Bear Lake Report 11-25-05

[Bait_Caster]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][blue][size 3]Old Coot & I wanted to get on the lake early Fri. am, So we decided to head up to my cabin in Bear Lake West on Turkey-Day night. Rolled in built a fire, got geared up for the next day's early fish outing. Hit the marina Fri. morn at 5:23am. We had dresed with the winter warm gear before leaving the cabin. A 5-7 min. drive to the marina. The gates opened up at 5:27am. we were in and on the lake easily by 5:30am. Everything still Black, we had the lights on the boat as we headed off to the rock pile. The water for ride out was perfect. After gps'n to the sweet spot, marking fish, we anchored up. things still black out: We droped our lines in, & soon I had "Fish-On", It was a nice cutt that had been tagged.[/size][/blue][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][blue][size 3]If you look close at the doesell fin, you'll see the tag. I held the fish, while Coot trided to pull out the tag, but we could tell by pulling any harder, we'd tear open the upper back skin line, not wanting to kill the cutt, I released 'em to swim free,still tagged.[/size][/blue][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#0000ff][size 3] Then Coot hooked up next, but didn't land that on, fish on-off, By now my lure was back down to depth, Boom hard hit, and again I had "Fish-On" I could tell this was a heavy hitter, After getting this one boated, I weight'd it, Nice 3lb. bad boy!![/size][/#0000ff][/font]

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[font "Comic Sans MS"][blue][size 3]After a quick pic, and weighing it, I set it free to be boated again. By now dawn (back ground) was breaking, and the fast & furious morning action had my finger so cold they hurt. But it was a good hurt'n. Soon things slowed down, and more & more BFT'rs showed up, Joy-Ride, Petty, Fish1on, Ryleyfish,Spider Welder, & buddy, & SW father Chuck. Still more boated on in, I hope they post their day's avents, I was good to see all you guy's wett'n a line! Weather on Big Blue was calm, water glassy, but the cold front rolled through, no sheding to many cloths today. Water temp was 44dgs at 65' deep. We fished the East side with Bodine11 in the back ground trolling, last I heard he boated 14, hopefully he'll post as to what they were. But the east side was all but dead!! Nota, zilch!! So we went back and hunted for sonar marks back by guss's pt. and arround. But kind of slow the rest of the day!![/size][/blue][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#0000ff][size 3] Question?? I would like to know, your opinion on what I should have done with the tagged cutt. Kill it, pull out the tag and give info to the DWR? or just what to do?[/size][/#0000ff][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3] I'd rather catch & release, letting it grow into a full adalt, maby even then your son/daughter getting the opertunity to re-catch 'em some day. Thus the love for fishing grows!![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#0000ff][size 3]But I do realize the Fish & Game. DWR needs info! And our help in this is also vital. Remember while attempting to pull out the tag, the skin was starting to tear wide open. So we quit, not want to harm the cutt![/size][/#0000ff][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#0000ff][size 3] Also: What is the purpose of the tag?[/size][/#0000ff][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#0000ff][size 3]The day on the lake was great, Thanks Old Coot, for the fun time, and another great experience. And your pot of beans was to die for! Ya need to package them for us fishermen, they tasted great!! They hit the spot after a cold day on the lake: [] [sly][/size][/#0000ff][/font]
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[RILEYFISH]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Hello BC[/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]It was good to met ya At Bear Lake On Friday, We had a great day. Fish1on, Little Rileyfish and Myself ended up boating six. Three macs and three cutts. I will do a post on them here soon. I am getting the photos downsized to post. We were wondering how things were on the east side. We watched and heard you head out. [/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]The photos of little Rileyfishes 12lb mac look good on my camera. Cant wait to post them.[/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]Hope to see ya soon on the lake again.[/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]RILEYFISH[/font]
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[petty4life]

it was good to see you again terry. i wish we would have had your luck we ended up empty handed
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[SpiderWelder]

[]Hey BC. nice post .We all had a great time, and it was good to see all the BFT guys,We boated 3 my dad cought 4lb cutt.I lost about a 10 lb mack at the boat ,on the rock pile around 3 30 pm. Only good fish I had on,my freind caught 2 small cuts early.
We had battery problems early,but the store at bear lake had one.
85$, less than I thought. I have a lot of work to do to my boat before spring.We all had a great time , the wether was awsome to
fish the BEAR.
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[milkbone]

Bait Caster,
Concerning the cut that had a tag in it.
Usually the tag has a number or something on the tag.
Did it have a number on it?
If it did, all you needed to do was write it down turn the fish loose and give the info to the Utah fish and game. I usually give them the length and weight if i can without hurting the fish.
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[bodine11]

Sure was a nice day on the pond. Good seeing you guys up there. We ended up catching 17. 16 cuts between 1-5 lbs and 1 mack at 6 lbs. Caught all but 3 on the east side.

bodine
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[Old_Coot]

[size 2][font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Thanks much for the company and the accommodations BC … very nice.[/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]This year has been the slowest fishing I have ever experienced up at Bear Lake. Unlike you BC (and many other fishermen) who feel that fishing is great whether or not your catching, I, on the other hand, have to be catching fish to feel that way. Don't get me wrong here. I still like fishing anytime I can. But not nearly as much as when I am catching. Except for one day up there, Bear Lake has been spanking me pretty good. Maybe I will have to learn trolling to increase my catch count up from zero.[/black][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]On our way out to the rock pile in the dark, I was using my GPS to guide the way. We left the marina and I thought that we had gone WAY out east from the marina before cutting south toward the rock pile. As it turns out, I had not gone far enough east before cutting back south and before you know it, my skag and prop were digging up beach!! Talk about exciting … 17 mph in the dark and darn near beached. Luckily, there was absolutely no damage to the boat but my heart sure got a good work out. Man, every time I go out in my boat I learn something new. [/black][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Again, thanks much for the company and the accommodations BC.[/black][/font][/size]
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]The Bear can be a bugger sometimes even for folks who seem to think they know what they are doing. It's humbled the best of them. Ya know, Coot, fishing there is a little different for everyone. For me, going to BL is for chasing macks and of course, the larger ones. I could care less if I ever caught a cutthroat, unless of course, it's a darn good one, say 8-10 lbs. The numbers game is something that does not consume me. If I caught 10 cutthroat and not one good mack, I consider that an off day but still a fun day![/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3] Hang in there, keep going, and it will fall into place. If you think you need to troll to make it happen, then, by all means, do it. Yup, the Bear can be a bugger... It's put me in my place enough times.[/size][/black][/font]
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[bodine11]

In reply to[font "Comic Sans MS"]The Bear can be a bugger sometimes even for folks who seem to think they know what they are doing.)[/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]Oh how true. The thing with me is I fish for the large mack with the same tactics that catch cuttroat as well. I figure if I catch a bunch of cutthroat in between its just a bonus waiting for the biggun to attack.[] I have had real slow days on the bear a guy just needs to keep moving around find the fish and pester them repeatedly.[/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]Bodine[/font]
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[IdahoNative]

Wow you was lucky. Didn't you have on your fishfinder/depthfinder?
Any fish I catch is a treat. I dont like to eat the Macs but will keep a cutt once in a while to eat. Other wise its catch and release.
More times than not I believe I catch fish compared to being skunked out there.
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[Old_Coot]

[size 2][font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Yea I.N. I did have my fishfinder operating. I even have a 3 foot deep alarm. But the noise of the motor outranked the sound of the alarm. At 17 mph I would have been on dry land before being able to respond to the alarm anyway. Because I "thought" I was out in the middle and busy responding to waves that I couldn't see, I just didn't pay attention to the depth sonar ..... you can bet I will next time ... I'm a damn fast learner! And I feel VERY lucky. Bait_Caster mentioned to me that had we been in a larger boat going 30 mph, we both would have been a$$ over tin kettle in the in water! Yup ... pretty stupid on my part and consider myself to be mighty lucky.[/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]I've only been fishing BL for three years now. The first year was the best for me and this year the worst. Man I love bringing up those big lakers from down deep. I guess I need to stop my winning and start fishin'.[/black][/font][/size]
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[RILEYFISH]

Hey Coot,

We did the same thing years ago at Lake Powell one Summer. I was skiing behind a friends boat in the main channel between Bullfrog and The San Juan Arm. They hit a sand bar in the middle of the channel at about 35 mph. I watched it all from behind the boat. There was SH&$ FLying all over the boat and Bodies to! I slowed to a stop right at the back of the boat. I was laughing my big BUTT off and they were a little shocked. After a few minutes they all laughed to. I can still se it in my mind. Took us a bout 20 minutes of pushing and pulling to get unloged and back going again.
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