. We always manage to lose at least one or two…

Times and depths:

6:30 – Matt caught one at 43 ft
9:10 – Veronica caught one at 44 ft
10:10 – missed bite at 53 ft
10:45 – Matt caught one at 53 ft
11:30 – Veronica caught one at 53 ft

After 10am the three other rods were staggered at 48, 43, 38 feet deep. None saw any action. We did see a pretty good morning and mid-morning (9:30-10:30) bite.

In summary, I think we ended up catching around 26 fish in 6 trips, I’d have to go back and add it up. Our best day was 5 fish, our worst day (not counting evening fishing) was a skunk. We saw fish caught always, but never a red hot bite like last year, although there were some distinct bites. First thing AM, mid-morning, and late morning, with some 2-3 hour slowdowns not unusual.

I hope my reports have helped some of you catch more fish, or at least compelled you to keep trying. Now, I have some fish to process!

NOTE - the pocket marks on the fish are from laying on top of ice.

Baker lake is winding down, at least from an angler pressure point of view. No doubt the fact that you can fish the Straight and the Sound for big kings has something to do with it. That, and the fact that it has been a tougher season for anglers, with limits harder to come by, let alone fish.

JoAnn and I arrived last night and went to our usual moorage for another delightful sunset on the lake. The evening bite did not cooperate. We explored up into the flats all the way to Baker river, and marked fish, but they were not interested.

Morning arrived and lines in the water by 5:30am. We started on the Swift Creek side of the lake. I was surprised to find the usual crowd of boats all down toward the old resort. We fished our area for a good hour with only a couple boats for company. Meanwhile, 40ish boats were a good mile away and fishing an area I have not seen guys concentrate around. Did they know something we didn’t? Were they all catching fish?? We spent the first 1 ½ hours with two bites and marked a pretty good number of fish. I resisted the temptation to join the fleet, preferring pounding fish by ourselves.

Our resolution paid off as at 7:15 JoAnn caught the first fish, at 38 feet deep. Trolling speed had been running 0.9 to 1.1, and the usual sockeye dodgers and pink stuff, and cured shrimp.

Things went quiet until 9:40 when I hit one at 44 ft. It came out of the water an amazing 5-6 feet! I am not joking, that fish was flying! I have NEVER seen a fish get that much air. Needless to say, the fish threw the hook. But it was well worth it just to see. I hope the boat that was next to us frequents this site so they can verify just how high that fish got.

9:50, another fish! At 44 feet, JoAnn had a chunky guy that she got to the net. When I went in for the kill the fish made a quick dart and came undone. My bad, but JoAnn maintained her humor about it.

9:55 another fish! Caught at 39 ft, JoAnn is out-fishing me on a regular basis now, LOL.

10:55, our last fish of the day, at 55 ft deep. My fish this time. We called it a day at 12:30.

Lot’s of fish being marked, and some pretty big schools, but again a lot of non-action for anglers out there. The crowd has thinned a lot, maybe 40-50 boats or so. It’s very comfortable trolling around now. We’ll have one more trip tomorrow and that will close the books on our Baker Lake 2012 adventures.

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.

We were off to Baker Lake in search of a guest fish and some hot weather water play. In either case we were not disappointed. Although the fishing was not exactly on fire, or even warm or for that matter we did achieve our goal and put the guest fish in the boat. The rest of the day was dedicated getting wet and that we did.

I blew it regarding big numbers. I had it in my mind that the fish would be starting to move up on to the flats so that is where we started. We spent two 2 or three hours dragging flat lined 50/50 swing blades and baited lure combinations exploring the shallow upstream end of the lake looking for schools of fish. Last year the tactic was deadly, resulting in instant boat limits. This year not so much and although we metered a few single fish it was apparent that the fish had not moved up onto the flats in any numbers yet.

We moved back to the deeper water between Swift and Shannon Creeks and got our guest fish pretty quickly using my standard sockeye gear. Off of four rods we were running 50/50 dodgers, 50/50 swing blades or a chrome dodger I doctored up with gold prism tape followed by a variety of pointy offerings tipped with cured shrimp. I had everything stacked on 2 down-riggers running between 35’ and 48’ with a 15’ stack putting the upper lines at 20’ and 33’. Consistent with this years fishing, 1.0-1.2 mph was our magic speed for the day. All rods had a number of drive-by bites that may have been sockeye but more likely were kokanee. The kokanee thought was confirmed when we did catch and release a nice kokanee. After the guest fish, one of them being a 10 pounder were in the box we made a comfort stop at Swift Creek and then headed back out in search of a good beach for a few hours of water play.

Although overall the day was an absolute blast my personal highlight of the day came as I was pulling all the gear to head in for the day. After we got done swimming and general goofing off the girls wanted to fish some more so we headed over to the Swift Creek side of the lake for one run west to the bend before we headed in. I wasn’t metering any fish in the deeper water so we moved up into 35’ of water along the shoreline where I started to meter large schools of fish. At that point everyone had had enough sun and I had committed to pulling all the gear. Still trolling I pop all the down-rigger clips and let the gear go flat line while I stow the down-riggers and the start wrapping it up for the day. I was down to one rod in the water when I see a couple fish on the meter at 12’. While holding the rod I free spool about 30’ of line and put the reel in gear when after about two beats of the swing blade my rod goes complete bendo. Although I ended up loosing the fish it was way cool to be holding the rod when it got hit.

We had a blast, enjoying both the water play and fishing. I also met WL.com “Racer” and his buddies. Not sure how they did on Saturday but it was a fun to share their campfire and swap fishing stories with them Friday night.

Today was a better day for JoAnn and me. Not red-hot, but decent. Definitely did better after making a couple small adjustments. First, I dropped my troll speed from 1.2-1.1 down to 0.8-1.0. Second, I went with smaller presentations, hook-wise and yarn-wise. Even went old school bare red hooks.

We started at 5am and it was another slow morning all around us. At 7ish started seeing fish caught, and we hit a double at 8:10am – at 24 and 33 feet on one rigger. And we lost both our fish. Mine came off at the net, and it was a brute, much bigger than the typical fish, I’d guess more in the 8 pound range. I apologize to all around me for my explicative uttered.

The bite went on around us and actually got better as the morning progressed.

Our second fish came at 10:25 at 24 feet on a red and a black hook with 50/50 dodger. Our final fish came at 11:40 at 27 feet on a red/red hook with shrimp (thanks Nate!). Again, lot’s of people catching nothing, but some boats appeared to be doing quite well. Overall and for most I’d say it was again slow, but better than Monday.
Got to see Nate on the water – he has a very cool set up with his inflatable raft. Also ran into John Thomas of Rotten Chum Guide Service, he agreed Tuesday was better than Monday.

Only one boat altercation (actually my first on Baker lake). A guy came up behind me, trolling faster than myself, and became irritated that I must have been in his way. FYI, if you’re overtaking a boat and either side is wide open, just pick a side and go past, don’t cut behind and then get all upset that the other boat is “in your way”. Just some basic sea-going “rules of the road”.

FYI, I posted the specific Boating Safety Guidelines for overtaking vessels.