Took a ride up to Bear River Reservoir to see what shape it's in. Made my usual stop at Cook's Station for coffee and then proceeded up Highway 88. There is still a bunch of snow at 6000' on the side of the road. On the road to the lake, there is about 2' on the sides. I took a side drive on the road toward the resort, which is still closed, to get a larger view of the lake. I was pleasantly surprised to see open water.
Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I secured my tackle box, rods, and net to my home made carrier and proceeded to walk down to the lake. I took a trail that seemed to have been made by snowmobiles and wasn't too steep. Also made pulling my equipment a little easier. Two things I noted when I got to the lake. First, there is still a lot of snow, but it's melting fast and two, where there isn't snow, it's all mud.
I like to fish by the dam, but there was still ice about 100' out. Still ice on the lake in places where the sun doesn't hit out about 50' or so. So I set up shop where there was some open water and gave it a shot. Slip sinker rig with Power Bait in Orange Pulp, Chartreuse, and Rainbow Candy with no results. Slip Bobber rig with the big meal worms. Nothing. I think the temperature killed the meal worm as soon as it hit the water. The wind picked up about 10:00am and made bobber fishing impossible. I also tried the usual lures and nothing.
I think that the water level is still too low. I think the water temperature also still too cold. When the wind picked up I swear I saw icebergs floating by. OK, so maybe they were just small chunks of ice. I also think that since this area (about 500 yards from the dam) was just iced out and it being so shallow, it was probably frozen most of the winter so the fish haven't moved into the area yet. That or the fish were just thumbing their noses at me. I'm not sure.
The future doesn't look good either. Remember in my post from January 23rd, this is one of the lakes that the DFG isn't going to stock. The only good thing is that there are two tournament's here. One in the Spring (May-June or there abouts) and one in the Fall (Mid-September) and they should be stocking for those.
When I talked about Bear River Reservoir back in January, I didn't mention I fished the tournament last September. I've got to tell you, I'll never do that again. The sign up was 4:00pm the Friday before the Saturday/Sunday derby. I got there at 3:15 pm and since they wouldn't sign me up till 4:00, I went over to the dam and threw a couple of lures. Right at 4:00 I was second in line to sign up. The guy in front of me was number 13 and I was number 14. There was no one else there. Who were 1 thru 12 if you couldn't sign up until 4:00? The next morning I went to the resort and got a cup of coffee and told the guy at the desk I wanted to fish down by the boat launch. $5.00 to park. I said "I just paid you $44.00 to fish this tournament and you want $5.00 more just to park here? Yup. I went over to the dam and fished. I came back to the resort at 10:00 for a soda and there was discussion about the three top fish already recorded. The conversation I heard is that the guy that had the biggest fish always wins, when he fishes this tournament. Sounded too professional for me. I went home and won't fish the tournament again, but the previous year, the fish from that years tournament in September were the 3 big ones I lost and the 2 big ones I caught. So, fish when the tournament is on and don't enter.
That's it for today. Until next time, remember: "A bad day fishing is better than any day at work".
Shoreman
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