Bear Lake in July

[drewski]

Im heading to Bear Lake the first weekend of July for my anniversary (yes, my wife has agreed to this) so i was wondering if anyone could suggest some good campgrounds to stay at and some good places to fish. ill only be on shore, possibly on tube. Im unfamiliar with the whole area, so any tips would help. Thanks!
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[RILEYFISH]

I would look at staying on the East side of the Lake. There are numerous camping areas over there down past the Boy scout camp. Not alot of shade, Will need to take your own. This area will be the best fishing from shore or tube this time of year. The fishing is usually much slower this time of year up there. However they are in there and can be caught. Plan on getting up and out fishing at first light to avoid the skiers and others that will dampen things for ya.

If you have electronics on your tube, move around till you mark some fish out from the rocky beach areas and jig for them. 3" tube jigs with cisco if you have any or sucker meat will work for bait,

From Shore you can long line with Sucker or cisco. Good luck to you
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[PDS]

I don't know about campgrounds but I can help a bit with the fishing. Bear Lake is very shallow from about any place fishing from the shore. Most people can't cast far enough out to reach water deep enough where the fish will be gathered. There are two exceptions to this. The first is off the dike at the Bear Lake State Park marina. At least it is deep enough here that you can cast out into water that will hold fish. Even off of cisco beach on the east side where it drops off into the deepest part of the lake, it is still too shallow from shore for about 100 yards before dropping off into the abyss.
The other exception would be casting from various locations on the East side very early in the morning, especially if there has been some wind blowing from the east. Bugs are blown out into the lake and the cutthroats will be coming up looking for them. Casting spoons or other heavy items can get it out far enough to get hit, but remember that it is shallow and don't let it sink too far or you will snag up. This bite won't last long though and the sun will drive them back down to the depths soon after coming over the mountains.
Now you mentioned a float tube, I'd highly recommend you take it. Jigging tube jigs tipped with cisco or sucker meat on the East side of the lake off of 1st or 2nd point, anywhere from 30 to 80 feet down, should connect you with some cutts. The deeper you go, the better chance of hooking a laker. But I caution you to not get too far out because of the possibility of wind. It can come up fast and the lake can turn very nasty, very quickly. Quite a few people longline whole cisco from the shore at these locations as well. Meaning you take the bait from a pole on shore and run it out on your tube until you are in deep water then drop it. It takes some high capacity reels to do it, but it can be rewarding. I used to jig off of second point in my tube quite a bit and always caught fish. I never had a day that I didn't catch at least a couple of fish. It was never fast fishing, but some of those cutts are bruisers. My favorite jig was a 4" tube with a 3/4 oz head. Even the 15" cutts would inhale it.
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Take your pick for camping from full hook ups to primitive camping. [/size][/black][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]I don't know anything about the fishing.[/size][/black][/font]

[url "http://www.go-utah.com/click.cfm?campaign=Bear-Lake-State-Park-Rendezvous-Beach-Campground&ad=Listing&targetID=0&url=%2FBear%2DLake%2DState%2DPark%2DRendezvous%2DBeach%2DCampground%2F"]Bear Lake State Park Rendezvous Beach Campground[/url]

[url "http://www.go-utah.com/click.cfm?campaign=Bear-Lake-KOA-Campground&ad=Listing&targetID=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ekoa%2Ecom%2Fwhere%2FUT%2F44101%2F"]Bear Lake KOA Campground [/url]


[url "http://www.go-utah.com/click.cfm?campaign=Bear-Lake-Eastside-Campground&ad=Listing&targetID=0&url=%2FBear%2DLake%2DEastside%2DCampground%2F"]Bear Lake Eastside Campground[/url]


[url "http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=HGS421-001A"]http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=HGS421-001A[/url]

[url "http://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/bear.html"]http://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/bear.html[/url]

[url "http://www.visitusa.com/idaho/camping/bearlake.htm"]http://www.visitusa.com/idaho/camping/bearlake.htm[/url]

[url "http://www.visitidaho.org/placestostay/index.aspx?lodgingid=43431"][#334d66]Bear Lake Hot Springs[/#334d66][/url]
Box 372
Paris, ID 83261
(208) 945-4545

[url "http://www.visitidaho.org/placestostay/index.aspx?lodgingid=43167"][#476a8d]Bear Lake North RV Park & Campground[/#476a8d][/url]
[font "Arial"]220 N. Main
[/font]St. Charles, ID 83272
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[drewski]

Thanks for everyones info. It has been invaluable an will provide quite the first anniversary. I still can't believe my wife is letting me do this...but I'm not complaining!
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[lavaman]

Take it and run, buddy. You may never get another 'anniversary' quite like that.

: )
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