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BAMM! Got your attention? OK, 4;45am I awoke a minute before my alarm and warmed up the boat motor, idled out of the anchorage my wife JoAnn and I set up at Noisy Creek (amazing spot, BTW) and headed out to begin trolling, just south of Noisy Creek in the bay between Noisy and Silver Creek. Three rods (I have the 2 rod endorsement). Two on riggers, one Deep 6. The usual sockeye rigs, a variety of colors (two of which I'm keeping a secret, let's just say it's good to experiment - or, watch the video when it comes out). Cured Sand Shrimp chunk on a couple rods to start. Within 10 minutes our first fish, turns out to be a 12" kokanee. Safely returned to the water. It's now 5:30 and no hits, I see a couple fish on the FF and the flotilla of 50-60 boats a mile away. Should we move? Are all the fish down there and not up here? Fiddle sticks! These fish are everywhere. Trust my instincts.

The bite begins, not a rush of hits, but steady, relentless, none-stop until 7am. When it slows down we have four cookie-cutters in the cooler and have lost another two. Plus, the electric DR has issues so now we have one DR and two Deep Sixes. If this was lake Washington I'd be worried, but not Baker. The Deep Six has been keeping up with the DRs. We fished the riggers at 20 and 25 ft and the Deep Six at 30 pulls. OK, things have slowed down - should we join the masses west of Silver Creek? NO!

We decide to troll over to the opposite shoreline, which would be the Shannon Creek side and set our trolling path due west. There are maybe 8-12 boats scattered in this area. Which suits me just fine running Deep Six set ups.

BAMM! Fish # 5 in the boat off a Deep Six at 50 pulls. A little latter BAMM! A double! First fish in the boat off the DR at 25 ft, second fish (would be #7) safely released, came off the Deep Six again at 50 pulls.

Limits at 8am, nice. I think my wife is my lucky charm because every time she decides to go with me (not often enough) we do great and she happily tells me "this was fun - it's easy catching these fish!" If only it always was that way, LOL.

Lessons of the day for Baker lake: #1, don't be afraid to go away from the crowd. There are now a lot of fish in the lake and this far end has fish everywhere, even in the middle. #2, what a great fishery if you don't have a DR. 30-50 pulls on a Deep Six puts you right into the fish. How easy is that? I hope this fishery keeps holding up, I'm looking forward to at least one more trip. :-)

I've marked the hotspots so if you're a Premium Member you can see exactly where we caught these fish.

Note: JoAnn refused to have a picture taken: #1 "I'm not touching that fish" #2 "I don't even have my hair combed". What can I say?

deepbuzzer

8/1/2011 2:37:00 PM

Nice Mike,, way to start the morning.. Tell JoAnn, she catches the fish she is the one to hold it for a picture for the world to see.. Ha HA

kevinb

8/1/2011 4:04:00 PM

Right on Mike,nice job and great pics,I really like Mt.Baker in the background

Matt

8/1/2011 4:56:00 PM

Haha, very entertaining report Mike, glad to hear you guys did well.

bryanpeck

8/1/2011 6:46:00 PM

Nice report Mike. Thanks for the tips and glad to see the bite is picking-up. We fished Saturday and Sunday. Saturday 4 of us had six hook-ups and only landed 3. Then it got hot so we jumped in the lake. Sunday the low pressure system seems to have made the fish more comfortable. Same four anglers had 2 doubles and one triple and left for home at about 9:30 with 10 fish between us. Sure we could have limited given a littel more time, but had to leave to get my daughter home for another activity.

Tight Lines!

Fish Dawg & Co.

natetreat

8/1/2011 7:37:00 PM

Nice fish! Every report I read makes me more and more stoked to get up there. Awesome that you're catching 'em without a DR, makes our odds go up!

Mike Carey

8/1/2011 7:48:00 PM

absolutely. I would say today was 50/50 Deep 6 vrs. DR. 25-50 pulls... magic. Of course there is more to it than that. Getting away from the main group of boats I am pretty sure made a big difference. Less pressure meant our rigs were being seen first as we passed over the biters. I was marking fish all the way from one shore to the other and there was no one fishing the middle section as we crossed over. I even marked, targeted, and hooked one going over. That was way cool to do. Course, for that you need a DR.

MarkFromSea

8/1/2011 7:50:00 PM

Awesome! Can't wait to get there myself.

hydra

8/1/2011 8:16:00 PM

NICE!

Dave

8/1/2011 9:13:00 PM

Hi Mike. I'm so glad you got to go to Baker and that you did so well. While fishing last Friday I wondered about the boats fishing just south of the Shannon Creek launch but elected to stay with the masses. I will be out there again this Friday before daylight. I hope we can pull off as successful trip as you did. Great report.....

Toni

8/2/2011 9:17:00 AM

Good Report. What colors? LOL ;-)

bob johansen

8/2/2011 9:33:00 AM

Great report -- And nice photos -- especially the one with Mt. Baker in the background. A tip of the hat to your wife for her photo work!

bob johansen

8/2/2011 9:37:00 AM

The Baker Lake in our WL index makes no mention of sockeye in Baker. Maybe you should add it and post the photo of your fish with the mountain in the background.

Mike Carey

8/2/2011 10:19:00 AM

thanks for the reminder. Updated lake overview.

BonitoFish

8/2/2011 10:53:00 AM

It is nice you had a blast on Baker Lake. The only thing that confuses me is two pole endorsement. I just checked regulations (wdfw01185.pdf, p62) and I can not see that two poles are allowed on Baker Lake (like for example for Anderson Lake on the same page).

BonitoFish

8/2/2011 11:01:00 AM

My bad. Two pole endorsement is in emergency rule change.

Anonymous

8/3/2011 6:19:00 AM

Great! Where do you buy Smiley blades? What color?

Mike Carey

8/3/2011 6:24:00 AM

hmmm. I would guess any of the major sporting goods stores would have them. We actually never used them. The ones in the video are a picture of rigs from rseas.

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