Combined report for Baker Fish Camp 2012 Thursday, 7/26 - Saturday, 7/28.

Overall impression for this trip is that the fishing pressure has really put a hurt on the sockeye bite. Weekdays there are a mere 175 boats on the water and by Saturday it’s more like 375. That’s a whole lot of flashers flying around confusing and scattering schools of fish. Proud to say we didn’t get skunked on any of our fishing days, as we saw many boats with no fish and far less catching going on than most previous trips. It was tough to scratch out the few fish we managed on the same gear that produced many limits over the past two years. Still glad to head home with fresh sockeye in the cooler, pictures in the camera, and fish stories added to our memories.

Got into Concrete late Wednesday evening and stayed at the Grandy Creek KOA in one of their Kamping Kabins for Wednesday and Thursday evenings. By the time we got everything unloaded and got to sleep it was past midnight so we were not too aggressive about getting a super early start on Thursday.

Arrived at Swift launch Thursday about 5:30 AM and there were several others in line waiting to launch. Finally got the boat in the water about 6:00 AMand made it over to the Noisy Creek area to start fishing by about 6:30. Ran our usual gear which consists of Abe & Al #1 flashers customized with gold scale tape, short (9” – 14”) 30 lb test leaders, double red and/or black hooks from 2/0 to 4/0 with 1.5” pink mirror smile blades on top of a pink, red, or glow bead of 3 mm – 4 mm. These rigs have produced multiple limits in 2010 and 2011 including numerous double and even a few triple hook-ups. We added bait to both hooks consisting of fresh cooked cocktail shrimp dyed with Bad Azz U/V red and flavored with shrimp/prawn, freshwater shrimp, or krill oil. Shrimp/prawn flavor seemed to produce the most bites during this trip. We also added krill paste to the flashers. Thankfully, grabbed the left over bait from our 7/15 trip from the freezer while packing up to leave as the fresh shrimp my wife bought Wednesday sat in the scorching hot car for 2 hours while we took my son out for 21st b-day dinner and got the shrimp cooked down to unusable mush. Wasn’t sure the frozen shrimp would be firm enough to stay on the hooks, but these produced every one of our fish over the 3 days fishing. Started our day running two off downriggers at 15’ and 25’ and a surface line with gold sling blade and tequila sunrise hoochie. Trolled this rig for one circuit between Noisy Creek and Silver Creek and back with no takers. Retrieved the surfaced line and went to a stacked set-up on one rigger at 25’ and 40’ with the rigger on the other side set at 18’. Finally got a good take down and the Fish Princess got him to the boat where he was netted, bled out, and introduced to the ice bath waiting in the live well. Also, had several bites that did not produce hook-ups on Thursday. Not sure if these were short striking adults, as I haven’t seen this behavior before, or if these were juveniles or trout going for the bait and too small to get hooked. Also lost one of my treasured sockeye rigs (the one that produced the only fish of the day) to the snaggy bottom on the north side of the lake across from Noisy Creek in about 60’ of water while prospecting for schooling fish. Troll shallow here or risk losing gear. Finished the day 1 for 1 with at least a fish for dinner. Was hot and sunny and we enjoyed the pool at the KOA after a short nap.

Friday morning we got an earlier start arriving at Swift launch around 3:45. Made it up to the Silver Creek area and lines in the water between 4:15 and 4:30. Ran stacker at 25’ and 40’ with shallower rig on the other rigger. Would have stacked that one too except I broker the clip on one of my stackers the day before so was down to just one. Also ran a surface line. Took us about 45 minutes to get into our first fish on the 25’ line. The Fish Princess again expertly angled the fish to boat and into the box went #1 for the day. Reset gear running 2 lines at 25’ and in another 30 minutes or so got another hit. Passed this one to my wife and she played him for a few minutes before he long released. That was it for a while then at about 7:00 on a pass of Silver Creek we saw a few boats with fish on and had a hard take down with the fish pulling the line free of the release clip. It was a real screamer making an insane run directly away from the stern of the boat. The fish made a porpoise leap and as soon as he dug into the water again he broke me off at the leader (30 lb test but a veteran of too many battles me thinks). So I’m muttering a few choice words as I turn to put away the pole and grab another pre-rigged set-up when I notice a fish jumping next to the boat and it’s trailing a flasher…my flasher. So, I spin and grab the pole that has now released from the rigger at 25’ on the other side of the boat. We play this one to net and introduce it to our other victim of the day. Would have been a double had my other leader not broken. It was overcast and much cooler than Thursday. Wife was cold and we had to get back to check out of the KOA and into Grandy Creek Cabins for Friday evening so we had fish cleaned and were off the water by 8:30. As we got to the Swift launch we noticed a few hundred fresh sockeye milling around the launch area as the fish truck had just left. Pretty neat to see and my daughter loved it. Finished our day 2 for 4 with possibilities for more if we had stayed out longer. We enjoyed a field trip to the adult fish trap where it was good to see several hundred more fish waiting in the holding pen and many of them jumping at the upstream gate. Enjoyed dinner at Cascade Burgers and packed it in for the evening.

Were at the launch at about 3:30 Saturday morning and it was already a zoo with rigs being parked up the driveway. Got the boat launched and motored slowly to the Noisy area. Had lines in the water before we could see without aid of headlamps. The early bite never really materialized for us or any of the boats in the area. We changed depths and switched out gear. We trolled inside close to shore and outside further away from the traffic to no avail. Finally, I got way away from the crowd and headed across the lake form Noisy Creek side to Shannon side and got a take down at 55’. Fish Princess was asleep so I grabbed this one and hollered for her to grab the net. I played the fish to boat and she swung and missed with the net so the fish took off on another run. We did this again and on the third trip back to the boat she got the net under him and we booted the skunk unceremoniously from the boat. Trolled for another 30 or 45 minutes and had another take down. The Fish Princess battled this one but lost it. Gave it everything we had and trolled until the last possible minute to see if we could get her into another fish but it wasn’t meant to be. Had to be off the water early again to check out of the cabin and head for home.

My daughter and I each went 2 for 3 and my wife was 0 for 1 for a combined 3 day tally of 4 for 7. Glad to have 4 fresh sockeye but not what we’re used to from this jewel of a fishery. We have reservations at Swift again this weekend but Brewster is looking better all the time and the SKC Puget Sound Anglers derby is also this weekend…so many choices.

Tight Lines!

Fish Dawg

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