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Baker Lake Report
Whatcom County, WA

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07/18/2015
81° - 85°
Trolling
Salmon
Shrimp
Pink
Sunny
Dodger
Morning
71° - 75°
07/20/2015
1
2104

Second year at Baker and still skunked, not even a Kokanee to show for my efforts. I fished Saturday from 4:30-11:30 and Sunday from 4:30-9:30. Tried every dodger, bait, hook combination I had with me, pink hootchies with smiley blade and without, sand shrimp, coon shrimp, shrimp oil, bare hooks. Only had one bite Sunday, but after hours of nothing I got too excited and just ripper the bait right out of its mouth instead of letting it take the bait.

The good was that the trolling motor on the pontoon boat worked great, battery lasted two days on the single charge. Trolling motor really helped getting the line out without tangling, I had trouble last year trying to row and let out line without ending with a tangle mess. Also using two rods this year was a big help in keeping at least one rod in the water the whole time, not that that helped me catch anything but I felt better.

I had 6 oz cannon ball on the braided line and 8 oz on the mono line. I was aiming for about 40-60' since that was the depth everyone else was using on the downriggers, letting out 25 at day break and dropping to 35-40 pulls once the sun came up. I had a pretty steep line angle (60-70 degrees) so I should have been close to the right depth. Do not know what else to try other than adding a downrigger for better depth.

Sunday seemed like the better day fishing for the rest of the fleet, most people were getting some fish and there seemed to be hookups all day, Saturday there was just a hot bite about sunrise where 6-8 fish were caught in a few minutes, then pretty slow.


Comments

scraig1962
7/20/2015 8:24:00 PM
I cant believe how slow it is for there being 15000 transfered.
Kokanee Katcher
7/20/2015 8:35:00 PM
See if you can locate a product called a "deptherm" made by Verilax. It measures the depth and temperature that your gear is lowered to. Reel it in, empty the tube and you're set to take another reading. I've seem them on ebay if you can't locate one in a retail store. They run about $11. Good luck on you next trip to Baker.
lazy C
7/21/2015 4:25:00 AM
What speed were you trolling? 1 mph +/- and change it up while you're trolling. I use my hand held GPS to measure my speed. Other than that sounds like you got the rest. I haven't made it up there yet this year, hear the mosquitoes are really bad.
4n6fisher
7/21/2015 7:28:00 AM
Kokanee catcher- I will check for one of those, I think a line counter would have been good too to get a more accurate depth without a downrigger.

Lazy C-I was going about as slow as the other slow trollers out there so I should have been about the right speed. I did try speeding up a little from time to time to see if I could entice a bite. There are some mosquitoes, but they are not as bad as Lake Wenatchee, we camped at Shannon Creek so maybe they are not as bad up there as there is less swampy area.

Looks like downriggers and a fish finder might be in my future, then I would need a boat to put all the stuff in, because you can only fit so much on the pontoon.

Even with the no catching it is a beautiful place
hookset'n
7/21/2015 9:01:00 AM
Above comments have you covered - my adds:

....the magic depth is 55 and it doesn't sound like you are getting there, you are probably above 40' with only 40 pulls out and accounting for line angle. I have not had even a sniff above 50' this year and that includes fishing at 4:00 - get down to 45-50 in the dark and as soon as you can see your rods, go ahead and drop to 50-65. You can make a cheap downrigger with a few pounds of weight on a 1/4" cord, tie knots every 5 feet. The other thing is make sure your leaders are 12" max in total length from swivel tip to back hook - measure them! Keep presentations small. There are charts online that show you how deep you are running using speed and weight as the variables. You are guessing now. You can mount a cannon or other small downrigger clamp-on to your motor mount and let the cable down behind you between the pontoons.
strider43
7/21/2015 10:23:00 AM
I fished Baker 5 times in two years and have only one fish to the boat, just the way it is for most fisherman
Ladyclipper
7/21/2015 8:02:00 PM
Bananas in the boat.
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709