Baker Lake Kokanee?

[philbily]

Hey everyone, anyone ever fish Baker Lake for Kokanee? I've seen schools of small 3-5 inchers in the coves, and picked up a lot of fish on the depth finder, however have yet to put one in the cooler! headed up there for memorial day weekend for a few days and any tips/advise would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

-Phil

 

[Smalma]

Phil -
Historically Baker had a lot of small "kokanee". In reality testing determined that those "kokanee" were from sockeye parents who were unable to find their way out of the reservoir. A decade or so ago there was major improvements in the smolt trapping system resulting in most of the juvenile were successful trapped and past downstream. The end result was the dramatic improvement in sockeye returns to Baker but a lot few "kokanee". The remaining kokanee while significantly fewer in numbers are larger. Those decent size kokanee are at a low density leading to spotty fishing. The sockeye on the other hand have provided a pretty good fishery when they return to the lake. Even with less than 10,000 fish in the lake near limits to limits can be caught. To target the sockeye think kokanee fishing on steroids. Larger dodgers, hooks, and lures with pieces of prawns or sand shrimp instead of corn or maggots for bait. Typically the shrimp is dyed in a variety of colors ranging from pink to purple.

Not uncommon to catch a few "kokanee" while targeting the sockeye so there are kokanee to be caught just not in huge numbers.

Hope that helps.

Curt