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Well as reported the lake opened from east to west all the way across. East side looks like more open water but I didn't go over there. I found lots of cracks and gaps in the ice at the marina. I fished across two but the third one that was 18" was a little bigger than I was willing to cross. Larry had a bigger set than I did and crossed and looked to be catching fish. Two other BFT ers did as well but my terrible memory forgot their handle. Anyway I found two trout today in my short day. First was a 22" cutt the second was an 18" bow. Couldn't talk any white fish into biting today. Fun but way too short of day. Later J
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Thanks for the report!
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You bet. I was fishing next to the crack and two times I thought I was going in when things started to shift. There's 8" of ice and it was cold enough to keep freezing my hole shut, but the ice is starting to get the capillaries in it and the wind is brutal when it starts pushing. Might get two days yet but it's getting close to the end. Later J
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Thanks for the report. How did the south end look like?
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Pack it in
PACK IT OUT !
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Awesome report. Thanks for sharing! I may need to hit it again tomorrow!
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Great report Jeff! Those are some beautiful trout.
So the ice is still looking decent in your opinion, on the West Side?
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South end was still good from half mile away. Didn't go out there but no cracks showing and ice is still intact. J
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Sure wished I could have stayed longer, on Hyrum now getting a lesson in humility. One lonely perch so far. J
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Hey Derek, yup those fish are so nice these days. They have done a great job of something to make them grow like footballs, just caught a dinky Hyrum bow, what a difference.
Anyway back to ice conditions. I'd say they are scary and would proceed with caution. I'm not sure you can still fish them tomorrow or not. I'd say marina is iffy, wouldn't dare go out as far as the rock pile and the weed beds should be ok still. I expect Cisco will be open water but couldn't see that far to tell if there was an ice shelf or not. If the wind don't blow marina could still be ok, but be careful. Good luck if you go. Oh the rock pile has ice without new cracks, but that is so far out I don't know if you could get off in time if things started to move. Later J
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Great report jeff! I love it when I catch rainbows on this lake, but it only happens at the marina.
Those sure are some pretty fish. I think that they are fat the last couple of years due to a high water year about 4 years ago and a lot of vegetation got flooded making for a great nursery for fry. Those fry are great baitfish now.
I just went and checked the marina ice and I would have to say that you'd need to be a little mental to get on it now! I'm not the biggest ice chicken, but it's cracked and separated pretty good now and a warm south wind is blowing pretty hard right now, so I'd guess the marina is done for the year. South end weedbeds are probably good for a couple days still though.
Mike
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It was a pleasure meeting you today. Glad to see you catch a couple nice fish. It was pretty slow for us today. I caught 5 Whitefish n a great big ole sucker. My buddy caught a handful of small Cutts and maybe 6 or 7 whitefish. The picture I included was the largest of the Cutts he caught. The others were much smaller.
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Hey Mike! This ice situation is frustrating...
I was going to head over there in the a.m.. but Jeff, my friend Tyler, and some of these reports have talked me out of it with reports of the ice shifting around. My buddy Tom is still going to brave it though, and I hope he does well and is safe out there.
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Good catching. Sounds like I'll wait until ice-off and take the boat up for some trolling action.
TiteLines
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Ya Derek, it's too bad it couldn't last a bit longer. I'm done on the ice here for the season I guess. I just can't see risking falling through.....after all, they are only fish.
Mike
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Hey Mike thanks so much for the update. Ran my phone dead yesterday and missed this last night. Thanks for the nice comments. That bow had four Cisco in its belly, no wonder it was so round. I'm going to smoke that up to compare with the white fish, I know the bows from the gorge are delicious so I wanted to see if BL was the same way.
I figured with wind the marina ice would be done, then when I seen new snow I started to worry that folks would try it and not see the cracks with a skim of ice and fall through them. So I hope it had already broke that up over night so hopefully no one gets killed. That would be a nasty tiger trap waiting to get the unsuspecting fisherman.
Thanks so much Mike for all the intell it's really helped my trips this winter. Nice to avoid my Bear Lake skunk this ice season. Sure wish I could have tried it a little more it was fun. Well probably boat or catfish time now. Don't think I'd dare try the toon on the rock pile. Do fish hang around the marina area later in the year? Can you troll there and do much good in April? I know other areas are better, just looking for spots where the toon could stay safe on a big lake. Thanks J
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Hey it was nice to chat with you guys on the way out, and glad you made it back in. I could see it looked like you guys were catching fish and I kept hearing the whitefish call and it almost made me brave enough to come try it closer to you guys. But the chicken won out and I stayed where I was. Did you feel the ice shifting under you out there? Right by those cracks where I was it felt like it was about to break and buckle a couple times. I didn't really want to try the polar plunge so I didn't dare step across that crack. I figured with my luck I'd break off the edge.
I'll bet the sucker was fun, probably thought you had a real fish for awhile. So if you don't mind, what were the whitefish taking? I was using a castmaster and a white jig and they would swim by, but never even act like they wanted it. Well I also tried a half dozen other spoons with no luck either. My worms were rotted so I tipped with Cisco, maybe that's why I couldn't catch a whitie. Just wondering what I could have did better there. Thanks. J
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That's probably the best call, it's getting pretty risky at the edges anyway. The south end is probably still good, but I don't know where to try there so I think I'll be floating next time I get to Bear Lake. Good luck when you go. Later J
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The ice was very solid and stable where we were. There was a couple spots closer to our end where the crack was not as wide. Stepping across was easy. I noticed where you were fishing was in the middle of several smaller cracks. Could be why you felt a little shifting. After you left the whitefish moved out and we stopped marking fish so we moved out. We actually set up pretty close to the edge of the open water. Ice was solid n we never felt unsafe. We were using small spoons, sweetish pimples n such tipped with meal worm. We didn't have any Cisco so we tried some sucker meat a little as well but the whitefish were caught with mealies.
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Jeff,
In front of and around the marina right after ice off can be awesome at times. I don't think I've ever been skunked after ice off if I troll from about 300 yards south of the marina to a half mile or so North of the marina. I usually hit it in about 25-45' and try all through the water column. I'll catch quite a few trolling up from the bottom and of course right close to the bottom. I also probably spend more time mooching/jigging (not begging!)for them instead of trolling for them after ice off, Just depends on if they are spotty or not.
Ice off is one of my favorite times of year to target the cutts, especially from the marina and just north of it. I've had lots of luck by just shore fishing with spoons that time of year also. I'll hit it from the dikes first thing in the morning when I only have an hour or less to wet a line.
Mike
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Jeff, it was good meeting you yesterday. I ended up with 5 Cutts and got a good mac's head in the hole before he came off. Pretty much shutdown about 10 am. Tom and I went back this morning. Snowing and blowing early, but ended up nice. Fishing was slower. Tom got a couple and I picked up one. The open water had shifted north overnight.
Larry
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