Bear Lake
Today’s report
Bear Lake is a fair bet today. The DWR last stocked cutthroat trout (18,896 fish) on May 5. This Afternoon's forecast: sunny, 62°F.
- calm, fishable weather
Fishing Bear Lake: what to know
Bear Lake is the Caribbean of the Rockies — 20 miles of improbably turquoise water on the Utah–Idaho line, 5,900 feet up in the Bear River valley. It's deep (over 200 feet), cold, and home to four fish found nowhere else on earth: the Bear Lake cutthroat, the Bonneville cisco, and two endemic whitefish. Lake trout, brought in decades ago, grow big here. Access is easy on the Utah side at Rendezvous Beach, the state marina near Garden City, Cisco Beach, and First Point on the east shore; the east side's rocky drop-offs are the fishy shoreline.
January's cisco run is the event: for a week or two the little silver fish pour onto the rocks at Cisco Beach and Utahns dip-net them in the freezing dark — the cutthroat and lake trout follow the ciscos in, and that's the best shore fishing of the year for big cutts. Spring and fall are prime for trolling cutthroat and lakers along the east-side ledges; summer is deep-water trolling, early mornings, and a whole lot of recreational boats. The lake rarely freezes solid, so ice fishing is opportunistic and shore-only near the edges.
Troll the east shore in 30–80 feet with flashers and a cisco-imitating spoon or minnow plug — silver, white, and chartreuse. Jig tube jigs and heavy spoons over the rocky humps for lake trout. From shore in winter, cast a jig or a marabou fly where the ciscos are stacking. Bear Lake has its own regulations, including a cutthroat limit built around fin-clipped stocked fish and a cisco season — the rules are on the water page below and differ from the statewide book.
Current conditions
Stocking
Last stocked May 5, 2026 — cutthroat trout (18,896 fish).
| Date | Species | Quantity | Avg length |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 13,335 | 7.76" |
| May 5, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 4,326 | 7.44" |
| May 5, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 18,896 | 7.77" |
| May 4, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 19,478 | 7.64" |
| May 4, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 17,873 | 7.8" |
| Apr 28, 2026 | cutthroat trout | 8,926 | 7.77" |
| Nov 12, 2025 | lake trout | 21,189 | 5.64" |
| Jun 24, 2025 | cutthroat trout | 27,409 | 8.54" |
Best time to fish Bear Lake
The DWR has stocked Bear Lake 30 times over the last 6 seasons, and 93% of those plants landed in May, June, November — the freshest fish and the easiest bite usually follow within a week or two of a stocking.
Species
Location
Nearby waters (within ~25 mi):
Regulations
See Fishing across state lines and reciprocal fishing permits on page 8 for license requirements.
- Limit 2 trout.
- Anglers may keep snagged Bonneville cisco that are taken through normal, legal fishing activities.
- Cisco may be taken with a handheld dipnet. Net opening may not exceed 18 inches in any dimension. When dipnetting through the ice, the size of the hole is unrestricted.
- When ice fishing for fish other than cisco, the size of the hole may not exceed 18 inches.
- Any angler who possesses a valid Utah or Idaho fishing or combination license may fish within both the Utah and Idaho of boundaries of Bear Lake. An angler may fish with up to two poles on all areas of the Utah portion of Bear Lake that are open to fishing. Anglers must comply with Idaho regulations if they want to use more than one pole when fishing on the Idaho portion of Bear Lake. Visit idfg.idaho.gov/rules/ fish or scan the QR code for Idaho's fishing regulations.
- A person may not possess a multipoint hook with a weight permanently or rigidly attached directly to the shank—or a weight suspended below a multipoint hook—unless the hook is on an unweighted dropper line that is at least three inches long. (a) Big Spring Creek from Lamborn Diversion (approximately 500 yards below SR-30) downstream to Bear Lake and that area extending from the mouth out into the lake 1,000 feet, or as buoyed.
- CLOSED April 15 through 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July.
- Catch and release only and artificial flies and lures only (Jan. 1–April 14, and from 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July through Dec. 31).
Swan Creek from the headwater spring downstream to Bear Lake and that area extending from the mouth out into the lake 1,000 feet, or as buoyed.
- CLOSED April 15 through 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July.
- Catch and release only and artificial flies and lures only (Jan. 1–April 14, and from 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July through Dec. 31).
Special rules from the 2026 Utah Fishing Guidebook. Statewide daily limits apply to anything not listed. Rules change — always verify in the current guidebook before you fish.