Any one know of a way to find out about the boat ramp conditions on the east shore? I can see the utah state marina has not been used and looks iced up on the web cam. Do they plow them? Should I plan on bringing chains?
Send a PM to BearLakeFishGuy, he will let you know about the ramp conditions all over Bear Lake.
The state park did plow all the ramps (1st Point, Cisco Beach, Marina, and Rainbow Cove). However, the docks at 1st Point and Rainbow Cove have been pulled for the the season. You can still launch, but there is no dock. At Cisco Beach the dock is still in, but I checked it today and it was covered in ice and likely too dangerous to try to stand on. The marina is freezing, but still launchable. The de-icers are running but its been brutally cold and they are having a hard time keeping up. There was several skims of ice forming in between the deicers, but could easily be broken though by a boat. Today there was substantial floating ice in front of the marina and on the Idaho side of the lake. In addition there was some ice on the east side too, but its just chunks and not anything close to fishable. We have a good start on ice formation though. If the weather stayed as cold as it is right now it might freeze in another couple of weeks, but its supposed to warm up some this weekend. Since the 1920’s Bear Lake has only frozen over once before January 1st in case you or anyone else is interested.
A BIG THANKS to you BLFG! Its time for my annual bday whitey, cutty, and mack trip. Its been super cold and I was scared I would’nt be able to put the (Commando) boat in. Looks like it’ll be a Titanic run, dodgen glaciers! However the only thing going down this round will be a big ole jig!
I launched at the state park last Saturday (Dec. 5) and motored across to fish the east shore. I watched a couple of small boats launch at Cisco beach. The ramp isn’t very steep and in order to launch the largest boat (looked like about a 19’er) the guy had to nearly get his front tires wet. This ramp isn’t really long either. I could see the back wheels of his trailer fall off the end of the ramp.
I didn’t realize how bad it had been snowing at the marina and was grateful to see they had just plowed when I got back in even though mine was the only vehicle in the parking lot. I was able (barely) to pull my ice incrusted vessel out using 2WD.
I would definitely recommend taking chains along just in case.
Be careful. Water temps were 32F in the harbor but 36-40F out in the lake. With the air temp around 15F the ice buildup on the hull of my aluminum boat was brutal in the 4-6’ waves and 30mph wind coming back across the lake. Normally this doesn’t worry me much with my 21’ boat, but with the ice buildup the boat got really heavy and rode lower and lower. Compounding matters, I couldn’t see a thing. I had to slow down and follow my GPS track. I still have over 2 inches of ice entombing most of my boat. If your boat has an open bow I wouldn’t try going across the lake unless it is really smooth. I seriously think you’ll die.
We had a great time though!
Yeah, ole blue can turn on ya in a hurry! My boat is only a 14 footer with an open bow so a pair of binoculars are a necesity. I check across the lake about every half hour and if i see ANY white caps or even 3-4 foot rollers i get the hell off the water! Even then I try not to venture too far from the truck or ramp.
Thanks to the boater who came to warn us a couple weeks ago out at Gus Rich about the white caps. Although we were already headed back he could see that there were three of us in a small boat and came to express his concern. Good looken out!! Safety First!!
chugg can catch toads!!!