Bear Lake Valley Fiulled With Cotton

It has been a long winter. A few days of warm weather made us think that spring was on the way. No such luck. With the winter high pressure in place and the lake still open we are experiencing our winter fog. Luckily it is fog and not smog. It is pure white and clean but still depressing, especially when you go up to the Overlook and feel the sun and warmth. It is not cold enough to freeze the lake and the fishermen need to use GPS to find out where they are. Hey, it is winter. Enjoy it as much as you can.

Bear Lake Monster

Bear Lake Monster

I recently received an email from an unknown sender who said he had taken a picture of the Bear Lake Monster with a calf. Lots of talk about the scenario buy few facts. As a biologist I believe that the Bear Lake Monster exists in the minds of observers, not in the ecosystem. It is fun to think about and useful in scaring kids and gullible adults.

Surfing Cisco Fishermen

Well, it was the Cisco Disco yesterday. The annual migration of insane people who go to the east side of Bear Lake to attempt to dip net spawning Bonneville cisco. When the lake is frozen it is fun to cut a hole in the ice and just dip up the fish as they swim by. Open water years are different. It is usually colder and if it is windy, the fish stay off shore and the fishermen lose. That is what happened yesterday. Snow overnight and heavy winds made good conditions for surfing but horrible for catching fish. Scott Tolentino, Jim Stone and helpers served lots of deep fat fried ciscoes, scones, and french fries to the hungry crowds. Luckily, it was calm the day before and they were able to catch fish so they had something ton eat. I have attached a picture of a male cisco in spawning colors and go to You Tube and search "cisco fisherment Bear Lake"to see the crazy fishermen.

Ice Gone

Bear Lake was really trying to freeze over. We put up with a cold December and early January, foggy days and lots of ice forming but it was all to no avail. As I said, "Man has no control on what Mother Earth does". She decided to warm up, rain close to an inch and blow up to 40 mph. The ice, for right now, history. Don't give up yet, In many years I have seen it freeze over in Feburary.

You will need waders to dip net cisco this year. No word on their progress. Waves, wind and open water makes it tough to see them.

waterfowl hunting

Waterfowl hunting

You know a lot of people ask me what I do after Cisco's Landing closes.  The first thing is to get all the boats winterized and stored which takes over a month.  You may know how much work one boat is so just multiply it by ten and you will have an idea what I am facing.  There are always other things that need to be done getting ready for winter but my real love is waterfowl hunting.  Today is a sad day because the season is over.  No more setting out decoys and freezing all day.  What I will really miss is watching my springer, Maggie, retrieve ducks.  She lives to hunt and when it come to chasing ducks and bringing them back to me she can not be beat.Waterfowl hunting is just not about killing birds.  That is secondary, while being with true friends and just experiencing the outdoors is what it is all about.  I will post a few pictures and know that the swans are our friends and we do not hunt them.  The ducks provide great organic dinners and duck hunters pay millions of dollars, as a group, to make sure they have habitat and will continue to exist.  I guess it is time to start on remodeling some rooms and try some fishing.  The cisco are close to running.  I can see to add my pictures so I will try again.

Ice

Is Bear Lake freezing?  that is what everyone wants to know.  Stand on shore between St. Charles and Garden City it looks frozen.  Go on Cisco Beach and akk you can see is open water with a skim of ice in some places.  Lokk at the overlook and you will see it is half frozen.  Wind and storms will determine its fate.

Coming through Logan Canyon the other day I noticed a "icefall" that I had never seen before.  It is between Logan Cave and Burnt Bridge.  Chgeck it out.

Northern Saw-Whet owl

I forgot to add a picture so here it is.

A Strange New Little Bird and how Bear Lake freezes

I am finally getting the hang of things so I hope people start to follow this blog.  I plan on providing lots of information and photos.  If much struggling I have figured out how to import a current copy of Cisco's Sonar to this site.  I will add new ones and post older ones that I think are timely.  Let me know what you think and if you have any questions about anything about Bear Lake let me know and I will try and answer them.  www.docstoc.com/docs/68932736/151-ciscos-sonar-jan-10_2011  Sorry about the ads but that is the only way I have figured out so far.