KSL Outdoors: Bear River State Park

Welcome to KSL Outdoors, I'm Adam Eakle along with Moses or Mickey Anderson right? it's the hair. I love the hair. We are taking the hair up to Evanston today we are going to go fish. Yeah this will be great, early winter, late fall, maybe a little streamer action, little nymphing. I think it's going to be good. It's snowing outside. Snowing. But hey we are still going. Why not, we've got the day, let's go. And we heard streamers? Yeah, purple, brown, black.

Maybe a few of each. good deal. get a handful. and get out of here. I've got to get yellow though. I don't know yellow is just a fall color. Just something feels good about yellow. Alright let's grab a few and get out of here. Let's go.

(music and nats of driving up to Bear River State Park)

Our destination is the Bear River just outside of Evanston. We'll be fishing right in the Bear River State Park. Mickey and I stopped in at the visitors center to get the skinny on the fishing.

(Kendra Cagle, Bear River State Park, Natural Resource Specialist) The fishing is fabulous. Yes we've got lots of cutthroat, rainbow trout, there's oppotunities to catch browns. whitefish. (laughs) 12:33 There's good opportunities to catch lots of fish throughout the park, so that's exciting.

(nats zipper) (adam) Here we go Bear River State Park. Here we come.

(Paul Knopf, Evanston City) This is Wyoming fishing. That's how they do it in Wyoming huh? Early November. (laughs)

Joining us is our good friends from Evanston City, Paul Knopf and Janel Campbell.

What do you think? Oh this is neat looking water. I mean there is a hole right there. That looks fishable. Yeah there's really big, deep looking holes. I think it's going to hold some fish.

(Mickey Anderson, Fish Tech Outfitters) Never seen this water before. looks like they've done a lot of reconstruction. They've made it a really cool river. There's some big deep runs. lots of riffles, about anything you want. Pretty neat stream.

We've picked a snowy, cold day to try this river. Our hope is that the incoming front, hasn't put the fish down. However if you've ever fished with Mickey. You know, the guy can catch a fish, in a toilet.

(set hook ) there we go.

Mickey has switched from a streamer to a nymph rig and caught the first fish of the day. A small Bonneville Cutthroat.

It took the prince.

Yeah...(laughs)

Native of the Bonneville Basin, Bonneville Cutthroat Trout today only occupy about 30 percent of their historical range and over 50 percent of that range is here in the Bear River Basin.

I think we are going to be around 500 volts. (beep)

Last August, we showed you the work that Trout Unlimted is doing to ensure that Bonneville Cutthroat trout have a chance to migrate and spawn in the headwaters of the main stem of the Bear River. Biologists have found that some of these fish travel upwards of 40 river miles to spawn. Some of these cutts are huge, over 18 inches. Many will travel back down the main stem of the bear and winter in the river right in the town of Evanston.

Oh shoot, just like that. Did you see that?

Man I just love to nymph fish and nymphs were the ticket. (laughs)

(indicator goes down) There we go. good one, little better anyway. Nope same size. (lands fish) Whitefish! (laughs)

One of the other native fish found in the Bear River is the Rocky Mountain Whitefish. Some people believe them to be a trash fish. Don't tell Mickey. He loves them!

I think there is a bunch of whitey's in here. I might even switch flies, because I don't think they can grab ahold of this fly it's too big for them. They are hitting it like crazy, that's been a bunch of hits.

(hit fish) There's a fish. Nice. Little whitey. (loose fish) Oh I didn't touch him. Still counts.

There we go! there's a fish oh you dog! Got another. Brown trout. Looks like a brown trout. No cutt looks like. Is it a cutt? You you are right it is a brown.

What were you using? I like peacock in cold, clear water. So I started with a prince nymph and a little fly called a surveyer. It's a pink colored nymph and I had to put on my flash bulb that's another peacock nymph and all three have worked.

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