Fishing Forum

We hit Bear Lake for a family vacation on the aforementioned dates. Kentofnsl was nice enough to give me a few cisco to try deep for the Lakers. We found that we weren't very good at that method. We would find areas that were 90 feet deep, and try to jig them, but I felt like it was hard to keep contact with the bottom. It seemed like we would be in contact, and then not, and then we would get snags. I lost a few setups that way. I was using 1 oz. jigheads with gitzits and tipped with the cisco that Kent gave us. We tried that a few mornings and weren't very successful. We were over by Cicso Beach when we were doing that. I can only think of one bite we had doing that.

We went out and fished areas that were more shallow, around 5-30 feet and had better success for smaller fish. It wasn't hard to catch 12-17 inch cuts and smaller lake trout early in the morning using spinners, small rapalas, and big spoons. It was never fast fishing, but it wasn't slow either. We would catch between 12-15 smaller fish every morning between three fisherman. We'd get out there around six and leave at nine when the boaters came along. I caught my first two lake trout, but they weren't the ones I was really after. I wanted to catch a big one, like 7 lbs or bigger. So, we had good success catching smaller trout and whitefish early in the mornings and later at night using the lures I explained. During the day, we played most of the time.

I would love to figure out how to fish the lake. My family has recently started going to Bear Lake more often. I'll have to put in the time on the water to figure out what I'm doing. I had a good time, but catching one of hte bigger fish would have made my trip. Anyways, it was a learning experience and I'd like to thank Kent for letting me borrow some cisco. Hopefully we'll do better next time.

I'll just stick to the bass and bluegill at Mantua and Jordanelle for now.

Smallmouthchaser
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The larger fish are DEEP DEEP and scattered this time of year. The larger fish can be had but one must troll with riggers to cover more area or jig deep if any activity of fish show up on sonar.

Fish it in the fall during the spawns for better chances of getting into something with size.

Still doing my time, 3 solid years, fishing at Bear Lake and putting off most other bodies of water. I have come to the conclusion that I will never realy know it enough to give solid advice, but hell, it sure is a pretty lake.
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Hi Doug, Bear lake can be tough to fish this time of year. There are only a handfull of guys on this site that can catch them year round. The fall and winter months are more productive for us part-time bear lake fisherman. Keep trying thats the only way to learn it.
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Hi Doug,

Sorry to hear that you didn't get into the big ones. You were able to catch fish, and that is more than many an angler can say after a trip to Bear Lake.
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During the summer, wind blows up-slope during the day and down-slope during the night. This is particularly true on the eastern side of the lake with its steep slopes and canyons. Insects are blown out onto the water during the evening. Small to medium size cutthroat will feed on the insects in the morning and to a lesser extent will again feed on the leftovers at dusk. Surface lures can work great under these conditions. Larger cutthroat can occasionally be caught on the surface.

Larger cutthroat feed primarily on other cutthroat, sculpin, cisco, and whitefish, but sculpin are a big part of their diet in the summer. Large lake trout feed on the same, but whitefish are a big part of their diet in the summer. Given that, if I were jigging I would first try colors resembling whitefish and/or scuplin and tip with cisco.

Look in deeper water for these larger trout and their prey. Finding the larger trout in deeper water is not that difficult, but finding actively feeding ones is tough. If you find some and can't get them to bite any jig in your tackle box, move, find some more, and try again. Perhaps move shallower and shallower until you find active fish. During the summer the thermocline starts at about 35 feet, so from from 35 to 50 feet the water temperature will drop rapidly. Studies at Bear Lake have shown that it's where this layer of water (the metalimnion) is in contact with the bottom of the lake that the most actively feeding fish will be found.

A good tactic this time of year is to go after those surface feeders in the morning and when the surface bite dies go jigging or downrigging for the big boys.
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