Has anyone fished Baker Lake for sockeye?

Going up north on Thursday for some family business and no work on Friday  so i'm going to try my luck at Baker Lake.  Has anyone kayak fished Baker Lake before?  I'm thinking of following the rigs this guy is describing in his fishing report.  This will be my first ever salmon fishing trip on a kayak. 

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportComment.aspx?id=57246&lid=97&t=1

I believe MattK has done that lake before. He did pretty well if I remember right.

Z

This is the first year in my memory that Baker has been open for sockeye. It's a common place for spring kokanee and has some trout in it, but sockeye has been closed there for a long time.  There is a link below from the Seattle PI article published in 2003 with some details of the restoration process, and another link follows with the Seattle Times - Reel Time article from this year.  A unique approach to restoring this stock has worked out.  Apparently well enough it can be fished now.   

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/138363_fishtaxi06.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/reeltimenorthwest/2012425997_baker_lake_sockeye_fishery_ope.html

Read some reports on WALakes.com and people have been doing quite well.

I believe MattK has done that lake before. He did pretty well if I remember right.

Z

Matt fished Lake Wenatchee.

Regarding the fishery, like YM said, I don't remember it ever being open before.  But the "standard" sockeye rigs, like the ones in the WAlakes report, should work.  Find the schools and put something in front of their noses!

-Allen

Seems with the "bare hook" setup, they actually go after the flasher, thinking it's a threat to their spawning, and end up getting hooked by the trailing hooks. 

Seems with the "bare hook" setup, they actually go after the flasher, thinking it's a threat to their spawning, and end up getting hooked by the trailing hooks. 

I think the hooks look krill like, the primary forage for sockeye, and they instinctively strike out at it.  Note that almost all of the sockeye caught this way are hooked in the mouth.

-Allen

Well that's what the idea is, that it looks like their food.  BUT, check this out:

http://muttleycrewfishing.com/web_media/coho_gets_hooked_by_bare_hook_after_stealing_herring.wmv

Notice how he continually goes for the bait, and once the bait is gone, he goes after the flasher, continuing until he gets hooked.  When fish hit a bait, they have a tendency to turn away right after the strike, in the opposite direction that the bait/lure was going.  (even in the trout ponds I take the kids to, and that little pond in Cabelas)

Now I know it's a coho in the film, BUT, sockeye and kokanee are the same thing, and we know kokanee don't actually eat other fish, but they'll damned sure attack a wedding ring out of aggression, even though it looks nothing like plankton.

At any rate, after watching that video, I think I'm gonna have a shorter distance between my flasher and my lure!

I can't deny that some might go for the flasher.  Hook a few and tell us where the hooks end up.  Inside or outside the mouth?

-Allen

3 hours isn't tooooo far to drive, but it's not an AOTY fish!  Make Yarjammer go do it! 

If they go for the flasher, with the way they turn right after the strike, physics dictates that more often than not, the hook will be inside the mouth.  They hit the flasher, turn, the line is running through their mouth, then hooks 'em on the way out. 

If they go for the flasher, with the way they turn right after the strike, physics dictates that more often than not, the hook will be inside the mouth.  They hit the flasher, turn, the line is running through their mouth, then hooks 'em on the way out. 

Not really.  Think about how flossing works.  It hooks 'em on the way into the mouth, so would be on the outside of the mouth.

Damn, should have made a catchall category for chum/sockeye/pinks.

-Allen

 Actually fish do go for the flasher on occasion. I've had fish whack fish flash/cone zone and 8" plaid finish hot spot flashers before. Fishing out of Cougar Creek in Nootka we kept missing strikes and were moaning and groaning about it. I'd accused my son of stepping on a couple of flashers as they were all scratched up on the tail end. I wanted to try another color flasher and pulled a new one out of the bag and ran it down 35 feet in 150 feet of water. A couple minutes later it popped off the rigger and when I pulled it in to run it back down I saw the back end of the flasher was scratched. I crimped on a 7/0 siwash to the flasher and ran it down again. 20 minutes later the rod popped up again and we had a solid hookup and landed about a 30 pound king. Guess what hook he was on. Not on the spoon 5 feet behind the fish flash but on the hook attached to the fish flash.
 I've had some friends fish the Baker since it opened with mixed success. Using the same gear thats used in lakes WA and Wenatchee. They've been able to find the sox schools but getting them to consistently bite has been the problem. They've caught fish, but have had to really grind it out getting them.
  

I think we might have to agree to disagree on that one.

I think "flossed" fish get hooked outside the mouth because they are continually swimming upstream.  A fish hitting a flasher (or any lure for that matter) usually turns right after the hit, which often (not always) results in the line only being in contact with one corner of it's mouth, and not both, so the hook ends up on the inside.  

They've caught fish, but have had to really grind it out getting them.

Sounds like maybe they had to piss the fish off and make 'em bite out of aggression!

@Lee:  why would a line going across a fishes mouth only go across one corner?  Especially with a swinging dodger in front of it putting an angle on the line relative to the fish hitting the dodger.  I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I wouldn't think that it would work out that way more often than not.

@Wolverine:  Those Nootka fish sure do go for some large lures.  I've seen natives up there regularly using 8-9" spoons.

-Allen

A "flossed" fish in a river swims perpindicular to the line, and keeps going that way.  A fish hitting a flasher immediately turns.  I see what you're saying, and it makes sense, I just feel there is a good chance for the hook to go in the mouth and the line to only be in contact with one corner and not both, since the fish isn't moving perpindicular to the line after the hit.