Fishing Bear Lake
Where to Fish
Most anglers opt to fish from boats, but you can have success at the Bear Lake State Park Marina and along the east shore of the lake near Cisco Beach.
Lake trout and cutthroat can both be caught while using downriggers between 50 and 100 feet with large spoons and Rapalas near Cisco Beach, Rainbow Cove and the Bear Lake Marina. Jigging is also a popular method once fish are found with sonar. Some anglers tip their lures and jigs with Bonneville cisco or sucker meat.
If you are hoping to land a lake trout on a fly rod, then you have a decent chance at doing so from a kick boat while the fish are spawning in the late fall. Cisco Beach is a good place to launch and fish.
Cisco Disco and Ice Fishing
The Bear Lake Monster Winterfest is an annual family friendly fundraising event held in January. As part of the celebration is the “Cisco Disco,” a fishing competition centered around the Bonneville Cisco's habit on spawning each winter and coming in close to shore. Read the story
Averages suggest that Bear Lake freezes over seven out of every 10 years, and when it does, you can ice fish for both trophy cutthroat trout (over 10 lbs) and lake trout (up to 20 lbs). You can also ice fish for two species of fish that cannot be found anywhere else in the world: the Bonneville Whitefish and Cisco. The Cisco can be dip netted or try jigging your pole at “the ‘rock pile’ area near Ideal Beach Resort or off of the artificial rock piles just north of the Utah State Park Marina.
What's Nearby
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Arches National Park
Arches National Park is one of the top national parks in America: it’s a 73,234-acre wonderland of eroded sandstone fins, towers, ribs, gargoyles, hoodoos, balanced rocks, and, of course, arches northwest of Moab.
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Bears Ears National Monument
A pair of towering buttes stand against beautiful scenery. The twin buttes are so distinctive that in each of the native languages of the region their name is the same: Hoon'Naqvut, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe, or in English: Bears Ears.
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Bluff
Rich in human and natural history, Bluff is a central point along the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway. It is a gateway to Monument Valley, Bears Ears National Monument, Valley of the Gods and Hovenweep National Monument.
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Brigham City
Brigham City's Main Street archway proclaims "Gateway to the World's Greatest Wild Bird Refuge." Brigham City boasts a small-town feel with big-city amenities like comfortable and affordable hotel rooms, deluxe suites, and beautiful golf courses.
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Bryce Canyon National Park
An alpine forest with as many red rock hoodoos as trees. At dawn and dusk, mule deer graze the forested plateau along the road into Bryce Canyon.
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Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands is home to many different types of travel experiences, from sublime solitude in the more remote stretches of the park to moderate hikes through the Needles district to the opportunity to create your own version of one of the West's most photographed landforms, Mesa Arch.
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Capitol Reef National Park
Even considering Utah’s many impressive national parks and monuments, it is difficult to rival Capitol Reef National Park’s sense of expansiveness, of broad, sweeping vistas, of a tortured, twisted, seemingly endless landscape, or of limitless sky and desert rock.
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Cedar City
There are plenty of things to experience in Cedar City, Utah thanks to nearby ski resorts, a national forest, great national parks and a superb arts scene.
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Delta
Delta is known as a base camp for exploring the Little Sahara Sand Dunes and the West Desert. Delta is a stopping point on the way to Great Basin National Park, visiting town to see the Great Basin and Topaz Museums, Fort Deseret and the old Van’s Dance Hall.
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Escalante
Between Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon national parks and perched on the edge of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, the town of Escalante offers access to some of the most beautiful parts of Southern Utah.
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Garden City
Garden City’s location at the end of the Logan Canyon Scenic Byway and on the shores of Bear Lake State Park makes it one of Northern Utah's best gateway towns.
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Grand Staircase-Escalante
The allure of the Grand Staircase region — the bulk of which is contained in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument — is phenomenal. Sun-drenched Utah backcountry spreads out well beyond the visible horizon from the road, whether you’re traveling along the The All-American Road: Scenic Byway 12, or on Highway 89.
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Green River
The city of Green River was once a stomping ground for Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, and is a haven for river runners who raft places such as Desolation and Gray Canyons.
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Heber Valley
Between the destination towns of Heber and Midway, Heber Valley astonishes with its alpine splendor and access to endless outdoor recreation.
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Hike Kanarraville Canyon Falls
The Kanarraville Canyon is ideal for travelers, because it is non-technical, and a great way to see a multi-hued canyon. A stunning slot canyon with one of the most photographed waterfalls in Utah
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Kanab
Kanab, Utah is classic American West, surrounded by towering Navajo sandstone cliffs and vistas of sagebrush. Kanab's self-proclaimed title, "Little Hollywood," is fitting for its many abandoned film sets.
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Logan
The Logan area hosted the Shoshone tribe’s ancestral hunting for thousands of years and is still home to great examples of early Mormon pioneer architecture, including the Temple and Tabernacle.
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Moab
Moab is surrounded by a sea of buckled, twisted and worn sandstone sculpted by millennia of sun, wind and rain
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Monticello
The southeastern Utah town of Monticello lies on the sheltered eastern slope of the Abajo Mountains, overlooking a maze of sandstone canyons and plateaus.
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Ogden
Ogden is an outdoor recreation mecca. It has also worked to restore its historic art deco architecture and buildings and blend in new development toward a charming and vibrant downtown.
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Panguitch
Panguitch, Utah, captures the enduring pioneer spirit of Utah with its welcoming rural charm and strong sense of heritage.
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Park City
Park City is the perfect mountain town. The winter slopes were once featured in the Olympics, and in summer the mountains and nearby state parks and reservoirs transform into a hiking, mountain biking, fishing and camping mecca.
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Provo & Utah Valley
Provo and the larger Utah Valley sets itself a part as a place for innovation in tech, health care, education, as well as place for easy access to Provo Canyon's offerings, including Sundance Mountain Resort.
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Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City makes a great gateway for travelers making a trip to Utah's ski resorts or southward to Utah’s renowned red rock country.
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Springdale
As the gateway to Zion National Park and nestled along the North Fork of the Virgin River, Springdale is an ideal place to get outfitted for adventure not only in Zion, but to numerous other parks, monuments, and recreation areas of the western Colorado Plateau and desert southwest.
Regulations
Catch limits
To promote a trophy fishery at Bear Lake, you are only allowed a daily limit of two trout. To protect wild native cutthroat, fish with all their fins intact must be released. Trout with one or more healed fins clipped may be kept.
Reciprocal permits
Anglers with a valid Utah fishing, combination hunting license, or valid Idaho fishing license can fish anywhere on the lake. You can use two fishing poles anywhere on the Utah side of the lake. However, if you want to fish with two rods on the Idaho side of Bear Lake, you must have a two-pole permit for Idaho. In addition, if you are launching from the Idaho side of the lake. you must have a current Idaho Invasive Species Fund sticker on their watercraft.
For the latest regulations, consult the Utah Fishing Guidebook
Learn more about fishing in Utah:
- Buy a Utah fishing license
- Fishing regulations in Utah
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