A vacation and fishing at Big Bear Lake and Jenks Lake...):}+{:(...

[The Fishing Queen]

11/16, check in day. Each year on "Thanksgiving" my family goes to Big Bear Lake to celebrate the holiday at one of the lake front timeshare resorts that we own up there. The past three years we had lots of snow for the holiday. Our two kids loved playing in the snow and we enjoyed BBQ by the lake. Thanksgiving was early this year and it has been a warm, beautiful season. Our unit is on the top floor and looks out on a full view of the lake.





11/17, it was foggy and raining outside. A cold day in the 40’s in the morning. I was up at 7 am and took out my fishing gear and fished outside of the condo. I didn't see any fish action on the surface and the temperature made my fingers freezing cold. I fished with two spinning rods 'bait and wait’ style. Both had Power Bait, one with a 3' leader, another with a 4' leader. The weed bed was about 30'-35' from the shore and I made a good cast past all the weeds. I stayed in the cold for over an hour and didn't have a bite, so I called it off.



11/18, cold chilly morning with thin icy covering the roof of the buildings and the cars in the parking lot. I fished in front of our unit around 8:00. I asked a fisherman about fishing. He told me that the fishing was pretty slow. He had only caught one trout in the past three days. I fished next to him for a while with no bite at all. Packed up before 10, and went to the Big Bear Village with the family. We did some shopping and ate our lunch at my favorite Indian restaurant. I must eat at this place every time we are in BBL. The food is great, and if you are a person like me with an open mind and a passionate love for different cultures and foods, then, you just have to try it out.









11/19, woke up early and looked out of my window to check on the weather. The mountains and lake were dressed in cloudy thick fog. After catching nothing but cold the past two days, I decided to go back to my comfy bed and tuck myself under the fluffy covers. I appreciated the cozy rooms, warm fireplace and the great views just outside of my window. This day was the day that I truly enjoyed being a vacationer instead of a hard fishing girl.





11 am, the sun was up high and the weather warmed up. We took a road trip with the kids and went to Jenks Lake fishing. We got there about noon. The parking lot was closed. We parked our car outside of the gate and walked to the lake. The lake and the entire camp were empty. The lake was so clean with reflections of the green trees in water, like a large emerald gem mounted with mountains under the blue sky. The peaceful surroundings and fresh air filled with the scent of pine just took my breath away.





I fished at the fishing pier, set one spinning rod with a 5' leader and garlic Power Bait and a Tenkara rod with a 20' line and a BH Nymph. I had a hit on the spinning rod and caught the first trout with 20 mins. Then, shortly after that, I missed a bite, but hooked up another rainbow trout 15 mins later.





My family had picnic on the pier. As I joined them for lunch, I saw the spinning rod line slowly go slack. I put down my food and walked to my rod, gently tightened the line and watched for the action. When I felt a tug, I set the hook and reeled in a good looking rainbow trout.







My husband took a hike around the lake and did some sight fishing with his Tenkara rod. The children were playing and they spotted a few small bass swimming under the pier. I let them fish with my Tenkara rod to see if they could catch those bass. As I was showing them how to fish, I caught a juvenile bass on the Nymph.





When Scott returned from his sight fishing, he told me that he had caught a juvenile bass on the opposite shore of the lake. The fourth trout that I caught was around 1:20, it was a small trout and it was barely hooked on the side of its lip. So, I released it and took home the rest of the fish. We only stayed and fished for two hours and left the lake before 3pm.





All in all, it was a good day with the family at Jenks Lake. We had 4 trout, 2 bass and plenty of fun at the end of the day.





11/20, a windy day in low 40's. Scott and I wanted to take a drive and explore more fishing areas while the kids went for their youth activities at the resort. We drove to the Stanford Cutoff and fished from the sandy shore near the dam. I was using rainbow Power Bait with 3' and 4' leaders. I had a bite and hooked a nice trout within half hour. When I reeled it in, it got trapped in a bundle of thick weeds and I dragged in an extra heavy weight. As it got about 8' from the shore, the hook suddenly broke off from the leader and the fish escaped. Ugh,..... That was disappointing! I fished for 20-30 mins until I was tired of the wind so we left the lake and went for lunch.





We got back to the resort around 5:00. Scott cooked a great dinner for us and we ate the trout that I caught at Jenk’s Lake. Then, we all got dressed up and we went to the beautiful Performing Arts Center in town and watched the musical show "Oliver". What great show that was! I really enjoyed it and we all had a wonderful night.









11/21, I was up early and was anxious to get out and fish. I heard from a group of people that they only had caught two trout yesterday at the resort area. Scott and I decided to fish elsewhere. We drove to the East Boat Ramp at 7:30 and found a spot that was convenient for both of us.





There were a few local regular fishermen out there by the water. No one had caught anything. It was chilly by the lake. We set up our rods with Power Bait and cast far past the weeds to the deeper water. As far as I can tell, no one had caught anything in the first hour.







9:15 am, the gentleman on my left side just had a bite and he caught the first trout with PB. Everyone was excited for him. I put new bait on both rods and was getting ready for the action. Around 9:35, I got an aggressive bite. I ran to the rod, quickly set the hook and started to reel the fish in. This fish was a feisty beast. It pulled hard under the water, but I had it solid on the hook. When I pulled it closer to the shore, Scott helped with a net. It was a nice 21/2 pound trout. When I took a picture with the trout, it jumped up and gave me a big slimy, wet kiss on my cheek. That’s why I have a 'death grip' on this fish.





I saw that two other guys had caught one or two trout. But, the fishing was slow for everyone. Even the regulars told me that they only had two or three trout each day this week. I fished for two more hours. The fishing was quiet till noon and I caught another decent sized rainbow.





After that, I had no more bites. There were 15 people out there fishing, only 6 people caught fish, the rest of the 8 people had no luck at all. Two fishermen each got one and they both caught bigger trout than us all - one 5 pounds and one 6 pounds......





11/22, "Happy Thanksgiving"! Scott cooked thanksgiving dinner and we celebrated this wonderful holiday together on our vacation with good food and great spirits. We had a nice relaxing time and it reflected the words that I love most. I had it mounted in a frame and it is hanging up in our living room - that is: "Live well, Laugh often, Love much"......





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Sunset







Thanks for reading




The End

[Jbfish]

awesome post! long but i read all of it haha.. my family is taking a trip up to big bear in late december so hopefully the whole lake isnt frozen. thanks for the post!

[gamekiller]

Awesome!!!

[Fishnfun]

Alice - It's all your fault. Now I'm hungry again. Bring me a slice of pie the next time we fish Pudd. Looks like a great vacation. Fishing seemed slow but some quality trout caught. See you soon.

[FSHNLIC]

Awesome vacay!!! You cannot beat them big bear bows!!!

[seal]

Excellent! Thanks for the great post.

[Hometown]

Great report and good time spent with Family cant think of a better way to spend a vacation

[billy b]

Thought I knew BBL pretty well ... I have a cabin there ... but don't recall where the Indian Restaurant is?

[Troutcz swimbait]

Great report and pics once again,see you at the Pudd sometime.

[Natural Lefty]

I am glad you stuck with it until you finally caught some fish. It looks like the kids are learning how to fish too. I remember I went to Big Bear in mid December once in the afternoon and caught 3 trout in a couple hours of fishing, on a relatively warm day. I wonder if the fishing is better in the afternoons this time of year with the colder weather.