Big Bear Lake Online Reservations

Fishing Big Bear Lake

Note: Some of these links will take you out the Fishing page to another site. These links will open a new window.

It used to be that when a person was hungry for fish, they'd attach worm to a string on a stick. And even earlier, just a stick. Nowadays catching fish has been made significantly easier, but at the same time maddeningly difficult. There are such a variety of fishing equipment out there, one becomes dizzy with all the choices in a sports shop. Below is a list of services and advice to get you started.

Fishing Sport Shops

Alpine Sports Center

41530 Big Bear Blvd.
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315
(909) 866-7541

Bear Mountain Jr. Market

40517 Big Bear Blvd.
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315
(909) 866-2120

Big Bear Queen

Corner of Paine Road and Lake View Drive
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315
(909) 866-3218

Big Bear Sporting Goods

40544 Big Bear Blvd.
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315
(909) 866-3222

Tackling Fishing

Fishing in can be a bit more tricky than just knowing who's who in the fish world. It takes the knowledge of great anglers to help you along. Each fish like to swim around Big Bear Lake as they prefer a particular temperature. For Big Bear Lake water temp. refer to the fishing report.

Fishing poles:

There is a variety of fishing poles in all price ranges. Some poles run as little as $10 to a few thousand dollars! That's a long way from a stick and some string!

Bait:

There is a variety of bait available for fishing in Big Bear Lake. Each bait has its own fish, relatively speaking some eat the same. Please refer to Big Bear Fish guide above. Grub smoke lure is a type of live bait.

Lure:

There are a variety of lures available. The basic ones are rainbow rapala, flasher rig and DK downs. A rainbow rapala is a pretty fishing lure that resembles a tiny fish. Flasher rig is a type of lure with flayed ends. DK down and DK brown down are plastic worms.

Big Bear Lake Fish

Black Crappie:

A black crappie reaches about 1.5 pounds. When fishing for crappie, use minnows, shiners, or shad, two to three inches long. Crappie will hit small rapalas, or Broken Backs, however, the most popular lure is an 1/8th ounce lead head jig with a rubber or marabou skirt. The most popular colors are green and white, red and white, yellow and white and purple and black. The jigs can be suspended from a bobber or jigged at a variety of depths.

Blue Catfish:

Blue catfish grow with its environment. It is not strange to see a 10-pound catfish. Catch this fish with shrimp, nightcrawlers, clams, mackerel, red worms, minnows, fish belly strips or even your leftover hotdog!

Bluegill:

This fish weigh about 2 pounds. Pieces of nightcrawlers, redworms, mealworms, grubs and nymphs are good bait. Use a small hook, #10, and suspend the bait from a bobber of fish the bottom in shallows near tules. Small spinners and bass plugs will also induce bluegill to strike.

Carp:

Carp can be caught while fishing Big Bear Lake with PowerBait nuggets.

Smallmouth Bass:

Smallmouth bass prefer cool water and are bottom dwellers. They tend to stay at about 30 feet below the water. These fish weighs less than three pounds. When fishing Big Bear Lake's smallmouth bass use bucktail streamers, spinners, flies, spoons, minnows, small crawfish, nightcrawlers or hellgramites. In autumn, surface plugs will work. Refer to the fish report for updates.

Largemouth Bass:

Largemouth bass live as long as 15 years and can weigh more than 20 pounds. They eat other fish like bluegill and other critters such as frogs, crawdads and sometimes even ducks! Use heavy duty equipment and plenty of bait like minnows, crawfish, nightcrawlers or hellgramites.

Rainbow Trout:

This fish is caught with insects, snails, worms, sowbugs, crawfish, roe and small fish. The weight varies with this fish.