, for Baker sox, that is.

Most of the usual suspects have grown wary of me and conveniently had other plans, mostly non-fishing, for the weekend. Like Stam, they know that not only can nothing good come from fly fishing, but most likely going fishing for anything with Salmo will be like having a banana in the boat. In fact, he did have a d@mn banana in the boat! But S. salar didn't see the slow curve ball coming his way and couldn't think of an excuse not to meet up with me at Baker Lake this weekend.

The traffic, no, not on the lake, on I-5. Driving up there Friday took as long as driving to Idaho, so I was exhausted before I began. Talking to some locals at the Kulshan campground (all others being all full up) - and a ghetto campground if there ever was one - I learned that start time is more about launch time then when to begin fishing. You can launch any time of day, but you can also park your rig and boat trailer in the ditch a quarter mile down the highway. So it was up at 3:00 AM to beat the 4 o'clock crowd at the ramp. Good, only 5 boats ahead of us in line, making us about the 30th or 40th boat to launch, and I was able to park less than 1/8 mile away - and for half price, no less, thanks to that dandy Senior Pass!

OK, it's dark, now what? The Lund, lacking a cabin, has no cabin lights, not to mention running lights. However I felt a lot more secure than if I'd been in that inflatable Sevalor I spotted later trolling on the lake. I cautiously motored across the lake to join the sockeye amarda, but it was still pitch dark. So we used the lantern I brought to finish rigging and tipping the terminal gear.

Dawn came clear and sunny, with a view of Mt. Baker that is second to none. I'd insert a photo of it here, like many of the others, had I bothered to make sure that my camera battery wasn't dead before I left home. So the rod tip bounced a couple times from what seemed like sure hits, with no stick. Third time was the charm as a suicidal sockeye stuck itself on my hooks. Action for salar and I was sporadic, but we enjoyed the sun, even made breakfast in the boat - I can't eat breakfast at 3:00 AM. We stuck it out til noon and gave up with 5 fish in the boat out of 12 hits. It turned out that the last fish didn't even have to be netted as it jetted toward the boat and launched itself over the transom, landing in front of my kicker, flailing away. Some of them are scrappy fish.

Pleased that he'd suckered for my invite, salar made salacious promises to his wife to secure a kitchen pass for Sunday as well. 3:00 again? Yeah, 3:00. I forgot that my alarm was still set for 3:30, having woken up early yesterday, so it was 3:26 when I happened to look at my clock, rolled out of the tent and saw salar's car parked in front of the boat. We rolled up to the ramp with a couple fewer boats ahead of us than the day before, and I was able to secure the same parking spot as yesterday. BTW, don't try walking 1/8 mi. through the forest in the middle of the night without a flashlight. If mine had gone out, I would have been wandering until daylight.

It was overcast with an off and on misty drizzle this morning, making the whole navigation in the dark somewhat less inviting - and darker - than the day before. But it was light enough to see where I was going by 5 minutes of 5, so we dropped gear in the water and commenced trolling. Maybe the weather change, but the rod tip bounced for the first time within minutes, and the first fish was in the boat only a few minutes later. Action was far more consistent than Saturday, and at 7:10 we were required to quit fishing.

Did I mention that the weather changed? Home now, I have my tent hanging to dry. What I don't love about camping in this state is getting to put my tent away twice - once wet and then again after drying it. All in all it was a satisfying outing, although I desperately need another nap. The short one at the Smokey Point rest stop, interrupted twice by arriving and departing semis, weren't enough. The ice chest with 11 sockeye fillets (had one for dinner last night) will keep me smiling all week. And I even would have posted some photos if the camera battery weren't dead, so I decided to share the weekend via story.

Sg

Nice to see you out and about fishing, Sg! Hard to find solitude and fish at the same time any more, but I'm glad you had a productive trip.

Remember the days of going all day, all night, the next day and not sleeping until later?? Where did the time go?

Best to you

What "go to" terminal rig did you settle on, SG? Bare hooks, Michael Baits, or something else?

Cool report, although it made me sleepy and tired just reading it.

Nice Salmo!

I'm not very familiar with the area, much less the lake. Since this is a relatively new fishery, I'm curious if the parks/campgrounds/launches in and around the lake are set up to handle the wave of fishermen and boats as you describe? Could there be improvement/expansion of facilities if this becomes a yearly event?

I'm just throwing this out there as an open-ended question to anyone.

Glad you made a nice haul of fish.

Packer, your new signature is friggen HOT! brewery likey.

and yes "not your wife". or anybody else you know.

Slab, I've arrived at that age where I need my beauty sleep, tho not really for beauty.

Parker, by tomorrow the "tired" part might not be the most memorable part of the trip, but it is now. I can't stay asleep for more than a few minutes at a time. Didn't have all the toys for Michael bait, so used most everything else I heard about: red hooks, pink beads, pink mini squid dressed in krill juice, and a bit o' prawn. Drove 'em wild. I watched 3 sox following and chasing my gear yesterday, but they spooked and turned away when salar stuck the net in the water to net the fish he had on.

Eric, Baker was popular before the sockeye fishery. Normally all USFS campgrounds are full every weekend in July through Labor Day unless a real gully washer blows through. Sockeye fishermen are about half the campers it looked like, with 200 boats on the lake Saturday. A fish cleaning station would be nice. I found a flat-top log along the shore and made an impromtu set up, in keeping with the "natural" setting the USFS wants to maintain. Additional development seems unlikely.

Sg

Entertaining report Sg. Did you really get them on fly rods? If so, we need more details. I fished Baker a lot as a kid for kokanee. Opening day was crazy the place was packed. Used to be all the hill billy red necks would head up there and camp, get drunk, and get hauled out by the paddy wagon. No joke. Half were there for the fishing, the other have there for the parties. But the view of Baker is stunning up Boulder Creek. I have been seeing all the reports and pictures on another fishing site. The idea of trolling with down riggers or banana weights doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'll take my float tube out there with a Rio Deep 7?

Dave D,

I don't think I mentioned fly fishing for them. The way we fished was to fly fishing as nymphing for steelhead is to fly fishing. This is meat fishing at its finest. I don't have down riggers, and I took basically the same salmon fishing gear that I'll haul to B-10 in three weeks, with the addition of chrome dodgers and mini squid hootchies.

While the flavor of fresh sockeye off the grill is stimulating, I could have bought limits of sockeye at the market for what the trip cost, and gotten a lot more sleep. The main reason for going is that I've worked on this project since 1985. Actually fishing for the sockeye is a cool connection with our collaborative efforts with PSE coming to fruition.

Sg

Glad to see that you had a good time, workin the riggers and pullin da Kokes! While it was not the worm or rod of choice, it sounds like good times where had.

Matt

Yeah, I figured that out after I posted. I saw "Flyboys" and assumed you were fly fishing for them since that is generally your preferred fishing method.

Pretty amazing how a new fishery can really stimulate interest in a hurry. I still maintain you could catch them on a fly line slow trolling but then again, I'm a firm believer in using the right tool for the job, especially in a meat fishery.

Dave -
If one were going to try to take those Baker sockeye on a fly this would be the year. With the cool summer and big snow pack the lake temperatures are way cooler than last year (last week surface temps in the high 50s and only 50 degrees down 25 feet or so) and as a result the fish are holding much shallower that usual.

Good numbers of fish can be caught 25 feet or less down below the surface - much easier to reach with convential fly gear than the normal 35 to 70 or more feet down. Some of the fish at daylight were down only 15 feet or so.

Tight lines
Curt

Cool stuff, Sg and Ss. Thanks for getting my mid-week daydreaming started on Monday morning.

Sweet! I was hoping you two were going to do what you did.