Baker Lake is as beautiful as ever, but fishing is slow.

Prior to heading to Baker Lake we had seen that no new fish had made it past the hatchery in nearly 2 weeks and the total still sat at just over 4,300 fish transferred to the lake. The campsites were reserved, the trailer was already packed, and Area 7 had closed after a stellar July in the Islands, so we kept our plan and headed for the lake Friday morning. We got camp setup, had a bite to eat and then headed out for an afternoon cruise and troll. While I had low hopes for a hot breezy afternoon bite, it was a good chance to shake the boat down and get our heads in the game for lake fishing before heading out in the dark this morning. Despite, the wind doing it's best to tangle all of our gear, we did manage one drive by bite where a fish managed to release the line from the clip on its own, but didn't stay buttoned. With the smallest amount of encouragement we parked the boat at the swift creek dock and headed back to camp for an early rise.

Saturday Morning we were the first boat to leave the dock. At around 4am we headed onto the lake with only a flashlight to spot floating logs. Luckily we made it to our spot without harm and setup trolling near noisy creek while watching the fleet arrive behind us. We had a beautiful, cloudless morning watching the sunrise on the slopes of Baker. But unfortunately we had plenty of time to drink our coffee as the rods didn't so much as bounce most of the morning. We also got to watch many other boats but only saw two fish lost near the boat and no nets get slimed. As the sun started to turn on the heat and we started shedding layers I took a note from my Kokanee playbook and started shortening leaders. FInally, at 9:30am, after the boat herd was already thinning our lead rod (3.5oz cannonball) started bouncing and I grabbed it and held on through one of the most spectacular fights a <10lb fish has ever given me. 3 or 4 times the fish was within net handle distance but turned tail and peeled 200 feet of line out. Finally we got the net under a 3-4lb hen. No sooner than we had gotten the rod rebaited and fishing once again one of our downrigger rods popped off the downrigger, but again no fish was left by the time we picked up the rod. I am in absolute shock that we had this happen to us multiple times. We worked the area some more before giving up around noon. We ate half of the fish with dinner, the bright red meat was delicious fresh caught.

Sunday morning I simplified all of our setups. The bites had come on rods with just a bead or two and red hooks, so I took the hootchies and smile blades off the other rods and once again shortened leaders. We slept in a little later and joined the half dozen boats already trolling at 4:45. Within minutes we missed a bite and were sure it was going to be a good day, but we wouldn't see action again for hours. We did see more fish hooked and several landed, so at least more success was being had, but still very little action overall for the number of boats trying. Around 9:30 I hooked up and brought to the boat a very chunky bull trout that we estimated around 5lbs, we for a moment had the attention of many boats trolling around us and I'm sure they were surprised when I leaned over the side to release the fish instead of netting it. At 10:30, almost in the exact coordinates of where we had caught a fish before we had a downrigger go off and caught a matching buck, maybe half a pound larger. It was a great mood booster to get the skunk off for a second day in a row, but it would be our last fish and we left the lake and headed for home an hour later.

It was very cool getting my first Sockeye and finally completing my lifetime Pacific Salmon Slam (I've had 4/5 since before I can remember). Fishing the freshwater was a welcome change after battling the tides, weather, and salt corrosion for the last month. But there is no doubt that the lake is fishing slow right now and you will have to put in a lot of hours to catch fish. Hiring a guide seems like a worthwhile time, as those guys were hooking up even when no one else was, we could probably all learn some of the little things that set them apart. Don't give up when the sun rises. Despite being an early morning fishery, both of our fish came later than 9:30. Both were caught on beads and hooks with small chunks of cured shrimp.

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