Bear Lake Marina Closed All of Next Week! (and new fishing report)

[BearLakeFishGuy]

[font "Times New Roman"][#400040][size 3]I spoke with the Utah State Park Superintendent this morning and he informed me of the following information:[/size][/#400040][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3][#eb3f14]The Utah State Park Marina will be completely closed for boat launching Monday through Friday next week (May 17- 21) for dredging of the marina mouth, as well as paving and striping of the parking areas. Again, no boats will be allowed to launch next week from the State Park Marina.[/#eb3f14] [/size][size 2]Anglers wishing to launch their boats may do so at the low water concrete boat ramp on Cisco Beach. This ramp is paved, but there is no protection from the wind and the concrete does not extend very far into the water. It is suitable mainly for smaller sized boats and anglers launching there do so at their own risk. The closure of the marina next week is a minor inconvenience since once the marina opens next Saturday (May 22) there will be two additional launching lanes, [#ff0000]a new fish cleaning station,[/#ff0000] a new visitors center, and additional parking for the busy summer season. [/size][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 2]Bear Lake Fishing Report - U[/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 2][font "Times New Roman"][size 2]pdated Friday, May 14, 2004. [/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 2]Bear Lake fishing has been picking up with the warming temperatures. Anglers are catching cutthroat trout and lake trout trolling in shallow water using flatlines. The best luck has come from water less than 15' deep. I have heard reports of cutthroat up to 9 pounds and lake trout up to 12 pounds being taken this last week. Anglers are trolling rapalas and spoons at slow speeds, however, if you don't catch any fish using this technique try speeding up and changing lures until you find the right combination. Most pressure has been off east side from 1st Point to South Eden. Some anglers are also fishing between the marina and Swan Creek. (Make sure to stay outside of the "no fishing" buoys at the mouth of Swan Creek!) I have not talked to any anglers who were jigging this past week, but this method should also work. Try using tube jigs tipped with cisco. Start fishing in shallow depths 15-20' and then keep moving deeper until you locate active fish. Fish can be found at all depths at this time of year since the water is still very cold and the lake is not thermally stratified[/size][/font]. [/size][/font]
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Nice info, BLFG! Thanks. Hope this saved a few of us a wasted trip only to find the marina closed.[/size][/font]
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[casthookreel]

thanks, do you think we would find success fishing from shore of cisco beach???
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[bodine11]

I have a question. Why in all of these years they haven't built a marina on the east side? Rainbow cove would be perfect. It wouldn't have to be an elaberat marina just somewhere to launch and load out of the wind. Instead they spent huge dollars remodeling the marina on the west side. I know money is tight but they tore down a pefectly good restroom and visitor center at the marina to put this other thing in. It just don't make any sense to me. [unsure]
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

The main thing is permitting. It just about takes a miracle for the Army Corps of Engineers to permit something like a marina or even reconstruction of an existing one. In additon cost is another big factor. With the deep water you have on the east side of the lake it would take an incredible amount of fill to make the marina meet construction standards (slopes, fill quality, etc.) It would also require people to operate it, which the state will not provide, even though the state can show it would be profitable! When the old State Park marina was rebuilt in 1994 it literally took years of permitting to just "rebuild" it. Obtaining the correct rock to meet construction standards was difficult at that time since there just wasn't a good source of right rock that wouldn't break down over time. I agree the east side would be a great place, but permitting and costs are just too high. As far as the new vistor's center is concerned the old one was costing thousands of dollars to maintain. Leaky roofs, poor plumbing, etc. It "looked" good, but there were a lot of problems the public didn't see. In addition there was a need for additional parking and a better system for entrances and exits. Sometimes during the summer the wait was 3-4 hours just to launch or pick up your boat. A good chunk of the money used for the reconstruction this time came from the feds, so the parks got by relatively cheap on the latest construction. Hope this helps answer your questions.
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