BLM's new catch and release method at Bear Lake 03/07/03

[wiperhunter2]

BLM, wiperslayer and I fished Bear Lake today. It started off slow and I don't mean just the catching, I could not get my boat to go over 8mph. Now I know how Old Coot feels when making
those long hauls in his boat. We got drenched pretty good with
all the waves but we finally made it to the rock pile and started catching some fish. After a few small fish being brought to the surface, BLM showed us a method for releasing fish that I had never tried, with out bringing them to the surface. First after feeling the weight of the fish on the pick up, a decision must be made if the fish is big enough.
If the fish is too small you give slack to the fish and hope the fish will shake the jig loose, if this does not work you have to make the fish uncomfortable by reeling the fish up a few feet and giving slack again. Hopefully it is off by the time the fish reaches the surface if not the worst that can happen is that you have to keep the fish, hopefully it can be released. Surprisingly this method works very well and we were able to release most of the 23 fish we caught. We caught
two four pound macks a couple of three pounders and most of the rest of the fish were smaller. Oh yea, BLM caught a beautiful 11.5 pound laker with some great markings, he will post it later if it came out OK. The water was a little calmer on the ride back into the marina, but the boat motor needs a little more work before I take it out again, oh well it was still a good day at the Bear with great company. Thanks BLM for a lesson in catch and release and wiperslayer for driving us up today. WH2
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[Hellsangler69]

I think I was using that C&R last week on perch .I was trying to fish 2 poles since I got my second pole permit . Never failed when I would get a bite one one pole , I would pick it up and the other pole would get the hit . I had 2 fish on several times and always seem to release the one I put down to reel in the other pole . One of these days I will learn he he . Glad to here you all had a safe trip and caught some fish .
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I think the thing I remember about this trip was the wind. 50 mph gusts can really rock a boat. We ended up putting two anchor chains together to keep the anchor in place because it kept slipping. We were fairly fortunate that the rollers never got bigger than about 3 ft high but they were capping pretty good.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As WH2 said, the ride down to the rock pile was a very wet one. I had rain gear on but Ira and WH2 took a pretty good drenching from the 36 degree water. There were two other small boats out in about 65 - 70 ft off the rockpile. They weren't there long. The wind finally ended up blowing them off the lake.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Once we got anchored up and got a decent set, I dropped a 1/2 oz jig. A horizontal presentation was not going to happen so I upped the jig weight to 1 oz and used a 5" gitzit salt and pepper tube to keep the jig down. That seemed to do the trick. [/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We immediately started catching fish. Now I don't know about you, but with 36 degree water and the wind gusting up to 45 mph, I wasn't really excited about handling fish so if I hooked a fish that was a guppy, I gave him every opportunity to spit the hook. You can tell pretty much at hook set if the fish is a pee wee or net worthy. Only as a last resort did I reel them up to unhook them. Let me tell you, you should of see the look on WH2 and Ira's faces seeing me let fish go after hook up. "You're kidding right?" they'd seem to say as they looked at me in disbelief. Anyway, I guess I convinced them that it wasn't worth it to mess with the little fish so they start trying to unhook the guppies too.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We ended bringing up plenty of fish even trying to let the little boys go and we did manage to knock down one pretty decent one. I could tell right at hook set that that fish was making the journey to the boat at the end of my line.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Once I had him to the surface we had to net him. Have you ever tried getting an 11 1/2 lb fish in a 24" diameter net. It doesn't work very well but we managed to get the job do.[/size][/font]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We ended up leaving the lake about 3:00 pm and had caught a lot of fish. By afternoon the wind wasn't as bad and the ride back to the marina was uneventful. Below is a pic of the 11 1/2 lber we caught. [/size][/font] [center][/center]
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[plecopterahopper]

Nice fish, sounds like you guys had fun. We are heading up tomorrow in that same 12' boat, but I don't know . . . the forcast shows 30-40 mph winds. Looks like we may be using the boat to long line some whole cisco. I don't want to try to buck 3' waves too bad, but we will at least give it a try. Hopefully the wind will let up for at least part of the day. Thanks for the report guys.
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