12-6 Bear Lake Bust

[SkunkedAgain]

I hit Bear Lake yesterday with the new batteries for the boat and a new to me truck...  Temp at the sinks on the way through 6 degrees, perfect clear skies at the overlook, no wind, but an ominous presence lied below... fog...  

Well, took me awhile to get the batteries hooked up and get launched and I hadn't put enough clothes on, so I started out cold and it went down hill from there comfort wise...  

While I was messing around with my trolling motor and trying to figure out what the commands did on the remote, Mike and his crew joined me just outside of the marina...  I figured out spot lock and started casting, Mikes crew ended up pulling in two while I was there... I hooked one and as Pat would say the silly thing wasn't smart enough to hold on so I let it go...  

About 11:00 I headed towards the pile and wow let me tell you GPS is a lifesaver... You can't believe how often I thought my GPS was wrong and I needed to be turning a different direction, well it was me that was screwed up... I can't believe how disoriented that fog on the water made me... I knew my boat was going straight south only to find I was headed east and then north, funny my steering wheel didn't seem to move from going straight ahead, but my bearings sure did.  Anyway my point is don't go out on big water without a compass or GPS to guide you, it blew my mind how disoriented the fog made me...

Well I won't prolong your pain with this post, but I fished Gus's and the rock pile and never had another hit... The boat fishing on my saved spot on the rock pile pulled in a nice 32" trout while I was there, but those 3 fish mentioned were the only ones I heard or seen caught yesterday... It was a chilly day and I found a third thing that needs to be in place for a good Bear Lake trip...  No wind, no fog and the fish biting... I got one of the three yesterday... Oh the batteries did perform really well for me, so thumbs up on that part of the story..

PS.. I do love the new truck, the diesel is incredible pulling Logan canyon, with the boat on heading up the grade out of Bear Lake, there was no traffic, so I thought I'd see what it would do... On the steepest part I opened it up and it hit speeds higher than may be legal and it would have keep going and didn't even act like I was on a hill or pulling a trailer...  My previous truck struggled to hit 50 in those areas... So happy with this one... 13 mpg on the trip, so not the best, but better than the 7 or 8 from the pervious truck... Sorry I don't have a rosy report for the Whitefish spawn, but I'm a 50%er on my whitefish trips, so I'm used to failing.. they'll probably have a lights out day today... Later Jeff

[BoatBallast]

Sounds like a good shake down trip with the new rig. And a 32" trout is a big positive in my mind. So, I think it sounds like a good trip.

It's true about the fog too. I was on the ocean in Oregon in my boat and I ran up on the Yaquina Bay dredge a lot faster than I wanted to. It is a bright orange 90 foot tall boat that is 180 feet long and I couldn't see it through the fog 50 yards away. I couldn't even tell which direction she was headed so I had a radio call with them where they expressed their displeasure about how close I was to them and asked me to wait until they passed me.

Another time, I was using my eyes and my GPS to get back over the bar and into the jetty. My eyes insisted that the GPS was wrong. For an hour I thought there was no way the GPS could be right. It wasn't until 30 seconds before I hit the bar that I saw the jetty tips and knew the GPS was right on and my eyes were playing all sorts of tricks on me.

I vowed I would never go out without a radar again. I'm glad I have it now. It's come in very handy and helped me avoid other potential collisions.

[SkunkedAgain]

Maybe I made it unclear, I didn't catch the 32"er, it was a tracker boat with 3 guys in it... I would have been thrilled with that... I brought home the skunk....

[BoatBallast]

Maybe I made it unclear, I didn't catch the 32"er, it was a tracker boat with 3 guys in it... I would have been thrilled with that... I brought home the skunk....

Ah, misunderstood.  Sorry.

[wiperhunter2]

You made a comment about having slick or ball tires, sounds like that wasn't much of a problem for you, that's good, too bad the catching wasn't better. By the way, what kind of truck did you buy?

[SkunkedAgain]

Maybe I made it unclear, I didn't catch the 32"er, it was a tracker boat with 3 guys in it... I would have been thrilled with that... I brought home the skunk....

Ah, misunderstood.  Sorry.

No worries, sorry I didn't write effectively... Always been one of my weaknesses... kind of like catching fish... Always want to do well, but quite often it doesn't happen that way...Later Jeff

---

You made a comment about having slick or ball tires, sounds like that wasn't much of a problem for you, that's good, too bad the catching wasn't better. By the way, what kind of truck did you buy?

Hey Curt, the truck has pretty good tread on the tires but those Michelin tires are not good in the snow, they are slicker than snot... But I drove slow on the way over so they must have been kept in the traction limits so I didn't have a problem... I usually pass several trucks going through the canyon, this time I got passed by two trucks...So I must have been driving slower... After last year having my truck break lose on two turns on the same trip across the canyon on what looked like bare and dry roads, I've learned to slow down and be a little more cautious in the canyon... It scared me pretty good last year...

My new truck is a white Chevy and it's growing on me, I wanted a GMC again (like their looks better), but the Denali I found was $8k more and I was afraid all the fancy stuff would break on me, since I'm not that careful and live in the mud on the farm... So I got a more plane jane truck without as many options, I think it will be great for me.  I do need to get some better tires and running boards because I'm not tall enough to get into it without  a step or having to pull myself up over the seat... However, I do keep finding different options that I thought were cool on other trucks, that I go to try and find they aren't on this one... Divantage of test driving lots of different vehicles, but I wasn't going to get a diesel either, until I test drove the Denali with the Duramax and that truck sort of changed my mind, so glad I did some test driving... I was afraid of diesel since I had a Ford diesel that wouldn't start from October to April due to the cold temperatures, but I ended up talking with a friend that has run the Duramax and told me that his never has had a problem starting even on the 30 below mornings last winter and his truck wasn't plugged in or kept in the warm garage either... So I'm hoping I don't get out on a cold fishing trip somewhere and find out mine won't start... If I don't run into that issue, I'm going to really like this truck...

Sorry got a little carried away, when all you wanted was Chevy... Later Jeff

[catchinon]

I've had a white Chevy Duramax for a number of years. Mostly love everything about it. You might want to put an additive in that will keep your fuel flowing in the really cold weather. Better safe than sorry, especially if you're going out in the boonies. What year is yours?

[SkunkedAgain]

I've had a white Chevy Duramax for a number of years. Mostly love everything about it. You might want to put an additive in that will keep your fuel flowing in the really cold weather. Better safe than sorry, especially if you're going out in the boonies. What year is yours?

Hey Craig we're going to be twins, I think we have the same boat too, plus I just got a bump board like Brett's and I think he said you found those... My truck is a 2022.  

I think your tip is really good on the fuel additive, hard for the truck to burn fuel when it's jelled and won't flow... I need to talk to the truck drivers and find out which additive is best... I know on the farm we used to use kerosene in the winter to thin the fuel, but I'm sure they have better stuff now... Wonder if the fuel stations are selling winter blend now?  Always hate having a tank full of summer blend in my tractor and then having the temperatures go cold and not be able to get the tractor to run in the cold... Guess that's when it's time to put the additive in the tank..

Thanks for the tips... Jeff

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Jeff, I know you may like the spot lock, but DO NOT use it shallow water. It spooks the WF and trout. Pull out the good 'ol anchor and drop it. Anytime I'm fishing shallow for WF and someone inevitably pulls up next to me with spot lock, the fishing shuts down immediately. I end up moving since they don't realize what just happened. Using spot lock in any depth less than 25' at Bear Lake will just spook the fish all around the area.

[SkunkedAgain]

Jeff,  I know you may like the spot lock, but DO NOT use it shallow water.  It spooks the WF and trout.  Pull out the good 'ol anchor and drop it.  Anytime I'm fishing shallow for WF and someone inevitably pulls up next to me with spot lock, the fishing shuts down immediately.  I end up moving since they don't realize what just happened.  Using spot lock in any depth less than 25' at Bear Lake will just spook the fish all around the area.

Hey Scott I was concerned with that, but my motor hardly ran the other day and when it did it was on real slow and didn't make hardly any noise, now the lake was flat calm and so it wasn't fighting wind and waves so it really wasn't on much at all... I figured the electric motor would spook the fish a lot less than using the main motor to position the boat, maybe that's not true... I'll have to use the anchor next time... How did you do yesterday?  Hope it wasn't as windy over there as it was around my place yesterday... I heard the canyon was a mess, hope you made that trip okay without getting in the accidents...  Thanks for the suggestion... Jeff

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I did not go yesterday since the canyon was closed from early morning until about 3pm. A semi flipped, two cars wrecked in two different areas and yet another car ended up in the river. I got up, looked at the snow and called my buddy and we cancelled. So glad that we did. We would have likely been stuck in the canyon all day due to all the wrecks. Snow again today, but tomorrow looks promising. We are planning to go tomorrow. I have heard the WF run is on and my contacts have done very well.

[SkunkedAgain]

Good luck tomorrow, I seen the weather yesterday and feared you would have had a bumpy day if you were on the lake... Not a lot of fun in the wind, so hope you have a great day tomorrow... Wish I could go, but got a list of things that need to be done since I've been working on trucks and boats for the last couple weeks.. Hopefully I'll catch up fast so I can get out again... "Good luck... Jeff"