The Bear Lake Monster

Fishing Time: 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM

Weather:  Slight breeze, clear, T-60s

Moon Phase:  5% Moon

Location: Bear Lake

Water Temp: 65 degrees

Best Bait: K-13 Flatfish (rainbow color)

Who Went: Devin, Dunc

Every year since I have been alive (1981) my family has gone to Bear Lake during the summer/fall.  The last 10 years or so it has been over Labor Day weekend.  It’s a fun tradition and a good way to end the summer fun before school starts.  I typically don’t take the boat, only because it’s the last trip of a busy summer and a chance to relax, but this year Devin was adamant that we take the boat because he has become obsessed with catching lake trout.  He’s seen pictures of big lake trout I’ve caught at Flaming Gorge and when I told him they live in Bear Lake, I was done.  The boat was coming!

I woke him up early and he was very excited.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that a fish that size doesn’t come easy and I tried to ease the pain during the drive to the marina by telling him you can go all day without a bite when fishing for lake trout.

We launched the boat and drove over to Gus Rich Point and dropped a K-13 rainbow colored flatfish down to the bottom (80 ft) on my $70 clamp on downrigger and set the cruise at 1.7 mph.  We instantly started to see fish and within minutes I saw a large green blurb (fish) come up off the bottom to look at our flatfish.  I was explaining to Devin that this was a big lake trout coming up to take a look and those are what we want to see on the fish finder.  Two seconds later the rod started bouncing and we had him on! 

I grabbed the rod and gave it to Devin, but it about pulled him into the lake!  We finally found a good system with me helping hold the rod upright and Devin doing the reeling, and after a good 5-10 minute fight we could see the large fish coming up from the clear blue depths of Bear Lake.  Devin couldn’t believe it and seemed shocked when looking at it in the net.  It was a very proud moment for me and something I have dreamed of doing for a long time.  Putting Dev on a big lake trout.  I always assumed it would be at Flaming Gorge, but now Dev holds the Duncan family record for lake trout at Bear Lake.  The fish hit the scales at a shade under 20 pounds!

In true 7 year old form we dropped the flatfish down again and within 5 minutes Devin was wondering why we hadn’t caught another one.  Patience is a tough virtue at that age.  We never did get another bite, but we didn’t need to.  We had accomplished our goal and couldn’t have been happier!