wow. This had to be one of the more bizzare fishing trips I've ever had. Started off yesterday. Had my 18 ft cuddy cabin boat all ready. Plan was to put the boat in with my son James, find a nice anchorage and enjoy the night on the water - only - opps! Forgot to get the boat licensed for this year. So I switch all my salmon gear to my other boat and now Plan B, camp in a tent and launch in the morning. So off we go - only - opps! Forgot to switch the trolling motor from the big boat to the smaller boat. OK, no problem I think, we'll use the electric trolling motor - sure hope it's charged up! (it was).

Per rseas great reports and blogs, we stopped at Cascade Burger and had great burgers and fries and let the owner know they were famous, which she appreciated very much. Now, on to the Fishing Report.

Launched at 5:00am, got the last parking spot in the lot at Panorama Pt and motored across to start at the point opposite Swift Creek. NOTE - there are several just under the water stumps in this bay so be careful starting out. We ran three rods (I got the 2 pole endorsement just for this trip). All rods had a variation of either red, black, flo orange, or pink hooks. Each rod had dodgers size 0. Each rod had some type of scent holder/attractor on the bare hooks, or just bare hooks. No shrimp. Two downriggers and rod #3 off a Deep Six, 30 pulls back. Weather was calm, overcast, upper 50s (guessing). There were around 100 boats from the point down to Noisy Creek.

We hooked our first two fish immediately, so around 5:50 and 5:45. One on the Deep Six and one on a DR at 30 ft. We then lost a fish at 7am off the DR at 25 ft, meaning each set up had hooked a fish. 7:30 lost a fish after it wrapped itself in the DR cable. Then quiet until 10:15 when we had another fish on the Deep Six which put on the most amazing arial display I have ever seen from a salmon. This fish came in hot and it too got tangled into the DR cable and lost. FInally count - 2 in the boat and 3 lost. Not red hot but not shabby. We saw a fair amount of fish caught, no one seemed to have lights-out and the bite REALLY slowed down for everyone by 7am, with just sporadic fish seen caught. I have no doubt if you have the time and patience to pound the water, or do well with your hook-ups that limits are do-able, but it is not as red-hot as a Lk Washington fishery, at least not yet. Of course, the scenery more than makes up for it! Also, as stated, these fish are SMOKING HOT! Generally I think most people fished the upper 40 ft collumn and when you hook a sockeye at 20-25 feet they have a tendancy to come straight out of the water for some amazing acrobatics! I mean they gaina lot of AIR, including the dodger with them. The last one we caught had to have come out of the water three feet, easily.

We ended our day due to a dead trolling battery (bummer). If you have a chance to participate in this fishery don't hesitate. But do remember, Baker lake is a big lake and has the potential to get rough so be careful in those 10 footers.

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