Bear Lake from shore 12_10_14

[gaardvark]

Between the reports here on BFT and the weather, I decided I better get up to Bear Lake yesterday. Work, weather and holidays had conspired to cause previous plans to fall through, so I decided to head up and try my luck from shore.
I got there later than planned, not until about 10, but the drive up was pleasant, and the conditions outside could not be beat.
I stopped at a rocky beach between first point and cisco beach, put on the waders to get out a little further, and began casting. When my first cast hung up on the rocks I figured I was "in the zone". After an hour of fishing, I noticed a fellow angler nearby reeling in a fish. He was long-lining and caught a nice (20-23") cutthroat on a cisco. He asked me to snap a picture with his phone, and let it go. As I walked back up shore towards my gear I cast and retrieved, and did have a fish on for a moment, but only long enough to recognize that it was a fish. It didn't feel very big anyway.
around noon I had a hookup on a root beer sparkle jig, and managed my sole fish of the day, a 19" male. He was kind enough to come home with me since I had gone to visit him.
I stayed until around 1:30 with no other discernible bites.
All in all, I consider it a successful trip. I added a new species to my list, I caught what I went to catch, and if you can fish Bear Lake in December without a coat, why would you not?
My fishing neighbor was kind enough to return the photo favor.
The catching was slow, but the fishing was great.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Great job, my first attempt was in a boat and I got skunked, second attempt was too windy to even get on the lake and finally on my third attempt I got to take one home the size you caught. So you're doing great. Glad you made a December memory. Later J
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[albinotrout]

Well done![cool] Thanks for sharing.
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[Old_Coot]

Thanks for taking the time to log on and post a report with a picture. That is great that you did all that work and got your pay for the day. I suspect that the whitefish run is on the down-hill side of the peak now.

Question; What type of jig were you using ... grub, tube, ?

What size was the jig?

Thanks again.
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[gaardvark]

I fished with a 4" tube jig in rainbow trout colors, and that was the one I lost. After snagging up numerous times, I checked the tackle box and actually pulled out something I bought years ago, and have never used much. It is called a Blade Dancer, and it seemed to bounce over the bottom better. It has a root-beer sparkle, goby shaped plastic, on a spoon-shaped jig head. It had a great swimming/wobble action, but I looked for them online yesterday, and could really only find them on the Berkley website. I am attaching a picture of one in firetiger colors. The minnow on the jig was 3-4 inches, I don't recall and can't access the box right now.

I wouldn't be surprised if the spawn is slowing down, but the fish I caught was a male who did not appear to have found that special someone yet.
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