02-21-2006, 03:47 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Fishing Report and Conditions at Bear Lake
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Bear Lake is entirely frozen and ice thicknesses vary from 2"-6" around the lake. Temperatures have ranged from -15 at night to +15 during the day for the last week so ice should be getting thicker each night. Prior to freezing, slabs of ice shelved-up in many areas around the lake due to wind. Use caution when crossing these areas since the ice could be weak. At least one ice angler fell through this past weekend when crossing an area with shelved-up ice but his buddies were fishing on 6" of solid ice less than 5 feet away!
Ice anglers who have been fishing are doing fair to good for whitefish and cutthroat trout with an occasional lake trout. The rockpile has been the most popular area, but the rockpiles north of the Utah State Park marina should also be good. The whitefish that we sampled this past weekend were still eating cisco eggs so try using vertical jigging spoons tipped with salmon eggs or wax worms for these fish. Lures of choice have been Swedish pimples and castmasters with a 8-12" dropper down to an ice fly tipped with a salmon egg or waxworm. Use tube jigs and larger jigging spoons tipped cisco for the trout. Fish right on the bottom and keep changing water depths until you find the fish. The most productive depths on the rockpile have been between 35-40 feet and off the east side at 40-70 feet.
Come prepared for bitter cold and winter conditions at Bear Lake. Bring a rope to throw to someone in case they fall through and wear a life jacket when venturing onto areas without other anglers around. Also wear a pair of ice picks around your neck, on the outside of your clothing to help pull yourself out if you happen to fall through the ice. Make sure to check your proclamation for all the current rules and regulations. The daily and possession limit for whitefish it is 10 fish and for cutthroat and lake trout it is 2 fish, either singly or in aggregate. Remember to immediately release cutthroat trout that are not fin clipped.
I fished yesterday with a friend of mine and he outfished me but we both did good. We fished the rockpile in 35' of water using jigging spoons with droppers to ice flies tipped with rubber wax worms. About half the fish hit the spoon the other half the ice fly. When my friend switched to a tube jig with cisco he caught some cutthroat and one lake trout. We fished from about 9:30am to 1:00pm and ended up with about a dozen whitefish and 3 cutts and one laker. We were mainly targeting the whitefish and after watching an Aquaview I can tell you that there are still a ton of fish left for everyone down in the depths. We literally saw hundreds of whitefish and a surprising number of cutthroat trout and suckers cruising around too!
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Bear Lake is entirely frozen and ice thicknesses vary from 2"-6" around the lake. Temperatures have ranged from -15 at night to +15 during the day for the last week so ice should be getting thicker each night. Prior to freezing, slabs of ice shelved-up in many areas around the lake due to wind. Use caution when crossing these areas since the ice could be weak. At least one ice angler fell through this past weekend when crossing an area with shelved-up ice but his buddies were fishing on 6" of solid ice less than 5 feet away!
Ice anglers who have been fishing are doing fair to good for whitefish and cutthroat trout with an occasional lake trout. The rockpile has been the most popular area, but the rockpiles north of the Utah State Park marina should also be good. The whitefish that we sampled this past weekend were still eating cisco eggs so try using vertical jigging spoons tipped with salmon eggs or wax worms for these fish. Lures of choice have been Swedish pimples and castmasters with a 8-12" dropper down to an ice fly tipped with a salmon egg or waxworm. Use tube jigs and larger jigging spoons tipped cisco for the trout. Fish right on the bottom and keep changing water depths until you find the fish. The most productive depths on the rockpile have been between 35-40 feet and off the east side at 40-70 feet.
Come prepared for bitter cold and winter conditions at Bear Lake. Bring a rope to throw to someone in case they fall through and wear a life jacket when venturing onto areas without other anglers around. Also wear a pair of ice picks around your neck, on the outside of your clothing to help pull yourself out if you happen to fall through the ice. Make sure to check your proclamation for all the current rules and regulations. The daily and possession limit for whitefish it is 10 fish and for cutthroat and lake trout it is 2 fish, either singly or in aggregate. Remember to immediately release cutthroat trout that are not fin clipped.
I fished yesterday with a friend of mine and he outfished me but we both did good. We fished the rockpile in 35' of water using jigging spoons with droppers to ice flies tipped with rubber wax worms. About half the fish hit the spoon the other half the ice fly. When my friend switched to a tube jig with cisco he caught some cutthroat and one lake trout. We fished from about 9:30am to 1:00pm and ended up with about a dozen whitefish and 3 cutts and one laker. We were mainly targeting the whitefish and after watching an Aquaview I can tell you that there are still a ton of fish left for everyone down in the depths. We literally saw hundreds of whitefish and a surprising number of cutthroat trout and suckers cruising around too!
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