Fish Sniffer Issue 3915 | Page 15

VOL.39 • ISS. 14 MAP FEATURE June 26, 2020 13 Lower Bear River Reservoir Facts Size and Location: The 727 acre reservoir is located at an elevation of 5,850 feet in El Dorado National Forest 42 miles east of Jackson. Directions: From Jackson go 40 miles east on Highway 88 and turn right onto Bear River Reservoir Road for 2 miles. Camping: There are two nearby developed U.S. Forest Service campsites at South Shore Campground and Bear River Group Campgound. South Shore Campground has 22 units and is first come, first served; Bear River Group Campground has 3 sites that may accommodate 25-50 people. For reservations at the group campground call Sierra Recreation Managers at [phone]. Fees are charged at both campgrounds. There is piped water, picnic tables, toilets, grills, and fire-rings, but no hook-ups. Open May 15 – Oct. 15, depending on snow. Bear River Resort features: 130 developed campsites. Amenities include power, water picnic tables, fire pits, flushable toilets in the bathrooms, showers dump station on site (for RV’s to dump waste), ice machine, Laundromat, video arcade, gas sold on site, playground, telephones, full store and a full Bar and restaurant. Cabin Rentals: Bear River Campground has seven lodging units, each having accommodations for four occupants. Each unit has a separate bedroom. All units have a day bed in the living room. Linens and blankets for four occupants are provided. All the units have full baths – towels are provided. Kitchens contain stoves, microwave ovens, refrigerators, cooking utensils and service setting for four. Boat Rentals & Marina Facilities: Bear River Lake Resort rents fishing boats with gas motors, canoes, paddle boats and kayaks. Marina slips are available. The boat launch fee is $10.00. Marina gas hours are from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Contact the Bear River Resort at 40800 Highway 88, Pioneer, CA. 95666, [email protected], www.bearrivercampground.com, Tel. [phone] or Fax [phone]. To Jackson & Stockton Rattlesnake Cr. State Game Refuge To Kirkwood, Carson Pass, Markleeville & Lake Tahoe Peddler Hill Ski Lodge Bear River Resort Bear River Little Bear River Lower Bear River Reservoir El Dorado National Forest Amador County Lower Bear River C.G. Lower Bear River Res. Penstock Tunnel El Dorado National. Forest LDS Camp Bear River C.G. Camp Winston BSA Bear River Res. Deer Valley Bear River Ham Spring Cole Cr. Fishing Notes • Rainbow Trout are taken throughout the season. Bank anglers find the top action using PowerBait, Pautzke Fire Bait and nightcrawlers in the launch ramp cove. Trollers catch lots of rainbows with nightcrawlers behind flashers and dodgers. Needlefish, Cripplures, Hum Dingers, Dick Nites, Sparklefish, Wedding Rings and Kastmasters are among the most effective lures. • German Brown Trout - are caught on the lake from ice-out in the spring to the first snows in late fall. Bank anglers find success tossing Rapalas, Rebels or mealworms under water-filled bobbers near the dam and in the coves. Trollers top-line along the shoreline with minnow imitation lures. • Mackinaw trout - action is best in the spring and fall. Troll from 25 to 65 feet deep with Kwiktish, Flatfish, J-Plugs and other proven mackinaw enticers on the lake's south end. While fishing and camping at Lower Bear River Reservoir, you can make side trips to Silver, Caples, Red and other great trout lakes along the Carson Pass Highway, as well as the many productive streams in the region. Sugarpine Cr. Huge mackinaws, such as this 26.4 lb. monster caught by Aiden McKinney of Pioneer while trolling with Rich Spears of the resort in September 2012, prowl the waters of Lower Bear River Reservoir. Photo courtesy of RICH SPEARS. The dam is one of the most popular spots to fish for trout on Lower Bear River Reservoir. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. “CDFW is implementing a put and grow strategy with the sub-catchable RT, but it is not known how many of these fish grow to catchable size. Losee and Phillips (2017) found that RT in the 14 - 15 in. length-class were, on average, 12.5 times more likely to be caught by sport anglers than those in the smallest individual length-class (8 – 9 inch,” he stated. “Anglers may not be catching as many hatchery RT as they could due to the presence of large, predatory BN and LT in Lower Bear. CDFW is transitioning over to a trophy-trout fishery (1 lb. and larger stocked RT) in the coming years to help survivability of RT stocked in Lower Bear. The number of pounds stocked will likely stay the same,” he noted. “Lower Bear has a history of growing large RT, LT, and BN in the trophy-size (> 18 in.) length-classes. However, only one trophy-size BN was caught in 2019 compared to two trophy-size RT and nine catchable-size LT caught in 2018. The decrease in trophy-size RT caught may be due to the absence of trophysize RT stocked by Bear River Resort in 2018 and 2019,” he added. He said gathering information on the trophy-sized component of fish populations can be challenging due to their rarity and their use of habitats unsuitable to traditional sampling techniques (Bayley and Austen 2002). “Lower Bear has a lot of boulder and bedrock structure with a steep gradient along its shoreline. This allows shore anglers access to deep water for fishing. Being able to fish this deeper water from shore means boat anglers are not the only ones able to fish greater depth,” he said. “Only six BN have been reported caught in seven years of surveys. Prior to the 2019 stocking of BN, the most recent stocking of BN was 15,000 fingerlings in 2012. This 2012 stocking does not appear to be successful from the data collected. It is also possible that the smaller percentage of BN in Lower Bear are trophy-size and eating many of the RT resulting in fewer RT in the larger size classes. Wiley et al. (1993) noted that larger trout are better able to avoid predators. This same hypothesis could be also happening in Lower Bear.” He made the following recommendations • Switch to stocking trophy-size RT. • Switch to stocking catchable-size BN. • Keep stocking allotment weight the same for RT. The Bear River Resort is usually open from late April, depending upon snow and road conditions, through October 31. The lake freezes over for a couple of months during the winter and ice fishing is highly inadvisable because of hydroelectric power drawdowns during the winter. Immediately above—and in high water separated only by the upper dam—is the smaller Bear River Reservoir that is often referred to as Upper Bear River Reservoir. Slightly over a mile long, Upper Bear contains 166 surface acres and about 2.5 miles of shoreline surrounded by private, water management lands For more information, contact the Bear River Resort, 40800 Highway 88, Pioneer, Cal, 95666, bearriver@ suredial.net, www.bearrivercampground.com, phone [phone] or fax [phone].