My family and I camped at Horseshoe Cove and fished Baker Lake Friday (7-22) through Sunday (7-24). Sorry for the long fishing report.

Friday 7-22 - We got a late start and left Arlington around 6am. It was pouring rain on the way up to Baker, and we had to make a couple stops for ice and bait so we didn't launch out until 8:30. It was our first time launching out of Horseshoe Cove. The launch isn't much, basically a small narrow dirt pad that drops off on one side, so you have to back straight up, then kink your trailer to the side to launch. You also have to be careful when heading out of the launch, because there is a shallow bar that extends out pretty far. Being our first time there, we decided to do some exploring around the area. I was surprised by the amount of boats fishing this area. We saw a boat cleaning a fish straight out from the launch area, so we started there. The water depth in the area is all over the place. It seemed the middle of the lake was shallow, then dropped off on the edges. We were constantly raising/ lowering the downriggers. We made a few passes in the area, and marked a few fish, but no bites, so we headed to the upper lake. We started around Noisy Creek like we always do and made our laps around the lake until about 2pm without a single bite or seeing anyone catch anything so we headed into camp.

Saturday 7-23 - Between the noisy campers a few sites down yelling and partying all night, and our air mattress deflating in the middle of the night, we weren't able to get up as early as I wanted. My dad, brother and I launched out around 7am that morning after having some breakfast and coffee. Lots of boats were trolling around the dam, so we headed there. Our exploring the day before kind of helped us know where to watch out for as far as shallow areas. We dropped the gear and pointed the boat North. We marked a few fish, but not enough to keep us interested in fishing the area, so we headed to the upper lake. This time, I decided to stay away from the crowd, and start closer to the middle of the lake. Right away we were marking fish, and 5 minutes later we get a bite at 40 feet at 8:30 am. My brother fights the fish, and after getting the net caught on a rod holder, and missing the fish once, I manage to get his fish in the boat. It was a nice hen, probably around 6 lbs. I mark the spot on the Garmin, and circle the area a few times before continuing our troll around the lake. We fished the Noisy creek area, Shannon Creek area and the Swift Creek area with no bites and not many marks on the fish finder, so we decide to hit the spot where we caught our only fish once more. We end up hooking up again at the same spot, this time 50 feet down, but loose the fish shortly after. We headed in around 11am. At the ramp, I see Mike Carey walking his dogs as we were pulling our boat out and we chat for a bit (we were in the white Lowe). Nice to meet you Mike, hope you slayed them out there. Back at camp, my dad chats with our neighbor. A few minutes later he comes back with a full cup of home cured shrimp and intel on what they are biting. The guy had 7 fish Friday, and 4 Saturday. We go back over to thank him, and he showed us his setups, gave us a few of his hand tied rigs, went over how he cures his shrimp, and told us where he fishes, and what depths. We were blown away. Not many people are willing to give out secrets like that. I didn't catch his name, but thank you kind sir. We were motivated now, so we head back out there around 1pm and troll until about 5pm with no luck.

Sunday 7-24 - Our neighbor motivated us and we were up by 4:30 am and launched out by 5. We didn't want to head up lake in the darkness so we head straight out of the launch and troll an area we marked fish the day before. We set the downriggers at 30ft and 40ft and head North. Shortly afterwords, we get a hit on the setup our neighbor gave us. I take the rod out of the Folbe, get the line released, feel a few head shakes then its gone. We were pumped that we got a take down so quick. We end up doing a couple passes over the spot again until its light enough to head up lake without risk of hitting any logs. Once up there again, we start in the middle of the lake and head East. We circle the area a few times, dodging all the debris and end up only getting one other bite that did not stick. We head back to the launch around 10am defeated once again. We did see our neighbor out there and he was having a tough day also.

All 3 days out there, very little fish were marked on the Garmin and I saw only a total of about 4 fish caught. Saturday we got lucky and dropped right on some schools of fish. Most we spoke to had tough days and no fish. I uploaded a snapshot of my gps which shows our tracks. We covered the lake pretty good. The waypoint on there is where we caught our only fish. I have no idea where the 14k fish are at, but it seems if you can get super lucky and find a school and the stars are aligned just right, and you pray to the fish gods, you will get one. The rig that caught our fish, and lost another was a white Double D dodger, 20" leader (swivel to back of trailer hook), silver smile blade, uv hoochie and two red 1/0 hooks with the upper hook tipped with a small piece of pink shrimp. I also trimmed every other leg off the hoochie. The other bite came off the rig our neighbor gave us which was similar to mine, but with a short 14" leader (swivel to back of trailer hook). We tried various dodgers, leader lengths, hoochies, beads, smile blade rigs, different color bait, but the white dodger/ uv hoochie seemed the best. I have a 30hp Mercury 4 stroke and troll at 1.5mph at idle. I used 2 Amish Outfitter trolling bags to slow down to under 1mph. Most fish marks were from 20-60 ft no matter the time of day with some fish marks real deep 75-90. Overall, the fishing is very stale up there. I believe we put in around 20 hrs over the weekend and saw little caught. I would not go up there expecting a 5 fish limit for everyone in the boat (or 5 fish period). The experience with family and scenery up there make the trip worth taking. We will be back there again next weekend to try our luck again. Good luck out there.

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