BEAR LAKE
What Bear Lake is
A natural lake roughly a quarter of a million years old, half in Utah and half in Idaho, and the only water on earth with these four fish in it.
Bear Lake is "20 miles long and eight miles wide, 208 feet deep, and covers 112 square miles" . The Utah Geological Survey gives it as a "110-square-mile lake", "20 miles long", "more than 7 miles wide", with a "maximum depth of 208 feet" . It "straddles the Utah-Idaho border" , which is why the fishing rules on this page start with a licence question rather than a limit.
USGS measures it as "32 km long by 11 km wide by up to 60 meters deep" .
"Bear Lake contains abundant suspended microscopic particles of white-colored calcium carbonate (lime) that reflect the water's natural blue color back to the surface."
Utah State Parks puts it the same way: "Its beautiful and unique green-blue color is the result of calcium carbonates suspended in the lake" . USGS calls it a "calcium carbonate type water" that is "a brilliant green-blue color" .
Utah State Parks: "Bear Lake was formed 28,000 years ago by earthquake activity"
Utah Geological Survey: "at least 250,000 years old, but it is likely twice that old, and could be several million years in age"
How big, how deep, and what lives in it
Two Utah agencies publish this lake and they do not fully agree. Both figures are printed and neither is resolved.
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 20 miles | State Parks and UGS |
| Width | eight miles / more than 7 miles | State Parks / UGS |
| Maximum depth | 208 feet | State Parks and UGS |
| Surface area | 112 square miles / 110 square miles | State Parks / UGS |
| Full elevation | 5,923 feet | State Parks , UGS , park page |
| Park elevation | 5,930 feet | State Parks |
Bear Lake has four fish that exist in this lake and nowhere else on the planet: Bonneville cisco, Bonneville whitefish, Bear Lake whitefish and Bear Lake sculpin . Utah State Parks singles out "the small, seven-inch Bonneville Cisco, a member of the whitefish family" .
Bonneville cisco
Found nowhere else on earthBonneville whitefish
Found nowhere else on earthBear Lake whitefish
Found nowhere else on earthBear Lake sculpin
Found nowhere else on earthUtah State Parks publishes a live elevation on its current conditions page, against a full elevation of 5,923.65 feet . That number moves, so this page links the field rather than printing a figure that would go stale within the day. Check it before you go →
Beaches, points and the marina
Seven named places around the shore, each on a real Google map with satellite and street view.
Utah State Parks names "Rendezvous Beach" and "Cisco Beach, South Eden, North Eden, Rainbow Cove, and First Point" .
Every marker carries an Open in Google Maps link and a Directions link. They open on the coordinate Utah State Parks publishes for that area. That is also why the markers sit on the shoreline of our own drawing rather than on a surveyed position.
Where to fish Bear Lake, and how
Every fish in the lake, two you can keep and four that exist nowhere else on earth, plus a January dip net season that exists for one of them.
Bear Lake cutthroat trout
The Bear River strain, over 10 lb through the ice
Limit 2 troutLake trout
Reported to 20 lb through the ice
Limit 2 troutBonneville cisco
Seven inches, and it spawns in the middle of winter
Dip net legal, net under 18 inBonneville whitefish
Spawns in mid December
Endemic, found nowhere elseBear Lake whitefish
Spawns from the end of February
Endemic, found nowhere elseBear Lake sculpin
A small bottom fish, and the base of the food web
Endemic, not an angling fishThe Bonneville cisco spawns in the middle of winter and comes close to shore, which is why this lake has a dip net season at all. The Utah Fishing Guidebook says 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."
Anglers "may keep snagged Bonneville cisco that are taken through normal, legal fishing activities" , which is the opposite of the statewide snagging rule and exists for this fish.
Angler sources put the spawn in "late January to early February" and describe jigging "at the rock pile area near Ideal Beach Resort or off of the artificial rock piles just north of the Utah State Park Marina" .
Rules on a lake in two states
Quoted from the Utah Fishing Guidebook entry for Bear Lake, word for word.
Two states, one lake LICENCE
"Any angler who possesses a valid Utah or Idaho fishing or combination license may fish within both the Utah and Idaho boundaries of Bear Lake."
Poles RULE
"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."
Trout limit LIMIT 2
"Limit 2 trout."
Ice holes 18 INCHES
"When ice fishing for fish other than cisco, the size of the hole may not exceed 18 inches."
Weighted hooks PROHIBITED
"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 lake with four fish that exist nowhere else deserves a clean bottom.
Fathom Restoration is a Utah 501(c)(3) that runs volunteer dive cleanups and is built to pull what does not belong out of Utah water.
Donate to Protect Bear LakeEvery figure on this page is quoted from the source named beside it.
Sources
How these were checked
Every figure was gathered, then re-read against the exact sentence in the source. Where two agencies disagree, both are printed and neither is resolved. Agency sources carry a numbered chip. Angler sources carry a lettered chip and are used only for where people fish and what they throw, never for a measurement, a species or a rule.Bear Lake State Park, Discover
Why is Bear Lake so blue? and other commonly asked questions, PI-96
Bear Lake Water Quality
Utah Fishing Guidebook, Bear Lake entry
Bear Lake State Park, Current Conditions
Bear Lake at State Park Marina near Garden City, Utah, site 10055000
Bear Lake near east shore, 0.4 mi S of the Utah Idaho border, site 415941111175401
Angler sources, the second tier
Not agencies. Used only for where to fish, what to throw and when.Bear Lake State Park, Fishing
Bear Lake Fishing Guide
What these numbers are measuring
The forecast cards are the National Weather Service point forecast for the state park marina on the west shore, not for the middle of the lake and not for the Idaho end.
Two elevations, seven feet apart. USGS site 10055000 publishes the lake surface twice, once as "elevation of reservoir water surface above datum" and once as "lake or reservoir water surface elevation above NAVD 1988" . They differ by about seven feet because they are measured against different vertical datums, not because the lake changed. This page shows the first one, because it is the figure Utah State Parks quotes on its own conditions page , and it compares it to the full elevation of 5,923.65 feet from the same park page.
The buoy is a different thing. USGS also runs a water quality and weather platform near the east shore, just south of the Utah Idaho line . It records water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, turbidity, chlorophyll and phycocyanin, which is the cyanobacteria signal. It does not report all year. If the card says it is not currently reporting, the platform is out of the water or offline, and the date shown is the last reading it filed.
Nothing on this band is cached by us. If a card cannot reach its source within eight seconds it says so rather than showing a stale number.
How this was done
Pick your fish
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