Fishing Forum

Yesterday (Saturday) Kent and I took the 2.5 hour (I drive fast so probably only 2) drive for one last go at Bear lake. We started out in 90 feet, but with only a small one, we quickly moved closer to the rockpile. We set up shop and stayed in one location most of the day. We ended up with over 10 cutts/lakers on the ice and a few whitefish as well. The largest for the day was a 7 pound laker. I am not proud to say that I easily had over 50 solid bites throughout the day, had many hookups with long distance releases and a number of fish that got off at right at the hole. But I did still put a number of fish on the ice. Saturday was also the first time I had landed a lake trout. Kent had way less bites, but had a higher landing percentage.

After I got home I decided that less than 4 hours of sleep would suffice and drove up today (Easter) for one last try at ice fishing this season. Had the whole area to myself. Beautiful weather (both days were great) as well. After daybreak one other angler came out and we chatted for a bit. He got one cutt fairly quickly and I had yet to mark a fish. I then hooked up with what I knew as a good one. I had 20 pound braid and a 12 or 14 pound leader and it took over 10 minutes to get it off the bottom. I got it to the hole three times and each time it went back to the bottom. The guy came over to try and help me towards the end. As we see it in the hole he is yelling it’s a 20-30 pounder and I knew I was in trouble. I finally got the fish’s head in the hole, I tried grabbing my jig to lift it out of the hole and almost had it out when the fish came unbuttoned. Bye, bye down the hole the fish went.Of course, that is how it always ends right???????

Wait, the guy lunges toward the hole and grabs it right as it was passing the end of the hole and is able to pull it on the hardeck! I actually tried getting a video of the very end but it didn’t turn out, only pictures. 35 inches long, 21 inch girth, but the only scale I had was 15 pounds which wasn’t big enough. Not too shabby way to end my ice fishing season.

By the way, there is water all along the edges of the lake and it won’t be long before you need waders to get on the ice.
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I was up there yesterday and caught 4 native cuts . It is good right now.
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Way to go Kory. I couldn't believe how many bites you got yesterday.
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And here I was thinking about going up there this weekend[crazy], I guess I went to the wong place. Looks like you and Kent made the right decision. Thanks for sharing your report and pics. Much better than those carbon copy cutts at the Berry[]. Did you guys get wet getting off the ice?
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We didn't get wet because all of that water is less than a foot deep. Then right after that are sheets of ice stacked on top of each other. Then the lake which has 10-14 inches of ice. I think the sheets of ice may start to break up soon and make it difficult to get on.
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So glad that you took my advice. I knew it would be a banner day. This week people were kicking some serious butt out there. The ice is going along the shoreline. Not sure how much longer we have before we can get on the hard deck. But I am sure of one thing. It will be at least a few weeks before the lake is open water.
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That's AWESOME!!! Nice J for sure.
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Duude- you need to learn to hold those fish OUT so they LOOK big when you snap that photos. Oh wait - it DID look big anyway!!!!

Sheez - looks like you got on em. Maybe they're done puking up the cisco- and are into second breakfast!?

So where was my invite? I done bought bigger rods, sturdier, and some fat-big tube jigs - just for... then I dropped the ice bucket and sled OUT of the car . . .

Nice going bud! Kewl that the few limited neighbors you had were able to jump in and lend a hand. Seemed like nice camaraderie every time up there. Good folks. Congrats!!

Where all your bites tiped. With Cisco
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Most were tipped with cisco though I did get the second largest using a worm.
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