Bear Lake Fishing/Conditions Thursday 2/3/22

[BearLakeFishGuy]

[font="Roboto Slab", Lato, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Bear Lake is entirely frozen, and ice fishing has been good for anglers along the east side of the lake, from the pump house north to Second Point. The ice on the east side averages 4 to 7 inches thick, but it can be very variable in many places due to springs and methane vents on the bottom of the lake. Temperatures in the Bear Lake Valley are frigid right now, and ice along the west side of the lake is getting thicker. We’re not aware of any anglers who have ventured onto the ice along the western shoreline yet, though. If you’re planning to ice fish, be extremely careful. No matter where you fish on the ice at Bear Lake, bring a spud bar so you can check how thick the ice is as you walk around. You should also wear a set of rescue ice picks around your neck. The picks will give you a better chance of pulling yourself out of the water if you happen to fall through. On Feb. 3, Bonneville cisco were still running along Cisco Beach and anglers were dipnetting limits of fish. The run is tapering off, though. During the end of the cisco run, it’s necessary to have someone jig a lure in the ice hole you’re fishing in to attract cisco to the hole so you can dipnet them. The cisco run might continue through this upcoming weekend (Feb 5-6). No cisco have been caught at the Utah State Park Marina. This is likely due to a strong water current created by a large number of deicers running inside the marina. Ice anglers have reported good fishing for cutthroat trout, lake trout and whitefish in water ranging from 25 to 55 feet deep. Anglers are catching trout using jigs or spoons tipped with cisco meat and jigged close to the bottom. When jigging, use a 1/2- to 1-ounce jig with a tube, twister tail or swim bait tipped with a piece of cisco or other fish meat. You can also use a 1/2-ounce jigging spoon, such as a Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple. Jig right on the bottom, bumping bottom and coming up about 12 to 18 inches. Many of the strikes happen when the lure is falling back to the bottom, so pay attention to your line. If you notice the lure/line stops sinking, set the hook and hold on! If you're targeting Bonneville whitefish, use a 1/4- to 1/2-ounce vertical jigging spoon (such as a Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple) and tip the spoon with a salmon egg or a mealworm. Whitefish feed on cisco eggs, so jig the spoon right on the bottom where the cisco spawn. You can also use 1/8-ounce jigs in a variety of colors (white, black and yellow are all popular) and tip the jig with a piece of worm or mealworm. It really helps to use a braided line/super line with a 4- to 5-foot long monofilament leader in order to feel the bottom with the lightweight lures and to detect the whitefish bites. Don’t be surprised if you hook into a big cutthroat and/or lake trout while fishing for whitefish. Remember, all foul-hooked sport fish, other than cisco, must be immediately released. Reminder: The trout limit is two fish. The fin clip regulation for cutthroat trout changed in January 2022, and any cutthroat trout can be kept up to the two fish limit. Lake trout take a long time to reach a large size. While large lake trout are legal to keep, many anglers are encouraging other anglers to release them. If you’re looking for fishing information between the emailed reports, you’re welcome to call our Bear Lake office answering machine at 435-946-8501. We try to provide updated weather and fishing condition information as conditions change. The next update will be placed on the answering machine on Monday, Feb. 7. Please call after 5 p.m.![/font]

[Shaverbald]

Hello Scott, I registered just to say thank you for all the hard work you put in letting us all know what the conditions at bare lake R. You are an invaluable resource. This is my 1st post I'm heading up to the lake today I hope to be able to hit the end of the Cisco run and maybe catching a few big trout if so I'll post. Again thank you Scott

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Sorry for all the typos. I
did talk to text, I think everybody figures out what I meant

[catchinon]

Welcome to the forum, Shaverbald. Don't worry about the typos, we all do it no matter how much we proofread. I look forward to hearing from you whether the fish was great or not.

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[font="Roboto Slab", Lato, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Bear Lake is entirely frozen, and ice fishing has been good for anglers along the east side of the lake, from the pump house north to Second Point. The ice on the east side averages 4 to 7 inches thick, but it can be very variable in many places due to springs and methane vents on the bottom of the lake. Temperatures in the Bear Lake Valley are frigid right now, and ice along the west side of the lake is getting thicker. We’re not aware of any anglers who have ventured onto the ice along the western shoreline yet, though. If you’re planning to ice fish, be extremely careful. No matter where you fish on the ice at Bear Lake, bring a spud bar so you can check how thick the ice is as you walk around. You should also wear a set of rescue ice picks around your neck. The picks will give you a better chance of pulling yourself out of the water if you happen to fall through. On Feb. 3, Bonneville cisco were still running along Cisco Beach and anglers were dipnetting limits of fish. The run is tapering off, though. During the end of the cisco run, it’s necessary to have someone jig a lure in the ice hole you’re fishing in to attract cisco to the hole so you can dipnet them. The cisco run might continue through this upcoming weekend (Feb 5-6). No cisco have been caught at the Utah State Park Marina. This is likely due to a strong water current created by a large number of deicers running inside the marina. Ice anglers have reported good fishing for cutthroat trout, lake trout and whitefish in water ranging from 25 to 55 feet deep. Anglers are catching trout using jigs or spoons tipped with cisco meat and jigged close to the bottom. When jigging, use a 1/2- to 1-ounce jig with a tube, twister tail or swim bait tipped with a piece of cisco or other fish meat. You can also use a 1/2-ounce jigging spoon, such as a Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple. Jig right on the bottom, bumping bottom and coming up about 12 to 18 inches. Many of the strikes happen when the lure is falling back to the bottom, so pay attention to your line. If you notice the lure/line stops sinking, set the hook and hold on! If you're targeting Bonneville whitefish, use a 1/4- to 1/2-ounce vertical jigging spoon (such as a Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple) and tip the spoon with a salmon egg or a mealworm. Whitefish feed on cisco eggs, so jig the spoon right on the bottom where the cisco spawn. You can also use 1/8-ounce jigs in a variety of colors (white, black and yellow are all popular) and tip the jig with a piece of worm or mealworm. It really helps to use a braided line/super line with a 4- to 5-foot long monofilament leader in order to feel the bottom with the lightweight lures and to detect the whitefish bites. Don’t be surprised if you hook into a big cutthroat and/or lake trout while fishing for whitefish. Remember, all foul-hooked sport fish, other than cisco, must be immediately released. Reminder: The trout limit is two fish. The fin clip regulation for cutthroat trout changed in January 2022, and any cutthroat trout can be kept up to the two fish limit. Lake trout take a long time to reach a large size. While large lake trout are legal to keep, many anglers are encouraging other anglers to release them. If you’re looking for fishing information between the emailed reports, you’re welcome to call our Bear Lake office answering machine at 435-946-8501. We try to provide updated weather and fishing condition information as conditions change. The next update will be placed on the answering machine on Monday, Feb. 7. Please call after 5 p.m.!

[/font]In your experience, do you think that the ice will hold until next weekend?

[BearLakeFishGuy]

As predicted, they are fishing the rockpile on the ice this morning at 0730am. Saturday.

[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Scott, thanks for letting me tag along with you on Friday... Was really a fun trip even though we didn't get the big ones... After we split up, I hit cisco in 10 fow and finished my whitefish limit, they were really thick over there... Think I ended up with 7 cisco and only the one trout bite.. but I had a blast sight fishing the whities off cisco, it brought back some really fun childhood memories of dad teaching me to do that... Thanks again... Jeff