Today we had a grand adventure! My friend Peter and I decided, what the heck, rseas hasn't steered me wrong before, so let's go try Baker. I have always done extemely well on LW sockeye... Left Kirkland at 6:30 and headed North.

We launched at Horseshoe Cove campground. It worked fine, but to say it is a boat ramp is a bit gratuitous. It's really a gravel spit you can back your trailer off of. The few folks playing in the water kind of looked at us funny in our hip boots as we launched. Lots of parking, though. The ramp down closer to the dam looks better but was kind of a zoo in the afternoon.

Hardly saw a boat on the lake until we rounded the corner going uplake. There must have been 50 boats off Noisy Creek. We started with pink squids and I had one with a smiley blade. Found the main school of fish right off a spot where the water depth went from about 60 to about 100 or more. Hooked a nice Dolly Varden which we released. What a cool looking fish! Wish we hadn't forgot the camera...

We had trouble getting my kicker to go slow. Messed around with it but the throttle was stuck open. We eventually decided to tip it up a bit and we towed my sea anchor. That finally got us trolling effectively (1.2 or less), but I think by then we had missed the morning bite. We saw fairly consistent action in the morning with somebody having a fish on every 10 minutes or so until 10 or 11, just not us.

Around 12:00 Peter decided to change to bare blue hooks. Within about 20 minute he had a nice fish on and about a 7 pounder in the boat! We then switched out the other poles to bare hooks in black or red behind 0/0 dodgers with prism tape. The wind really came up, but it also seemed like the bite came back on. We lost a bunch of fish. They really do fight well up there! By 4 pm we had our fourth fish in the boat and could head out. Most of our fish were hooked at 50 or 55 feet.

Did some exploring as we headed back down lake. It looks like Panorama Point has a decent dirt ramp as well.

Headed to Cascade Burgers in Concrete for some well deserved grub (try the P-57 Mustang burger with Heinz 57 and onion rings in it), then headed home. A long, good day!

BTW - I checked with the WDFW, and if you have a 2 pole endorsement you CAN use it for sockeye in Baker. Sockeye like lots of flash, so an extra dodger down there can't hurt!

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