The Cisco Carp are having a great summer.  Countless kids and their parents come down the gangplank carrying bags of stales bread, cookies, chips and quarters for food.  Before long they are laying on the docks feeding and trying to touch the carp who are greedily slurping up everything that hits the water.  They thrash around like piranhas chasing the food all to the delight of the audience.  Apparently things are so good that they have attracted another species of fish to Cisco's Landing.  I saw a few last year but now they are plentiful.  They get up to about eight inches and are commonly mistaken for little carp.  Actually, the lake is too cold and has limited habitat for carp to spawn so they do not reproduce.  They are in the same family, minnows, and they are Gila atraria or Utah chub.  Utah chub have a very bad reputation for taking over fisheries because the can out compete rainbow trout for food.  During my career as a biologist I killed millions of chubs around the state with Rotenone.  It is a different story in Bear Lake.  They are native to the lake and have evolved with Bear Lake cutthroat trout who love to eat them.  Because of this predator their population is limited and the only safe haven is in the marina.  Enjoy it now "chubs", because when the water cools down the cutthroat will come into the marina and there will be plenty of food for them at Cisco's.

   

Bucket List

I have been too busy lately.  I hate when it goes from winter to summer instantly.  You all know what I am talking about.  Last winter when there was nothing to do and I was reviewing my "Bucket List" I once again began my quest of the great white sturgeon.  This has gone on for years with no success.  Lots of research but no direction. 

I had met a guide last fall when fishing for Chinook in Tillamook that said he fished for sturgeon so I contacted him and set a trip up even though it was early in the season.  The time finally arrived this past weekend.  As a fisheries biologist, I had seen and read about sturgeon but I had never touched or examined them.  That is how they got on my "Bucket List".  Fishing in the mouth of the Columbia River with the constant rain and wind, it happened.  With an anchovy on a single barbless hook the tap, tap, tap started.  The pole "loaded up" and the jerk.  The battle ensued and in a half hour an exhausted fish and angler finally met.  Too large to keep at 65" we held it for a minute and parted ways.  A sense of satisfaction came over me.  Another lifetime goal accomplished.  Never give up on your dreams.

Gus Rich Point

Well, it is finally gone.  I am sure you are sick and tired of me talking about ice on Bear Lake, but bear (no pun) with me.  The ice left in the midst of a rainstorm, followed by a huge dump of spring snow.  It was wrapped up with a windstorm.  As I had said previously, here today, gone tomorrow.  Ice did stack in some areas.  Of particular interest to me was Gus Rich Point.

Gus Rich was a colorful individual whom I met shortly after arriving at Bear Lake in 1974.  He was an old guy then with his own chair in "Pulleys" Bear Lake Motor Lodge which we all frequented for morning coffee.  Now I am not claiming these facts are accurate, just stories I have heard.  He had the first Ideal Beach which was on the point between Garden City and Laketown.  In the old days he owned a bar with plenty of partying, gambling and even stories of a sunken boat with gold aboard.  I don't recall when Gus passed away but it wasn't long after I came here.

The reason I bring this up is because years ago the ice came off and ran a ground at Gus Rich Point.  It took the front out of the old Bar and completely filled it with chunks if ice.  It almost happened again this year.  The ice stacked up close but didn't do any damage.  History usually repeats itself or the lake just doesn't like buildings close to shore on Gus Rich Point.

I actually believe that the Lake is trying to erode the point off of its shore.  In a map of Bear Lake in the late 1800's the point extended further out.  I would also speculate that the "Rockpile",  are remnants of the point 1000's of years ago. 

Gus Rich Point circa 1985

Gus Rich Point 2013

Welcome back liquid water.  Everyone was happy to see you frozen over, we had lots of fun on you but got tired of the ice and the long winter.  Now get ready for fishing boats and it won't be long before paddle boards and wake boarders are skimming on your surface.

I guess that all my whining paid off.  The Monday blizzard that left two feet of drifted snow an my place apparently dumped enough warm rain and snow on the lake to stir and warm up the water to above freezing.  As the valley cleared on Tuesday morning the ice was gone.  I am more than willing to trade that for snow.

Ice Off Facts

I am tired….  I am tired of the snow on the ground….  I am tired of always having to wear a coat and long pants…. I am tired of looking out over the ice covered lake….  Most of these things are out of our control and are part of living in Bear Lake which I never get tired of.

The ice is on everyone’s mind.  First people want to know when it will freeze.  Once that happens, everyone is content until March.  Then it starts again, when will the ice go?

Many people assume that as the weather gets warm, it makes the ice soft on the top and it eventually melts.  That is true is small bodies of water but on Bear Lake things are different.  The rain and heat affect the ice surface but the water below needs to get warmer than 32 degrees.  The inflow from the Bear River and tributaries account for this impact.  This ice melts from the bottom up.  As the lake level increases it opens up a ring of water around the shoreline.  The lake then starts to get darker which means it is melting.  The wind starts pushing the huge ice mass around, it cracks and the blocks crash into each other.  More water opens up and one day, all of a sudden, it is gone.  It may push up on shore as a result of wind, but it will be bathed in a warm rain or just disappear.  I sure hope it melts before May.

Sure signs of spring are here  The turkey vultures have returned to Randolph, calves are frolicking around, turkeys are gobbling and the deer are nibbling the "first green bite"  Enjoy.

Mouth of Swan Creek working on the ice

I don't know how many times in the last week I have been asked it Bear Lake is open yet.  It should be because everything else is.  They also want to know when the ice will melt in the Marina.  I took this picture flying over the lake today.  You be the judge.