Bear Lake 2-2-08

[WingNut36]

It was a slower day of fishing. The ice was about 5 inches, two inches thicker than last week. Wheelers and sleds should be safe on the ice in the next day or two. BEWARE, you need to know where the warm water and methane springs are if you are going to bring wheelers or snowmobiles on the ice.
I caught two in the morning between 9-10. The largest was about 7 pounds. After that it was slow. Others were catching one here and there. I did not see any monsters on the ice. I caught two more around 5 p.m. and broke a pole with a fish on line and lost the fish. It was a pole I had built the night before, but it did not feel like anything bigger than I had already put on the ice earlier. I was the last one on the ice on the south west side at 6 p.m. When the sun went down I did not need Punxsutawney Phil to tell me winter is going to be around longer. No monsters, so no good pictures. []

We might give it an early Superbowl Sunday effort. Depends on how sleepy we are.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

I also fished Bear Lake yesterday. We started off with BLM, BLM's wife,Petty, and Fishslayer at 150 South. (Note to self: Beware of deep snow on beach...its deeper than you think!) Started about 8:30am. We took the snowmobiles out to about 70 feet of water, but after that the ice dropped to about 3" or less. I missed one fish in the first 10 minutes then it was pretty dead. Petty said he could see fish on his fishfinder, but they just weren't hungry. Around 11:00 I packed up my stuff and took the shoreline route over the the rockpile at Ideal Beach. I snagged a limit of cisco in about an hour and then decided to move out deeper. First to 60 feet, then to 72 feet. Again.....after 72 the ice went from 5" down to 2.5" in a matter of about 10 yards! Pretty scary and no place for a snowmobile or wheelers...yet. I ended up catching one cutthroat and lost two others about 1/2 way up to the hole. I ended about 2:30. Nice day, no wind, lots of sun. When I was leaving the snow started and its still snowing this morning (Sunday) with about 6 more inches! Depending on where you are there is up to a foot of snow on the ice. About the most I've ever seen on top the ice in the last 16 years! There is also some slush in some spots, so keep the throttle going or you can get stuck. Just ask BLM.
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice report WN36 and BLFG, sounds like a slow day of catching but a great day weather wise.
Hey Scott, with all this snow coming down, how do you think it will effect the conditions for next weekend? I know on most lakes it makes for slushy conditions but do you think it could be so heavy that it could weight down the ice and cause it to break up in the areas where the ice is thin?
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[fshslyer36]

It was a fun day on the ice im just glad you lived so close your wife could bring you the snowblower to get your truck unstuck[cool]
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