temperamental Bear Lake

[fishnate]

[]I got there too late in the day. Just as we pulled into the marina, at 10:30 AM, several guys were just leaving with a large sack full of whites and they said the fishing had just died. But we decided that we'd give it a go anyway. Jim Stone, "The Bear Lake Guide" was fishing the mouth of the marina in his boat, and said that fishing was good earlier but had slowed down. They still continued to catch eight or so as we watched. I suppose their advantage was that they were able to hold there lures in the strike zone longer. My kids and I fished from shore and between us we caught only one whitefish in about three hours. So the moral of the story is we should have been there earlier.
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Sorry to hear your trip wasn't as good as you hoped! It's pretty normal for things to lighten up during the daylight hours even during the heavy spawning times, as I'm sure you well know. It's the same way during the mack spawn too. It might of gotten better as evening approached. That's all well and good except when you have kids that are too young or bored to death to stay out that long, right? [/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]The fly fisherman that Old Coot refered to in his Bear Lake post was doing ok on large streamers, both in dark and white color patterns. He also hooked a 22 in lake trout when we were there in evening under the marina lights. Old Coot was catching his fair share of whites and I only got one bite using the same stuff. 1/8 oz white 1 1/2" curlytail jigs tipped with night crawlers, bouncing them across the bottom very slowly. We did have the luxury of anchoring 30 ft off the dike and working the smaller rocky/gravel areas out from the dikes, laterally. In close, you have to fight the larger, luring snagging boulders as you bring your retrieve towards or along the shoreline.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]You still got plenty of time to put a hurtin' on the whites. I might go up today and fish the late afternoon / evening for them. Right now I'm entertaining a 3 1/2 yr old and trying to persuade her that BigFishTackle is more entertaining the Disney interactive! HA![/size][/font]

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