Sport anglers want fair share of Baker Lake sockeye
Anglers fishing Baker Lake — located in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest — for sockeye last summer were disappointed with the inequity of catch between the sport and tribes.
By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter
The popular Baker Lake summer sockeye fishery has become a hot topic heading into the salmon season-setting process that begins in March.
Anglers fishing Baker Lake — located in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest — for sockeye last summer were disappointed with the inequity of catch between the sport and tribes.
“We need to take a more conservative approach on how we address the fishery,” said Frank Urabeck, a former member of several state Fish and Wildlife sport fishing advisory boards. “We want to make sure the sport and tribes get their fair share of fish.”
Preliminary catch data from last summer’s fisheries suggests the tribes took 12,000 to 13,000 sockeye compared to a likely sport haul of 3,000 to 4,000 (369 were taken from the Skagit River). The 2014 preseason forecast for Baker Lake was 35,377 sockeye, but the actual return was closer to 27,700.
What makes the Baker Lake fishery difficult to gauge is tribal fishermen net their sockeye in marine waters and the Lower Skagit River. That is before the salmon reach the Baker River fish trap at Concrete that is the basis for the in-season sockeye run update.
“It was too late to hit the brakes last summer when it became apparent the run was coming in short as the tribes had already caught their fish based on the preseason data,” Urabeck said.
Last summer, 13,788 sockeye were trapped at Concrete and 7,199 fish were transferred to the lake to provide a limited sport fishing opportunity.
The first Baker Lake sockeye fishery occurred in 2010, benefiting from major investments by Puget Sound Energy, including a new juvenile-fish floating surface
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