Above us, the big mountain’s snowfields turned rose-pink in the early dawn. Behind us, a feisty, 6-pound sockeye salmon tail-walked across the flat-calm surface of Baker Lake, and a faint, warm breeze brought the scent of wood smoke from campsites at Swift Creek and Panorama Point.
I held on to the bucking rod and fervently asked the fishing gods to, please, put this chrome-bright hen in the net.
They did, and I thanked them profusely for once again granting me the opportunity to challenge this magnificent resource, to enjoy the gorgeous wilderness setting, and to spend a few hours on the water with friends, in a quintessential Northwest outdoor experience.
The day was a jewel beyond price; the fish were a bonus.
Action Tuesday morning was good but not great. We launched at 5 a.m. and put the rods away about 10 a.m., with six salmon in the box for the four of us and several more lost. They ran in size from about 3 pounds to a big buck of probably 8-plus, and four of the fish were fresh and bright while two carried a little color.
Very slow trolling was the order of the day, using size “0” chrome dodgers, 11 or 12 inches of stiff, heavy leader, and hot pink mini-squids tipped on the top hook with a thumbnail-size piece of raw, grocery-store shrimp. We started at a depth of 20 feet, and went down as the day brightened to a maximum of 45 to 50 feet, catching fish at both extremes. And all the while with the massive bulk of blunt, flat-topped Mount Baker looming over our shoulders.
Three points of particular interest to more casual fishermen came to light as the morning progressed. Our sounder was malfunctioning, but we found that the electronic aid wasn’t absolutely necessary to fishing success. By watching other anglers, fishing where sockeye were rolling, and setting different rods at different depths, we took as many salmon as anyone else we could see around us.
Second, we found the fish widely scattered, not concentrated over the old Baker River channel along the south shoreline, from the bend to Noisy Creek, which was the hot spot last year. We caught them along the north shoreline across from Noisy Creek, and clear out to the middle, again chasing rolling fish and waving nets.
Third, for those without downriggers, we hooked as many fish on our two “flat lines,” rigged with six ounces of crescent sinker above the dodger, as we did on the two downrigger rods, and not just during the first couple of early morning hours, either. This is a new fishery, and the lake is carrying more (and colder) water this year than last, so don’t be afraid to experiment and to try different spots and different depths.
State biologist Brett Barkdull said the peak of the run appeared to hit the Baker Dam trap last Wednesday through Sunday, when 7,000 sockeye were trucked to the lake over the five-day period, for a total of 15,800 fish through Sunday. Trap numbers have been dropping early this week, he said, and anglers have been averaging a little over one salmon per rod while taking about 400 fish from the lake daily. There should easily be enough salmon in the lake, and still coming, he said, to provide decent fishing for at least two more weeks.
He’s guessing the total run at about 36,000 sockeye, well above predictions and also well above last year’s total of 22,500.
Pinks
All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein of Everett said he thought there would be enough pink salmon on the west side of Possession Bar by this weekend to afford a targeted fishery, even though it would be nowhere near the peak of this year’s run.
He recommends pink mini-squid, 16 to 18 inches behind a white dodger, or 22 to 26 inches behind a white flasher, on a slow troll, rigged with tandem 3/0 or 4/0 hooks. Start early at 40 or 50 feet, dropping gradually to 70 feet or so. “I’ve probably taken more humpies at 50 to 70 feet than at any other depth,” he said.
Krein estimated Aug. 8-10 as a starting point for decent numbers of pinks along the “humpy hollow” stretch of shoreline, south of Mukilteo.
State checks at the Port of Everett ramp on Sunday showed 223 anglers with 13 chinook, seven coho and four pinks. North of us, where earlier-running humpies are heading for the Skagit and/or Fraser, 38 anglers at the Washington Park ramp on Saturday were checked with 10 chinook, three coho and 28 pinks.
Excellent fishing was the word over the weekend from Sekiu, and not only for pinks. Creel checkers at Olson’s Resort tallied 271 fishermen on Sunday with 53 chinook, 14 coho, and 566 pinks.
Local Chinook
The Marine Area 9-10 selective chinook season limps along, with decent fishing at times for those anglers who happen to be in the right place when a group of kings moves through. The Port Townsend area and Point No Point turned on over the weekend, and Gary Krein (above) said that, coupled with good checks from the Strait, could mean better local king fishing ahead.
Generally, however, the state’s “catch per unit effort,” or CPUE, is the lowest it’s been during the month of July for the entire five-year history of the fishery, Krein said. The CPUE is basically the catch per angler per trip and was just 8 percent this July in Marine Area 9 (including Possession Bar), compared to 18 percent last year.
For more outdoors news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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