Big Bear Blog

Early season fishing can be fantastic “if” you’re in the right area, and at the right depth. Right now we are catching most of the fish in very small areas where the bugs are hatching from the bottom of the lake.

If you are bait fishing, Pautzke’s Salmon Eggs and Fire Bait are working great right now. I saw a couple of nice limits of trout caught from Juniper Point last week. The fishermen were using just a single Pautzke’s Salmon Egg on their hook. Pautzke’s Fire Bait in Chartreuse and Pink has also produced several limits at Stanfield, Juniper, and the dam.

The fish are shallow early in the day, so don’t cast your bait very far off shore until about 7:30 or 8:00 am. Then after the sun is high in the sky, the fish start heading for deeper water; as deep as 22 feet during the middle of the day. Don’t spend more than an hour at any one spot if you’re not catching fish, because the next place you try might mean a lot of action! You have to fish 2 to 4 pound test line because the water is very clear right now!

Trolling is absolutely fantastic! Again, early in the day, the fish are shallow, and you can catch them at 1 1/2 to 2 colors of lead-core fishing line. During the middle of the day, I’m hooking fish as deep as 4 1/2 colors (22 to 23 feet).

In the last couple of weeks the best colors of Luhr Jensen Needlefish have been Red Dot Frog, Fire/Pearl, Pearl bikini, and Brass Bikini. Thomas Buoyant’s top colors have been Hot Pink, Gold, and Gold/Red trolled as slow as you can go! Thomas Cyclone Spoons in the same colors plus Watermelon have also worked well. If you just want to target the big “holdover” fish, tie on CD-5, F-5, and Husky Jerk Rapala’s and Thomas Buoyant’s. Fish the Buoyant colors mentioned above and Rapala’s in Gold/Black, Brook Trout, Purpledescent, and Hot Steel.

Start off shallow at 1 1/2 to 2 colors early. Then as the sun moves higher in the sky, keep fishing your lures deeper, some days having to go 4 1/2 colors to get a bite.

Just like shore fishing, I’m catching trout all over the lake right now, but in small area’s of the lake. Troll different places in the lake until you start catching fish, then really work that area hard!

Curt Dills
FishBigBear.com

Growing up on the East coast, spring was not my favorite time of year. I associated it with half melted mounds of snow frozen and covered in dirt, muddy walkways and temperatures that were mostly too cold to break out anything cooler than a long-sleeve T-shirt. Even now, most mountain towns refer to spring as their Mud Season. In those towns, there seems to be a holding pattern - between the activities of winter and the actions of summer. But not in Big Bear, spring is spectacular.

The lines of winter blend with summer and a crazy, unpredictable spring emerges. Big Bear seems to be graced with the exceptional ability to escape from winter every time and spot a perfect landing for stellar days of sun. It keeps us on our toes: Not because we are wading through mud and waiting for the sun to dry us out, but because we are preparing for the unexpected and executing our plan.

In the last eight days, I carried out my plan by napping in a hammock strung in the shade of my front yard, climbing and skiing Anderson Peak in the San Gorgonio range as a spring storm rolled up the San Ana River Canyon, taking it inside on a snowy morning for a spin class at Mountain Fitness, riding some of the best resort pow of the year, catching a sunburn during a long run along the north shore, reading Tolstoy on my deck by headlamp, hiking to the top of Gray’s Peak, watching fly fishermen expertly cast in Baker Pond and cruising a favorite trail with my best mountain biking girls. 

As we prepare for another week of the unpredictable, I’m eyeing my kayak and digging out my paddle. If this is our mud season, I’ll take it each and every time!

Earning my turns,
Glade Girl

Since 1970 we’ve celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd. That was the day Americans decided to stop the un-checked pollution of our planet! Before 1970 there were no laws to stop factory’s from spewing black smoke into the air or dumping toxic chemicals into our oceans and waterways. Earth Day was established by Senator Gaylord Nelson as away to “force this issue onto the national agenda” 20 million Americans responded in protest and their voices were heard!

In December of the same year Richard Nixon and Congress created the United States Environmental Protection Agency to begin the task of repairing the damage already done and establish guidelines to protect human health and the environment. I’m challenging you to use Earth Day as a reminder that this is “OUR yard” and we should be keeping all of Big Bear Lake clean and beautiful 365 days a year.

Big Bear Disposal is doing their part by adding six clean, quiet, eco-friendly trucks to their fleet as they work towards becoming a zero waste community. Soon they will be breaking ground for a new recycling facility on the north shore of the lake, reinforcing their commitment to help us keep Big Bear “green.” Please come up and enjoy our playground, all we ask is that you treat Big Bear like it’s your  backyard, because for us, every day is Earth Day.

spreading the love, rev

After months of above average snow fall, Big Bear Lake is almost “full”, spring has arrived, and it’s time to go fishing. By far the most popular method of fishing for the hard fighting, rainbow trout is bait fishing. Early in the season, a sliding sinker bait rig is the most popular.

The rig consists of a 1/8 to 1/4 ounce egg sinker threaded onto your main line with a small swivel tied to the end. I attach a pre-tied, two hook bait rig to the swivel in either #2 lb. or #4 lb. test. When I take the rig out of the package, I always cut off and shorten the leader where it attaches to the swivel, so that the first hook is about 6” from the swivel. That way when you are fishing, the first hook is about six inches off the bottom with the second hook above that. The length of leader above the bottom can be very important!

Another very effective rig that is more effective as the water warms is the slip bobber rig. With a slip bobber rig, where you place the bobber stop determines how deep your bait will be below the bobber. Start by attaching the bobber stop to your main line, then thread on the slip bobber with a 1/8 oz. egg sinker below that, and then tie on a swivel. To the swivel I tie a two hook, pre-rigged 2 lb. or 4 lb. test leader, with size #14 or #16 hooks. In the spring when the fish are feeding closer to the surface, many times fishing shallow is much more productive than fishing on the bottom. If you are going to use floating baits with this rig, there is and easy little trick to stop the bait from floating up and tangling with the main leader. Buy a small spool of fly tier’s lead thread, and make a few wraps of the lead around the shank of the hooks. This will keep the hooks with floating baits hanging straight down.

By far the king of all “floating type” baits is Berkley’s PowerBait and Gulp! Top colors for Big Bear Lake are Chartreuse, chartreuse/orange, pink, and orange.  Many anglers also spray scents like Gulp! Garlic on the bait, to make sure they eliminate all human odors.

The most popular way to put the bait on the treble hook has always been to mold a bait ball just large enough to cover the treble hook. However, two new methods have been introduced that have become very popular and productive. The first is called the “Power Larva.” Using a little more bait than usual, the bait is shaped like a caterpillar larva, giving the bait a live bait look. The second method is called the “Power Mouse”. To rig a power mouse, mold Berkley Gulp! into a ball just covering all but one of the treble hooks. On the exposed treble hook, add a Berkley Power Trout Worm. The Power Mouse can be fished on a standard sliding sinker rig, or as bait that you slowly work in with a split shot that can also be deadly.

To rig the Power Mouse as moving bait, it is best that your main line is either #2 lb. or #4 lb. test line. Tie a #16 treble hook to the end of your line, and install a #3 or #5 split shot rigged about 12 to 15 inches above the hook. Cast the Power Mouse out and let in sink to the bottom. Once on the bottom s-l-o-w-l-y reel the bait in, pausing every few feet.
A shoreline bait fishing tip: In the spring the fish might be a lot closer to shore than you think both early and late in the day! Many times fishermen rig up their rods, and then cast as far out in the lake as they can, when quite often the majority of the fish are only maybe 30 to 40 feet from the shoreline.

Curt Dills
Fish Big Bear Charter Service
www.fishbigbear.com
 

Spring skiing offers some of the best conditions for a season: Cold, freezing temps at night coupled with warm, almost hot days, produces a variety snow types during one eight-hour day on the slopes. So grab the sun screen, ditch the goggles and don your best tee-shirt, spring skiing is on in Southern California.

Bulletproof: Sometimes called boilerplate, it’s hard, fast, icy snow typically found if you catch first chair. So, my advice, chill in the parking lot a little longer before taking it to the slopes.

Granular: Snow that has melted and refrozen. It can be loose and sloppy or packed and firm. Gives you a chance to break out your powder sticks one last time even if it hasn’t dumped in months.

Corn: The finest of the spring harvest, Corn is similar to loose granular only better. Like the vegetable, spring Corn is usually sweet!

Crud: Another reason to break out your fatter boards. Crud is what happens to good snow: It’s tracked, ungroomed pitches that freeze over night and soften slowly and inconsistently. If you like the challenges of riding Crud, definitely give it time.

Mank: Kind of like it sounds.

Mashed Potatoes: Clumpy like your grandmother’s, this type of snow typically forms on a sunny day around 1:00 p.m. It’s like riding good snow but not really.

Slush: You probably won’t read this on any snow report but you might hear the term used in the lift line: “It’s getting slushy.” Bottom line: It’s wet, tends to grab at your bases and slows you down. Like Mashed Potatoes, it might be time to call it a day and transition to Apres ski mode.

Have fun, ride safe and enjoy these last couple of weeks of the year that was!

Earning my turns,
Glade Girl

These are exciting times for athletes on our mountain. Local child superstar Jordan Romero just left for his quest to climb Mt. Everest and the entire mountain community has rallied to support his efforts and send him off with our best wishes.
This will be his toughest challenge to date, but his preparation and training has been at the highest. I’m confident that we will soon see pictures of his bright smile standing proud at the summit.

My dreams of having a stage of the Amgen Tour of California in Big Bear will finally come true next month. We will witness the best bicycle racers in the world taking on one of the hardest stages of any race this year including the Tour de France! This will be one of the most beautiful stages of the Amgen Tour of California but it will also be a double edged sword that will rip the legs of even the strongest of climbers.

Then last Saturday I dropped by SkyHigh Fitness to watch Pro MMA fighter Tierry Sokoudjou train with Bob Antonacci. Sokoudjou a.k.a. the African Assassin is a member of Team Quest out of Oceanside, Ca. He is preparing for a big fight tournament in Japan. Part of his new training regimen is spending some time up here in Big Bear working with Bob to improve his cardio, and to kick his overall fitness up a notch.

It’s exciting for all of us that live and breathe the mountain athletic life, and witness these activities at such high levels. We’ve always preached the benefits of living and training in Big Bear and now we get to witness it first hand, that’s exciting!

spreading the excitement, rev