A Bear Lake Fisheries Management plan has been developed jointly by UDWR and Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDF&G). In this plan a creel survey is required every three to five years. The last creel survey was conducted in 2021, (one year late due to COVID-19) and the next creel survey is scheduled for January - December 2026. Angler pressure, catch and harvest information is needed for several reasons: 1) to justify numbers of stocked cutthroat trout to meet management plan objectives; 2) determine rates of catch and harvest of sport fish species including cutthroat trout, lake trout, Bonneville whitefish, cisco, etc. 3) to meet state-wide objectives for Blue Ribbon fisher waters (of which Bear Lake is one of them).

Determine angler pressure (hours fished per year), demographics of anglers, catch and harvest rates of cutthroat, lake trout, whitefish, cisco and other species.

Bear Lake, Rich County, Utah.

A Bear Lake Fisheries Management Plan (BLFMP) has been developed jointly by UDWR and IDF&G. the BLFMP states that the objectives of Bear Lake cutthroat trout are to: "maintain a cutthroat trout catch rate of 0.15 fish/angler hour, and maintain the average size of cutthroat trout in the creel at 17 inches or greater." in addition, the BLFMP also calls for using creel surveys to evaluate the management techniques on the lake. More specifically it says, "conduct comprehensive 12 month angler creel surveys on Bear Lake at 3 to 5 year intervals" in order to evaluate cutthroat trout, lake trout, Bonneville whitefish, and Bonneville cisco catch, harvest and sizes.

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Conduct a 12 month creel survey spanning two fiscal years (FY25 and FY26) which isn one calendar year (2026). Collect pressure information by conducting angler counts and also collect angler demographic information and fish metrics such as length, weight, and numbers of species. These will be incorporated and comprehensive creel report in 2027.