Idaho Fish Report

On Feb. 12, Bear Lake had ice and open water. Ice conditions are extremely variable. Some areas have up to five inches of ice, while others have only one. Use extreme caution if you are venturing out on the ice. There is ice shelved up around most of the shoreline, and it's stacked at least five feet high in the mouth of the Utah State Park marina. The majority of the open water is in the southeast corner of the lake. Fishing is good, although few anglers have been out. A few anglers have been ice fishing off the rockpile, the pump house and Cisco Beach. If you're targeting cutthroat trout, try using jigs tipped with cisco. For whitefish, try using spoons -- Swedish Pimples or Kastmasters -- tipped with mealworms. Remember, in order to keep a cutthroat trout from Bear Lake it must have a healed fin clip (usually the adipose fin). If you catch a cutthroat with all of it's fins intact -- even if it's tagged -- you must release it. In order to maintain the fishery, consider releasing large lake trout. In Bear Lake, lake trout can easily live more than 35 years.