For the most part Bear Lake is ice free. There is a few area with some floating sheet of ice. Boat launching is available at the Utah State Park marina, 1st Point, and the Rainbow Cove ramp. All boat ramps have courtesy docks in place at this time, but they can become iced over and slippery so extra caution is needed. The ramp at Cisco Beach is not usable since the concrete portion of the ramp is well underwater and with the soft sand and loose rock, you can easily get stuck while trying to launch a boat. Anglers are catching doing well for cutthroat trout by trolling and jigging. Best luck has come off the Gus Rich Point/rockpile and along the east side at 2nd Point and the pump house. Good depths to target have been about 75-85 feet for both trolling and jigging. Minnow type lures, flatfish, and spoons are all working for the angler who are trolling and jigs tipped with cisco have been best for those jigging. As of today we have not seen any cisco being snagged off the rockpile, but they could show up at any time. Jigging for cisco should be good this year in about 40-50 feet of water right on top of the rockpile. The cisco run updates will begin on January 16th and continue until the run is over. You may call the Bear Lake office answering machine for the latest report and lake conditions after 5pm. 435-946-8501. **Remember, if you launch, boat or fish on the Idaho half of the lake you MUST have an Idaho mussel certification sticker on your boat or you will be ticketed. **
Thanks for the update Scott, I was just going to send you a PM when I noticed you had made a report already. We were hoping to head up that way on Monday but there is a storm coming in, so we are waiting to see what happens. Do you think there is any chance there will be any around the shore on Monday? Also, when is the Cisco Disco?
Is the Idaho invasive species tag calendar year or 365 day based? I may have to get a new sticker if I bring the boat for cisco. I guess Utah also needs a new annual permit as well. Thank you for the lake update. J
January is here. Gotta get new ID tags. Wish they’d get on the 265 day plan like Utah.
I gotta try the downrigger up there one of these days. But I think I’ll be busy with ice-trips this weekend.
I’ve got to tell ya jigging cisco is dang fun they really fight when you snag them in the belly and they tell me it is legal to keep them so by the time you catch 30 cisco that way it’s a fun day. We used a kastmaster and I guess they were either so thick down there or liked that lure so much we would catch a fish about every third jerk. Just wish it wasn’t such a pain to take the boat this time of year. Where can you launch a boat close to the rock pile off sweetwater? Guess I don’t have enough room in the boat for the crew we take after cisco anyway. But in case I run up on another day I’d like to know where to put in. Well that will be fun next week. Later J
The Cisco Disco will be on Saturday, Jan 21st. Daybreak until about 10am. Then don’t forget the Polar Plunge that will happen at the marina at noon. Jump into the lake and raise money (100%) to Primary Children’s Hospital!
I’m pretty sure you will be able to launch boats at the Spinnaker Point marina (on the south side of Gus Rich Point). The owners took down the chains and they are not charging a fee. I stopped in there the other day and there is a nice concrete ramp, but no dock. Close and safe place to launch!
That is great news Scott, thanks for sharing, is that the same launch where they keep the Bear lake monster? It sure will save the cold ride down from the State parks marina[;)].