Bear Lake

[jboy]

Has anyone been fishing Bear Lake recently? We were up there Saturday and didn't see anyone in a boat. There were several people fishing the marina dike. We ended up with two cuthroat all day. One was a nice 25" hatchery fish.

thanks

[ripitup2dmax]

We're you looking to catch spawning lake trout?

I saw on another site that there have been tickets issued for snagging off the marina dikes. I'm not saying you were snagging but just relaying the info I saw.
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[fish1on]

Probably didn't see many fisherman out due to weather and the Mack spawn.

Me personally, I stay away from the mac's during thier run and target the cutt's. Should all be over soon and the mack's will have the feed bag on........

I plan to be out on the boat from now until the unfortunate ice up. I hate ice fishing due to back injuries.
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[RipNLips]

Jigged the Rock Pile for a good portion of the day Saturday. Stuck one ~10# Mack and had three bytes that we didn't connect on. It's been pretty slow. Should pick up soon.
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[RipNLips]

[quote fish1on]I plan to be out on the boat from now until the unfortunate ice up.[/quote]

I'm not betting on it his year, but you never know. The Bear Lake valley is good at switching gears and getting cold fast.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

I've been talking to fishermen almost daily. The last week or so has been really good for the most part. Some days are slow, but that has likely been due to weather patterns. Yesterday (Monday) was a nice day and I talked to a couple of guys who did pretty well and another group who said it was slow. What is really different is that the bite has been turning "ON" in the afternoon and holding up until it gets dusky outside. Trolling has produced the most fish by far, but the jigging has improved a lot the last week. Yesterday the guys who did good were jigging and the ones who said it was slow were trolling. Go figure! The lake trout run is winding down and the fishing should continue to get better for both cutts and lakers in the next month.
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[jboy]

We were trolling over by cisco beach. We were just hoping to catch fish.

Does the spawn stop the bite? We saw lots of fish on the finder, but only had the two bites trolling right on the bottom. We saw most of the fish on the bottom, but 1 in 10 or so were only 20-30 feet down, but not interested. The breeze stopped at one point and I dropped a jig down and got a bite immediately, but that was the only other bite.

Thanks for the help. That was my first time fishing Bear Lake.

What is considered a good day at Bear Lake?
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[jboy]

We didn't see a single boat fishing Saturday. Which rock pile were you fishing? We fished the ones by the marina for a couple of hours in the morning then went over to cisco.

Do you drift and jig or anchor and wait for them to cruise by? Or do you search for them with the fish finder then jig for them? We couldn't decide what to do so we just kept on trolling.

thanks for any info
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[jboy]

What do you do to target the cuthroat? We caught both of our cuthroat right on the bottom in 60' of water. I was previously under the impression that the were usually shallower than that, but I am new to Bear Lake fishing.

thanks
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[fish1on]

The cutt's and macks usually hit the same lures for me trolling and jigging. I say "target" because I tend to stay out a little deeper away from the spawning areas....
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[lunkerhunter2]

3 or 4 fish and a couple missed hits has been a fairly good day for me. My best was an all-nighter and we landed i think 8 mack ranging from 24" to 36". I have had some decent days catching 4 or 5 fish including cutts and macks. There are a few people who know it well and do very good(BLFG, Rileyfish, and a few others.) I usually stay in 60' or more of water with 72' being my best depth.[cool]
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[RILEYFISH]

I took a friend up there earlier this year, Never fished bear lake before and he landed a 14 and a 9 lb mack. All within 3.5 hours. We were trolling. I have been skunked on that lake many times and will get skunked again. Its a tough lake to figure out.

It can turn on and off very fast up there. Ihave seen days where the fish wont start to hit until after 1200 each day until dusk. Then seen it stop by 1000 each day.. really wierd.

Thanks for the compliment Brody, but there are others that know that lake very very well, and they even get spanked up there alot. I love to fish that lake. its very humbleing [] to me. Specially after you spend a few days at the gorge and then go up there. WHEW! very humbleing.

Jboy, Sounds to me like your headed in the right direction. If trolling isnt working, try jigging. Never know what they will want. I like to jig when the weather allows and when the wind comes up and or the jigging isnt working, then I will Troll.

Do some research on the bear lake archives and you can pick up alot of great info on what has worked for others in the past, times of year, times of day etc. I think it will slowly get better from now until the cisco run.
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[muskyhunter]

Not a bad day at all for your first time on the pond. I have spend lots of days on there fishless[:/]!!You will have some Good days bad days, you have to put in your time and do some research. Congrats on your catch!!
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[jboy]

Thanks for all the help. I really got hooked on that Lake after just the one trip and look forward to the chess match to come.
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