Bear Lake @ night???

[KJFN]

Question: Has anyone on the site ever ice fished Bear Lake at night? What are your thoughts? Where would you fish? What precautions would you take? Etc.
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[Kent]

Can't answer the fishing part, but do have some comments on precautions. Don't even consider fishing alone! Of course dress for the possible conditions. If you have a GPS, use it. It would not be any fun to get out there and have heavy fog move in and not know any directions other than up and down. A compass would be a great aid and a good backup in case your GPS lets you down.
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[RipNLips]

Always wanted to try it but never have. I figured if I ever did I'd take a 12 volt car/boat battery, some wire, and a car headlight. You know, the old fashioned big kind with the reflector built in as part of the bulb. They float great face down in the water. I've seen them used at Lake Mead night fishing for Stripers off boats. I thought I'd fish in one hole and cut another hole for the light. Not sure how it would work for trout at Bear Lake, but I thought it would be worth a try.
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I’ve fished on the Bear at night and I also know guys that have fished it and stayed out all night on the ice. I caught fish at night on the ice. We used regular color jigs and glow tubes with good results. We stayed out till about 11:00pm. It was pretty amazing that the fish had no problem nailing the non-glowing jigs in the dark. It goes to show you how good their sensory systems are. We caught both cutts and macks but nothing that great as far as size goes.[/size][/font]

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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]My friend, Joe, has stayed out all night in a tent and fished a couple of times. He has had mixed results with no experiences saying that night kicks butt over fishing the daylight hours. Obviously, this has no merit except a couple of yahoos out fishing a couple of times to try out the night fishing.[/size][/font]
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[Kayote]

I have done very well in the past for macks, splake and rainbows through the ice at night at Fish Lake. No glowing jigs, but did tip the jigs with sucker meat. Macks and splake would be on the bottom, but the rainbows would be right under the ice. We would fish most of the night. Getting too old for that now (no comments from the peanut gallery Tincan LMAO). Just my dos centavos.

Good Fishing, Kayote
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[tightline]

Been there done that. I froze my butt off. I would definitely not do it unless you have an Ice hut. Like BLM said. I don't think you need to worry about bringing any light. If the fish are feeding they will find the bait. The fish rely on other senses than sight alot more than most of us seem to beleive.
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[KJFN]

Thanks BLM, I don't know if I will try it. I know during the spawn that people do well from the marina at night. It is something I have thought about trying and wanted more info on before braving it.
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[RipNLips]

Fish feed just fine in pitch black. The headlight idea I said I'd like to try some day on Bear Lake has been proven to attract plankton and fish (predator and prey) on other bodies of water. Trout see doggers, flashers, and pop gear from a long way away and move in to check out the commotion. At night, I imagine they can see a headlight beam and any critters playing in it from quite long way away. Heck, anything's worth a try, and I've never heard of anyone trying it at Bear Lake. Everyone thought the first guy to try to catch a bass with a rubber worm was out of his mind.
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[jr8fish]

watch out for those warm water springs even more of a threat in the dark.

jr8fish
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