Updated Bear Lake cisco run/fishing report for 1/28/2022

[Jbworkin]

I went to Cisco Beach at around 7:00AM this morning and dipped my limit. Fish were there pretty thick, but there was about a 1/2 inch of ice that had formed overnight. That made it a bit hard to break an open aeea to net fish, but it also helped that the fish couldn't see us as easily.

The entire area of Cisco Beach was iced over but not thick enough to walk on yet. Most of the lake was iced over with some open water around, a few people were out on the ice near the pumphouse and first point boat launch. I would cautious. I don't think much of that ice has good thickness. But conditions could change pretty quickly with these cold temps. The guy that had his boat out today on the rock pole had to have gone out breaking ice.  There was one kayak out there as well. He came from south of Gus Rich point. Pretty risky business with the shifting ice. The marina was iced up from the entrance out several hundred yards and ice was building all over the lake. Neither of these two boaters have been trapped out in shifting ice or I’m sure they would not be out there today. Sure hope they make it back safe. There was only a small area clear of ice over the rock pile today. A narrow channel of open water extended around the point to the south. That boat will be breaking ice almost all the way back to the marina today. 

I was the guy in the bright yellow kayak! I wanted to see if I could get any big fish off the rockpile after I got my cisco limit at Cisco beach. (It took me only 8 minutes to limit out on Cisco.) No luck on the rockpile, though the guys in the boat next to me were doing well snagging cisco. 

It was a beautiful day for a paddle, but the journey probably took 3 times as long as it should have due to all the ice I had to break. It was a memorable experience to be sure.

Glad you made it back safely.  Some friends of mine were on Strawberry a while back in similar conditions and the wind kicked up and shifted the ice around causing the channel they went out through to fill with thicker ice that they could not break with their boat but it was not stable enough to walk on either. Had them stuck out there for quite a while before they were rescued.