Fishing Forum

I made it over to Bear Lake again for the annual family get together at the lake house. During this family shindig the boat is usually occupied with tube riders, wake boarders and water skiers and so fishing time is usually pretty limited. However, we were able to get out on a few short trips when our clan’s water-sporters weren’t awake yet, or after they had already worn themselves out for the day. We were able to make it out a couple evenings and mornings.

Each trip was probably only 1.5 to 2.5 hours long, so were not able to put a whole lot of time into it. We also took out some smaller kiddos, so that was about the extent of their attention span for fishing…not to mention the expiration time of the patience of the adults on the boat.

Two of my nephews caught their first Bear Lake Cutthroats.


The smaller fish were very colorful with their backs matching the blue of the lake.


My 10-year-old daughter was excited to catch her biggest fish yet; a 9-lb 30” Lake Trout.

In all we made 3 sundown trips 2 late morning trips and 1 early morning trip for a total of about 13 hours of fishing time.

Total fish count: 15 fish
14 Cutthroats: between 12" – 24" long (5 clipped fins – 9 native fish)
1 Lake trout: 30” L 9 lbs

We were fishing in 55 – 95 FOW over sandy bottom (which surprised me) and running our lures between 45 and 55 feet down. All but 4 fish were actually caught between the hours of 10 am – noon. Two were caught around 8:00 am and two were caught around sunset. We were marking on the fish finder what appeared to be bait balls down about 50 - 60 ft. After watching some grebes dive down and come back with Cisco in their beaks, I’m guessing we were seeing small schools of Cisco on the screen.

Lures that worked:
Orange dodger w/ orange squid
Pink dodger w/ pink squid
Bahama Mama dodger w/ pink squid
Funky Frog dodger w/ pink Spin n’ Glo
Silver/Blue Rapala Husky Jerk
Pale yellow Wally Diver
[signature]

Some happy kids there.
[signature]

Nice report and sounds like you had a great vacation... Fun for all it sounds like... Thanks for sharing the report... J
[signature]

[quote kentofnsl]Some happy kids there.[/quote]

Happy indeed! Although some kids were a little jealous that their sister caught such a big fish...but then they got over it and were happy for her.
[signature]

Good on ya keep those kids fishing its always nice when the see some reward for there effort
[signature]

Thanks for posting your detailed report and pics. From the sounds of it you and your crew did good, anytime you can average over a fish an hour at Big Blue, you are doing good, IMO. Always good to have kids happy when they are fishing, so I'm glad it all worked out. Nice Lake trout too. Another possibility is those bait balls were chubs, Scott told me a few year back that when the lake is full, there are more chubs there.
[signature]

[quote Lundboy54]Good on ya keep those kids fishing its always nice when the see some reward for there effort[/quote]

I'm always grateful for any fishing trip with kids that doesn't end up getting skunked. I figure anytime that kids can spend outside and away from the xBox is a win in my book.
[signature]

[quote wiperhunter2]...anytime you can average over a fish an hour at Big Blue, you are doing good, IMO. [/quote]

I've had a trip or two to Bear Lake that were better than a fish per hour, but I've had way more that were a lot slower or absolutely skunky. I felt pretty lucky that we caught what we did for this time of year.

[quote wiperhunter2]...Another possibility is those bait balls were chubs, Scott told me a few year back that when the lake is full, there are more chubs there.[/quote]

I've only ever seen one chub caught at Bear Lake in all my years. I'm sure others have caught plenty, but not me. They very well could have been chubs. The picture I posted from my sonar wasn't the best example of the bait balls. Some were really big groups and you could see the tiny individual marks on the screen. You could also see the bigger fish lurking below them. I'd like to ask Scott sometime what percentage of the fish population in B.L. are chubs.
[signature]

Know what u are talking about with the bait balls been fishing it alot over the last month and have seen the same thing
[signature]

Quote:Know what u are talking about with the bait balls been fishing it alot over the last month and have seen the same thing

I've been messaging with BearLakeFishGuy and he said that the schools of bait I was seeing on the sonar are cisco.
[signature]