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Oh man I almost blew it. I had promised Karen that we would do a new moon mountain weekend so she could practice her night photography. As it turned out this weekend was the new moon and as an added bonus the weather forecasts was spectacular. The problem was that I forgot and was heading down a different path. So after some back-peddling we were heading to the mountains for the weekend. We decided to do Baker Lake during the day and shoot the night sky during the wee hours.

So this is a Baker lake report for 6/23-6/25. First let me say Baker Lake and the surrounding area was was absolutely beautiful and fish or no fish the weekend was incredible. Fish or no fish, ya right. This is a fishing report so here goes. We killed them! With the hot weather we had decided that unless a fish was mortally wounded that it would be a catch and release only weekend. I think that the fish gods rewarded us for our C & R decision. Getting a late start both days we did manage to get the boat launched before the upper Kulshan parking lot was full. Once floating our Baker Lake adventure included lots of exploring frequently interrupted by a downrigger dance party.

Although our exploring started at the Kulshan or Baker Lake Dam end of the lake, typically our serious fishing started in the general vicinity of Shannon Creek. As soon as the gear went down we were fish on and got mixed bag C&R limits each day. We caught kokanee, dollies, a coho, a very nice rainbow and a sockeye. The sockeye broke the 8# top shot just before the net and an opportunity to pose for a picture before it would have been released. The odd catch of the day a coho was about 16”. Not sure if it mistakenly hitched a ride on one of the sockeye shuttles or if it was a resident fish.

We are still working out our routine with the new boat but basically we were running swing blades and my custom kokanee flies or a Arrow Flash dodger with a Brads Kokanee Cut Plug at the end of the parade. All lures were tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler or corn. Where normally I am constantly changing gear out looking for the perfect color/action combination. This weekend I got it right coming out of the box; well maybe the fish were just not picky…

Orange and pink did the trick, our trolling speed varied between 1.0 and 1.4 MPH. I don’t remember what the water temperature was but I think it hovered around 62 degrees. Using our 2 rod endorsements we were fishing 4 rods, 2 off the riggers and 2 lead line rigs. We were running the lead line rigs at 1 to 1 ½ colors with a 60’ top shot and the riggers with 8 to 28’ of cable. Of all the fish caught only one came off a meter mark the rest were blind strikes.

Now regarding the new boat; the more we get it out on the water, working out our launch routine and dialing in the fishing end of things we are finding that it fits us well. Our big complaint for the weekend is that neither the front fish box or the transom fish box/live well will hold ice (not sure that my expectations aligned with the fact that it was almost 90 degrees 3 days in a row). I guess that I will need to fabricate a removable insulated fish box liner. Other than that, all things boat went well.

The night sky at Baker Lake is nothing short of spectacular. Karen got some incredible night sky shots and it is remarkable what pops into a picture during long exposures. We also beached the boat for a little swimming and just goofing off in the water. As usual it was another outstanding trip to Baker Lake.

Hunter757

6/26/2017 7:58:41 AM

WOW!!! Thank you for sharing.

cobrar543

6/26/2017 8:01:47 AM

Its a shame that I have never been there all the years I live here. I am going to change that soon!

fisherman92

6/26/2017 1:32:52 PM

Very cool! Its always fun having muti-species trips like that. Beautiful scenery
Thanks for sharing!

Fish Dawg

6/26/2017 2:32:31 PM

Great report as usual, Randy! Looks like a good time despite the change in plans.

I use a catch cooler bag in my livewell to overcome the ice issue. One is a standard silver horde katchkooler bag and the other is one of those Costco insulated shopping/cooler bags.
Katchkooler bag works good for big fish like king salmon or lingcod and the smaller bag works good for sockeye, Kokanee, walleye, trout. Convenient to transport fish to the cleaning table at the end of the day too.

I also have a rollaway cooler I keep on board for the people food/beverages and I store my ice in there until I have a fish bled out and ready to bag. Then the fish goes into a plastic sack and into the cooler bag followed by the ice. Plastic bag keeps the inside of he cooler bag from getting too gnarly.

That night sky shot is cool...Appears Karen has the camera dialed-in. Thanks for sharing!

Mike Carey

6/27/2017 6:38:16 AM

I like your set up, simple solutions are sometimes the best!

salmonbarry

6/26/2017 6:46:24 PM

Awesome report Randy! Great to see a report from here as I was just trying to make some plans for a visit next month! Let me know when you guys are planning on going back up there as it would be fun to have a few of us there at the same time to share some intel!!

WheresDaFish

6/26/2017 7:19:23 PM

Great report! Great pictures! But where's the pic of the fancy new boat!? ??

Fish Dawg

6/28/2017 3:07:01 PM

Great report as usual, Randy! Looks like a good time despite the change in plans.

I use a catch cooler bag in my livewell to overcome the ice issue. One is a standard silver horde katchkooler bag and the other is one of those Costco insulated shopping/cooler bags.
Katchkooler bag works good for big fish like king salmon or lingcod and the smaller bag works good for sockeye, Kokanee, walleye, trout. Convenient to transport fish to the cleaning table at the end of the day too.

I also have a rollaway cooler I keep on board for the people food/beverages and I store my ice in there until I have a fish bled out and ready to bag. Then the fish goes into a plastic sack and into the cooler bag followed by the ice. Plastic bag keeps the inside of he cooler bag from getting too gnarly.

That night sky shot is cool...Appears Karen has the camera dialed-in. Thanks for sharing!

Fish Dawg

7/11/2017 11:20:33 PM

Sorry for the repetitive comments. Cell phone browser reloaded the page and posted the comment again.

Fish Dawg

6/29/2017 3:56:04 PM

Great report as usual, Randy! Looks like a good time despite the change in plans.

I use a catch cooler bag in my livewell to overcome the ice issue. One is a standard silver horde katchkooler bag and the other is one of those Costco insulated shopping/cooler bags.
Katchkooler bag works good for big fish like king salmon or lingcod and the smaller bag works good for sockeye, Kokanee, walleye, trout. Convenient to transport fish to the cleaning table at the end of the day too.

I also have a rollaway cooler I keep on board for the people food/beverages and I store my ice in there until I have a fish bled out and ready to bag. Then the fish goes into a plastic sack and into the cooler bag followed by the ice. Plastic bag keeps the inside of he cooler bag from getting too gnarly.

That night sky shot is cool...Appears Karen has the camera dialed-in. Thanks for sharing!

Fish Dawg

7/11/2017 11:18:39 PM

Just saw this too and thought of you:

http://saltpatrol.com/reviews/wps-custom-fish-box-bags/

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