Big Bear Blog

It’s fun to see all the new bikes under familiar faces and old bikes ridden by new faces that I’ve seen out and about already this cycling season. I’ve been out for a few good spins and every time an unexpected friend has shown up and each time brought someone new, which makes the ride even better.

My friend “b-Ray” built a brand new rig with the idea that this year he would do the commute from Running Springs, where he lives, to Big Bear Lake, where he works, as often as possible. For all of us that commute by bike on a regular basis I encourage you all to give it a go, it’s fun, it will save you money and it’s good for your health. With the gas prices rising at an obscene pace it just makes sense to leave you car home every chance you get and cycling through and around Big Bear lake is just plain fun.

If you just can’t ride to work I highly recommend that you get out for a nice pedal soon, it’s a beautiful spring and the mountain is in full bloom. In fact, a few of us rode over Onyx Summit and then down to Jenks Lake for a nice 50 mile cruise just to get out and enjoy the scenery. I won’t kid you, it’s hard to do that entire ride and I wouldn’t suggest it to beginners, but if you do it at a moderate pace, pay attention to hydration and nutrition it’s just simply amazing.

This early in the season it’s green everywhere! Come enjoy rides in the serene alpine forests with high mountain peaks thrusting above even the tallest trees. It is truly spectacular.

Let’s play!

Rev

Ask just about any guide, marina, or tackle store, “What’s the # 1 Fish Catching Lure on Big Bear Lake”, and I’ll bet the answer will be the same. This of course is the Luhr-Jensen Needlefish!

If you gave me a tackle box full of different colors of Needlefish, I would be confident that I could catch fish on any trout lake in the world!

This lure is a legend, and has to be in the “Top Five” best trout producing lures ever invented. Last season my clients caught over 2,400 trout on my boat, and Needlefish accounted for a very large percentage of those fish.

Needlefish are a very thin metal lure, with lots of action and flash. You need to either troll them with some weight on lead-core line or with a downrigger. It is also best to troll them with your boat going right and left in a kinda of an “S Pattern”. When you troll left then right, the lures on the out side of the boat speed up, and the lures on the inside flutter down. This action is irresistible to trout, and you’ll get a lot more strikes!

The best size Needlefish for this lake are the #1 and #2. Because they have so much action, I tie a small Ball Bearing swivel about 3 feet up the line to eliminate any line twist. As far as colors, this really depends on water color and conditions! If the water is “Stained”, I fish Fire Tiger, Fire/Pearl back, Chartreuse/Fire Red, Chartreuse/Fire Dot, and Copper Huckleberry Muffin.
When the water starts to clear, Red Dot Frog, Pearl, Copper, Silver & Gold Bikini, Rainbow, Cop Car, and Copper Chicken Wing are hard to beat!
You want to troll Needlefish very slow. If you have a speed indicator on your boat, troll from 1.5 to 2.2 miles per hour.

Needlefish are a fantastic lure that will catch you lots of trout. If you’re going to have friends over for a fish fry, tie on a Needlefish; it won’t let you down!

Fishbigbear.com

Wow what a surprise! On my way to work today I saw a bald eagle roosting on the perch located on the east end of the Stanfield Marsh Wildlife Preserve. What a site indeed to see a bald eagle at the end of April. Usually these majestic birds winter in Big Bear and return back to their homes in great north by the end of March.

However, it was great to see one still around this late in the season. This eagle obviously knows that the hunting is superb in Big Bear Lake with plenty of trout and coots all year round.

There has been rumor that a bald eagle or possibly two eagles have created a nest on the south shore above the village area. This could possibly mean the beginning of resident bald eagles in Big Bear. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that these great birds of prey make their permanent home in Big Bear Lake. If all goes right we could have little eaglets flying around within a couple of years. Maybe Big Bear Discovery Center will offer bald eagle tours all year round. What a treat that would be.

Fly like and eagle,

Daniel Pea 

Our fearless leaders Teddy D. and Heather D. from bigbearoutdooractivies.com pulled together another stellar outing on April 26. It was the second of seven scheduled group hikes.

About 50 people joined together to conquer another one of the seven summits in and around Big Bear. There were about 20 returning people from the Bertha Peak hike and about 30 newbies.

This group was out to discover gold! Gold Mountain that is. At 8,235’ elevation, Gold Mountain is a mellow hike for the most part with some challenging inclines and a few areas that are downright rocky. Most of the hike however was on the grand ole Pacific Crest Trail, which is always a treat for a day hike.

What I enjoy most about these group hikes is the actual community of the group. I have put together a top 10 list of why group hikes in Big Bear are cool.

10. The Sound of Marching Feet: It is a sound that is difficult to describe until you actually march with another 50 people or so up a trail.

9. The Conversations: There are a multitude of conversations in the atmosphere. You have the choice to listen to the interesting tales and stories or join in on the conversations and throw in your two cents.     

8. Interesting People: There are so many different walks of life that join in on these group hikes. What I found interesting are people from all over Southern California joined in on the fun, including Tom from Ventura and Malsa from Redondo Beach. This is an all ages group hike from five years old to 75.

7. Courteousness: These hikes bring out the best in people. For whatever reason people on a group hikes are cheerful and courteous toward one another. The way it should be on a daily basis. I think it is a Big Bear thing. The folk here have a grasp of the golden rule, and it is apparent on these group hikes. So any of you folks from off the hill who want to get away to enjoy great hospitality and good courteousness check out the next group hike. 

6. The Pace: It’s your pace. If you want to zip up the hill, that’s fine. Remember these folks are courteous and will move aside for you. Or you can choose to shoot the breeze with you fellow hikers take multiple breaks and get to the top whenever you damn right please. There is absolutely no pressure on these group hikes.

5. The Dogs: On this group hike there were about five dogs to join in on the fun. The four-legged balls of fur are great entertainment!

4. Networking: Whether you are trying to sell a kayak or introducing someone to your business this is a great place to network.

3. Our Fearless Leaders: Teddy D. and Heather D. go 110% every time to provide a happy and safe environment for all. They take great pride in these hikes and it shows. They are great promoters of health and community spirit, take great photos of the group hikes and keep everyone informed at bigbearoutdooractivities.com.

2. Photo Opportunities: Even though I did not bring a camera with me on the group hike there were quite a bit of cameras snapping away. There are some wondrous views at the top of these summits and it is great to snap some photos with your fellow hikers in the foreground of these magnificent Big Bear backdrops! My personal favorite of course is the group photo of everyone gathered together at the summit.

1. Community Gathering at the Top: The buzz, the vibe, and the triumph! It all comes together at the summit. Here is where the community gathers together in elation to celebrate their feat together as one unit. People break out snacks, guzzle water, take photos, laugh at antics performed by the dogs, listen to sound advise from our fearless leaders, converse about the accomplishment, more networking opportunities, chat about future group hikes, share a laugh or two with our fearless leaders; and best of all a sense of celebration, because the group knows it has discovered gold together.   

What are your favorite things about group hikes. Post your comments above.

Discover gold,

Daniel Pea 

This might sound like I sell Rapala lures, but the truth is I don’t. However, I do make my living catching fish for my clients and Rapala lures are my first choice every day on Big Bear Lake, and just about any where else I fish.

If you just want to catch a lot of fish, and possibly a “Big One,” fish either the Floating or the Count Down #3. Some people only fish Countdowns, I’m not sure why. There are some great colors that you can only get in the Floating model, and if you’re going to fish them on lead-core, or a downrigger, what difference does it make? I use both with great success!

If you want to catch better average size fish, and possibly a “trophy-size” fish try Floating & Countdown # 5 & # 7s, Jointed #5s, and the New Shallow X-Raps! I just started fishing the Shallow X-Raps, and have had great success. What I really like about the X-Raps is that they come in a variety of colors that you can’t get in other Rapalas, and they have totally different action!

What’s the best color Rapala? This answer sounds like a “cop out,” but it’s the one that works best the day you are on the lake! I have every color the company makes on my boat, and one day I will have great success on one color, and the next day I might have to use a totally different color to catch fish!
The best advice I can give you is that if the wind has been blowing, and the water is murky, I start off with Fire Tiger, Hot Mustard Muddler, and Fluorescent Orange/Gold. In clearer water, I use Rainbow, Black/Silver, Black/Gold, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Viper or Chartreuse/Florescent Silver.

A “Big Mistake” that a lot of angler’s make when fishing Big Bear Lake with Rapalas is fishing too light of line! I never use less than 8 lb. test. The trophy sized fish are only stocked twice a year (once in May and again in October), and many have grown up in the lake. If you hook a big fish now, that fish has been in the lake at least six months, and their mean & nasty, and are very tough to land! Big Fish also have a very tough mouth, which makes getting a good hook set almost impossible on light line.

If you want to turn “Waiting for a Good Day?” into great fishing almost every time you go out, grab a bunch of different size & color Rapalas, spool up with 8 lb. test line, and get out on the lake!

FishBigBear.com

Well my friends at Bike Magazine finally wrote the story on Big Bear Lake that I’ve been begging for, the May issue just hit the stands with our story in all it’s glory and is available at Bear Valley Bikes or your finer bike shops down the hill. I coudn’t remember the last time I had read a story in any magazine about Big Bear that wasn’t a “race report” and after combing through back issues of every cycling publication I could find, I discovered that nobody ever wrote about the Big Bear area as being just a fun place to ride. Then when downhill racing stopped at Snow Summit a few years ago word spread like wildfire that you couldn’t ride here at all.
I pleaded with the boys at the magazine… “please tell it like it really is!”

So feature writer Kip Mickler and the mag’s photo editor David Reddick came up last fall with the new intern in tow ready to ride, eat and re-discover Big Bear Lake. Several of us local biker dudes took them out and showed them some of the fun trails that we ride on a regular basis and we also ran them down to Running Springs to hammer the recently opened Exploration trail. If you haven’t done that ride yet then you’ve got to add it to the list for rides you “must do” for this season. They enjoyed the ride so much they took us out to lunch and a post-ride brew to toast the day. They invited Eric Carter up to ride and let him tell the story of how he launched his pro downhill career at a huge race here in Big Bear.

They were impressed not only with the quality and fun of the trails but with our love and passion for our area and the local riding scene, even if there are no more competitive events. They too had always been busy covering the races here and had never really had the time for doing any of the rides away from the resort grounds.
We all had so many suggestions that they were a little overwhelmed and didn’t have the time to get to all of the possible options but we gave then enough for the piece. I think that you’ll like the story as it was told with input from many sources and it pretty much captures the message I’ve been trying to spread all along.
That Big Bear Lake is a fun place to ride your bike with friends with family or even with total strangers.
So grab a copy of the May issue and get motivated to rediscover Big Bear yourself, we’re here and we’re riding.

spread the love and the word, rev

The winter is finally over! On April 1st the East Public Launch Ramp opened, and on April 10th the West Ramp is scheduled to open. Please note there are new hours of operation for the launch ramps this year.
• 6:00 am-6:00 PM Sunday-Thursday
• 6:00 am-7:00 PM Friday, Saturday & Holidays

Big Bear Marina, Holloways Marina and Valley Wide Marine are all open for boat rentals and all your other fishing needs.

The fishing this week was very good, with the fish spread out from the dam all the way down to the east end. Fish were caught from the surface, down to four colors.

Bob “Big Fish” Miller had a super week! Bob is a local fishing expert, and probably catches more big fish out of this lake than any other angler! Along with several average size fish, Bob caught 12  fish over 2 lbs. with the largest 6 lbs. 2 oz. , and the great thing about Bob is that he releases all big fish! The best eating size fish from the lake are the holdovers up to about 18″; so he releases all the bigger fish.

Hot lures this week were # 3 & # 5 Rapalas (Floating , Count Downs, and Jointed) , Roostertails, and Needlefish. Best colors of Rapalas were gold/black, brown Trout, Hot Muddler Minnow, and Brook Trout. Fishing in April & May on Big Bear Lake is as good as just about any where you can fish! So come on up and have a great time.

FishBigBear.com

Big Bear is a mecca for inspiration. It is a place that promotes community and good health. It is a land of opportunity to explore and discover the beauty of nature and the inner thrust of mankind’s spirit. Big Bear is where dreams begin and continue to thrive. I rediscovered this about Big Bear last Saturday when I joined a group hike at Cougar Crest Trail. The purpose of the climb was to conquer the first of seven summits in and around Big Bear Valley.

On this day Bertha Peak was our destination, which sits at 8,201’. I now have one summit under my belt and six to go.

The inspiration for the hike is to “Move a Million Miles for Ryan” for Big Bear’s hometown hero Ryan Hall, who is favored to win a medal in the marathon at the 2008 Olympics. The “Move A Million Miles for Ryan” campaign is a community spirit initiative sponsored by The Lighthouse Project, which is dedicated to creating a child honoring community in Big Bear. Saturday’s group hike proved that the community of Big Bear has sheer determination to “Move a Million Miles for Ryan.”

I am proud to be one of the participants as a moral booster for America’s very own Olympic medal hopeful. It’s quite easy, too. All one has to do is log his or her miles each week from hiking, jogging, walking, mountain biking or any other form of exercise that calculates mileage without using a motorized vehicle. This week I logged 11.5 miles. I hope to double that his week and continue to contribute each week until the Olympics.

I feel like I have become part of a team that is spiritually connected to help Ryan Hall succeed at this year’s Olympics. It is like a pep rally from another world that is developing into mass energy propelled by the human spirit. As more and more participants join the “Move A Million Miles for Ryan” campaign the orb of human energy will even grow stronger.

I tip my hat to the folks at BigBearOutdoorActivities.com for organizing a successful turnout to the first “Seven Summits of Big Bear” group hike. I was absolutely stunned when I showed up to the Cougar Crest Trail parking lot to find it was completely full. In fact, I had to park on the main highway with another twelve vehicles or so. I was expecting about ten, maybe fifteen hikers at the most. Much to my surprise there were about 40-50 hikers to take part in the first of seven group hikes scheduled for 2008. It makes me wonder if these group hikes will grow to 100 people or more.

I found out about the “Seven Summit” hikes through Active Big Bear, which is a community of outdoor enthusiasts who plan out a variety of outdoor-related activities. If you are not already a part of this great community go to BigBearOutdoorActivities.com to sign up. Active Big Bear is constantly giving its members opportunities to share the great outdoors together with fun and adventurous activities from bike rides around the lake to a leisurely hikes to Castle Rock. This is a great opportunity to meet folks with similar interests and motivations to enjoy the great outdoors. Check out the photo gallery from the March 29th group hike at Bertha Peak.

The “Seven Summits of Big Bear: is a great inspirational tool to discover what Big Bear has to offer; it is a great way to see Big Bear from various perspective views; and it is a great way to connect with people who admire the great outdoors. I look forward to the next “Seven Summits of Big Bear” outing that is scheduled for Saturday, April 26 at 9 a.m. The summit we plan to conquer is Gold Mountain (8,235′). I hope to see you there. 

Climb to the Peak, 

Daniel Pea 

Well Easter was quite pleasant indeed. I woke the morning to a bright sunny day here in Big Bear, and immediately recognized the temperature was a little warmer than the previous days. Instantly, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to get outside and RUN!

That’s right I haven’t put on the running shoes in four months. It was the first time since October that I didn’t feel a relentless chill nipping at my spine or frigid air overwhelming my lungs.

I was ecstatic to finally have the opportunity to have a comfortable run in the great outdoors, without worrying about cold temps. I dusted off my running shoes, threw on some comfy duds, filled up a water bottle, clipped on my pedometer and set my IPod to random shuffle. The adrenaline was pumping!

Well, I must admit I am a bit out of shape, but nonetheless I was able to get in two miles. This is just a start, a spring warm-up if you will. My legs feel like bricks today. But who cares, the main thing is the conditions were comfortable enough to run in. Alleluia!

During my run I committed to train for the Big Bear Marathon in September. That’s right Big Bear is hosting a full on marathon, which is expected to draw between 2,000-3,000 runners. I decided that I can probably run the half marathon (13.1 miles), and be content.

So let the training begin. It is time to dust off the running shoes and let the high altitude take its course. For my next run, I plan to get out into the backwoods trails and do some real running.

Cheers to running season,

Daniel Pea

Get your bikes tuned up boys and girls this is going to be a great season for cycling. This was a rough winter for those of us that ride all year round with treacherous road conditions, due to the intensity from the storms. One of the worst aspects was the amount of ice that accumulated along the edges.

Now that spring is in the air, the majority of the ice has melted from the edge of the roads. It’s much safer now and much more fun to ride your bike.

However, there are still some spots to watch out for. If you’re coming up to ride please be cautious and considerate of every one else on the road. While you’re at it, bring your running shoes and a way to carry some munchies because the hiking and jogging is superb right now…cool enough to not fry you and warm enough so you don’t need to dress in heavy layers.

Our recent warm spell brought out the local bikers, hikers and runners and it’s great to see that color is back in style. It’s so much more fun and interesting when you see people getting out and enjoying the mountains wearing clothes that match their vibrant lifestyle. As a photo-journalist it was frustrating there for awhile when everyone was wearing all black everything…pictures…BO-RING…If you’re out there participating in a high energy outdoor sport then why do you want to dress like a funeral procession?…never could figure that one out…

Go buy some new brightly colored gear, grab some friends and pack the camera. It really doesn’t matter what you wear because once you get here the mountain takes center stage and nobody cares what you’ve got on anyway.

spreading the love and the truth, rev