Great opening day on Baker Lake. I was fishing with my buddy Dan and his father in-law. We arrived at the Swift Creek launch at about 4:30 am and there were maybe 6 trucks with empty boat trailers parked in the empty parking lot. Lines in the water shortly after 5:00 am. First fish came at 5:24 and two others followed by 6:00am. The next three came by 7:55 am and we were heading in. 4 of the 6 were 28 inches and I believed weighed around 7 or so pounds. All 6 fish gave a heck of a fight! We were fishing in 150 feet of water, gear at 24 feet. Silver flashers, about 16 inches of leader with 2 red Gamakatsu 02 hooks holding fresh live sand shrimp. We ran two on down riggers and one down the middle on a deep six diver maybe 18' deep. The middle rod took 3 fish. (keep that "live fresh" sand shrimp in mind).... Not a lot of folks catching fish around us however we did see folks picking up a fish here and there. Not a lot of boats on the lake while we were there which was suprising and nice.

Day 2 of fishing July 11th 2013: Same scenario as above except we realized after 2 hours watching everyone around us catching fish that our "fresh live sand shrimp" actually stunk like it was old and spoiled. I truly believe spoiled sand shrimp was the reason we didn't get a single strike while boats all around us were picking up fish. Lesson learned? Check the bait at the shop before you buy it to insure it's fresh!

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