Decided to hit Bear Lake on a chilly (-3F) New Year's Day. Launched about 8:15 and fished until 10:30. The bite was decent. I landed a total of 4 fish (3 cutthroat and one small, deformed lake trout) but had a heck of day breaking off another 3 fish! Not sure why that happened since I only broke off one other fish all year? Only 3 boats fishing on the rockpile today and one of them was Kentofnsl. Not sure how he did. Fishing really slowed down about 10am and I bailed out after going the last 30 minutes with nary a bite. White tube jig tipped with a chunk of cisco and a Berkley gulp nightcrawler. 39' of water. Even with sub zero temps, there is no ice on the lake whatsoever. The deicers are running inside the marina and doing a good job of keeping it ice-free. There was small (6" high) ring of ice right where the water met the concrete ramp, but it was not a problem and I was able to launch and retrieve my boat by myself. Boat ramp has been plowed so that was nice. There is about 6" of snow on the ground around the lake.
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Thanks for the report. That definitely is a funky looking laker.
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I planned all week to go yesterday and changed my mind at the last minute. One of the things I was worried aout was lanching. Thanks for the report!
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Yea that laker needs some jaw work. I have been photoing my Fish like this on the last few trips. Much better way for survival of these beauties.
Nice job Scott
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Great pics. Thanks for sharing. Definitely a strange looking laker.
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Hey Scott,
It must have gotten colder as the day went on because by the time we left the lake yesterday, there was skim ice practically across the whole lake. We didn't even notice it until we started to head back in. Here is a quick video
http://youtu.be/v1rGmFylvp8
The marina was still ice free though
http://youtu.be/JKqrP4Ispw8
I ended up with four cutts, three whities and one cisco (not really, but one of the cutts regurgitated it). Kent had similar numbers of cutts, can't remember specifically how many though. No lakers for us.
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interesting that one of the cutts was tagged. You may have set the hook a little too hard on that mac! lol
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