I have never been to bear lake, but it seems like that is the closest place to me that has lakers in it. I plan on doing vertical jigging from my kayak and am wondering where do people usually catch them? I can virtually put in anywhere so I can drive to the nearest shore and paddle away. Any info would be much apprieciated thank you.
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First off check the funky regulations on launching boats at Bear Lake, I think our great leaders passed some stupid law trying to save us from the invasive species, but if I remember correctly you have to launch from approved ramps only... I would recommend trying the east side of the lake, maybe launch at first point ramp and get in about 70 FOW head north and then use your finder to locate the fish.. I suspect Scott Tolenteno BLFG will give you some good up to date info, but if he doesn't try my recommendation, I suspect less pleasure boats will be cruising there than the rock pile, so hopefully it will work out for you... Good luck... J
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You can put your kayak in anywhere you want. You just can't drive to the waters edge anywhere but the boat ramps, but you can park along the lake and carry them down to launch. Also, make sure you stop at the boat check station coming into the valley even with a kayak or they will send an officer to pull you over.
Now, that being said, if it were me, I would go over to Cisco beach and go out over anywhere from 35-65' of water and drop your jig tipped with a small strip of cut bait to the bottom and reel up about 12-18". Let the waves do your jigging for you or use small amounts of jigging action if you must jig by hand. The hits can be quite subtle and many times they will chase it to the top as you miss the hits. If you miss the hit, stop and keep subtly jigging and most times the fish will hit it again. Like I said, this can go on all the way to the surface if you keep missing the hook set.
White 3-4" tube jigs and also rainbow trout colored tubes are what I do best on here.
Good luck and let us all know how it goes for you.
P.s. look for the methane bubbles coming up to the surface in those water depths and fish right on top of them, it seems to be a little better in those spots.
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And if I were to take my boat up and troll, what are some good setups to use?
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Same area is good for trolling. Try the same depths as jigging, 35-65' and drag rainbow rapalas, gold spoons, really any minnow imitating lure in rainbow thru gold hues. Deeper is even not a bad idea, but I usually start at those depths first and move out from there. Also, trolling in the middle of the water columns sometimes pays off over the deep water, but I would start on the bottom first.
I actually prefer jig fishing to trolling on this lake, but others have great success trolling.
Off rainbow bay, first and second points on the east side are all good spots also in the same depth ranges.
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