Northwest Reel Life April 2023 Volume 2 Issue 10 - Flipbook - Page 18
Late Season Baker Lake Sockeye By Randy
Castello
Whoo-hoo! The long-coveted
Baker Lake sockeye season is in
progress! The 2023 Baker Lake
sockeye season is proving to
be an interesting one. Through
the North of Falcon process, the
planned opener was scheduled
to be Saturday July 15th. Because
record numbers of sockeye have
signed up for a ride in the fish taxi,
the WDFW decided to open the
fishery 1 week earlier. The opener
was July 8th and the action has
been on fire. It was reported that
boat limits were the norm and
many ice chests were full just a
few hours or so after splashing the
boat. In fact, on opening day one
of the fishing specialists at Holiday
Sports in Burlington, Philip
Chuprinov, his wife Alexus and
gang got their 12 fish boat limits in
in less time than it took to drive to
the lake and back.
OK, the fishing is good, but
what is a “fish taxi” and why the
early opener? Sockeye in Baker
Lake are native to the system.
18 | NWFISHING.net
After the Upper Baker Dam was
constructed in 1959, sockeye were
cut off from access to the natural
Baker Lake. With limited success,
various methods were used to
trap and transport returning adult
sockeye to the newly formed
Baker Lake, while smolts were
left to out migrate via controlled
spillway releases. By 1985 the
population crashed, and the
trap count was only 99 fish. As a
component of PSE’s permit to
generate power, PSE developed
a mitigation plan for sockeye
recovery.
Long story short; both Baker Lake
and now Lake Shannon have
a surface to lake bed “gulper”
net that funnels out-migrating
sockeye smolts into a collection
facility where they are processed,
counted, and then transported
for release at a trap facility on
the Baker River in Concrete. The
returning adult fish are trapped
analyzed and then loaded into live
transport trucks, AKA “fish taxis”,
and transported up the hill.
Some sockeye are placed in
artificial spawning bed runs
while others are held as hatchery
broodstock. The rest are released
into Baker Lake.
Historically, the Baker Lake
sockeye run slowly ramps up,
then spikes during the second
week in July. This year, after a very
short ramp up of 200-400 fish a
day, on June 27th the fish counts
absolutely exploded. For the next
10 days, the daily trap count was
running from 1,200-3,000 fish.
With agreement of the North of
Falcon team, the WDFW made
the decision to maximize the
fishing opportunity and open the
fishery 1 week early.
The 2023 Baker Lake sockeye
season is July 8th – August 31st but
may close early to assure that 1,500
fish are able to spawn naturally in
the lake. There is a 3 fish daily limit
for adult sockeye. With the twopole endorsement, two poles are
allowed and all anglers onboard a
boat may deploy gear until each
angler onboard has caught their