The lake opened on 10-4 for coho. Although I hadn't planned on fishing it this weekend, after the Edmonds train fuel spill I decided to hit the lake instead. Matt, James, and I started fishing at 7:30am around the Yarrow Point area. There were about 30-40 boats in the area. We started out with plugs off the downriggers, running various depths. As the morning progressed I switched plugs, tried a kwikfish, even tried eggs/spin and glow combo. Nothing. Fish fish everywhere, jumping and not one bite. I did see a few caught and at 10:10 swallowed my pride and asked one boat that was pulling them in "what are you fishing with, if you don't mind saying?" Turns out the rig they were using was a sockeye rig - bare hook and flasher. I asked "are you catching silvers or sockeye?" When the response was silvers I began the switch. Within five minutes the deep pole (70 feet on the rigger) released and what came to the net was probably the biggest silver I have ever caught. I would estimate him to be in the 15 pound class. You can decide for yourself - the picture is on the front page. We had to stop at 11am and caught one more small jack salmon which we released. I thought hard about releasing the bare hook information in this report, but decided that this was the perfect opportunity to show what this site is all about - sharing valuable tips and reports. My observation today was that most people fishing were having no luck. And that's too bad considering all the silvers in the lake. So maybe this will help a few of you catch some fish you might otherwise not have. I have to admit I am mystified as to why a silver would hit a bare hook. I understood the rational for sockeyes to hit bare hooks. But silvers? I'm scratching my head. Anyway, if you're having trouble hooking the silvers on plugs or jigs, you might want to give the bare hook set up a try.

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