Fishing Forum

Strawberry - Went to the party. No bites for me, my buddy aquaman had a bite. The place was so fishless I decided to socialize instead. I took the opprotunity to speak with a regoinal aquatics manager from the DNR that answered all the questions I had about Yuba and pike. He took the time to educate me on what I need to do to help the pike fishery and what the overall issues are facing Yuba. Well worth the drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also was able to address to him and a few other CO's that were standing with us my concernes regarding a poorly marked private area in Central Utah that needs change, after all even the scouts think that place is great and most people easily access it from the State Park in the area. He asked my name and I jokingly said "your not gonna send me a ticket in the mail are ya?". They chuckled and said "no" and the Aquatics manager handed me his card and told me to call if I had any ideas on Yuba and the management. What a guy! To have a 1 on 1 conversation with the DNR folks was just outstanding.

Bear Lake - Considering the only other place in Earth we could get into Cisco was Russia I decided a day trip to FlyFishingLover (FFL) picked me up at 4am and we took off for "Goob Country" (Wyoming). The fog was pretty bad and when we drove around the lake we barely missed some deer.

So we hit Cisco Beach before daylight and what a sight it was........


I went to step on the ice before FFL and I heard a great crack followed by whooshing water! The phrase "Run like a logger!" never ment as much as it did to me right then. Well I drilled the 1st hole and went snaggin for some Cisco in the dark. I was amongst the dip net folks at 1st daylight.


Then I snagged my 1st ever Cisco!


And another!


FlyFishingLover was not too far behind me in the Cisco snag fest. What a beautiful thing!


By these 2 shots of the sunrise.............



..................we had our limits of Cisco



We then went deep for Lake Trout or Cutthroat trout. I was explaning to FFL how to fish 90 feet of water for these fish when my demo turned into the 1st real fish of the day. A nice cutthroat trout to surface at 20 inches. But then we kept seeing some fish suspended at 20 to 40 feet of water. We peered into the ice hole thought we saw the elusive White Fish that bear lake has to offer.

So we busted out the lighter gear I tied on a dead dick with a waxie and got a few nibbles till the hook-up occured. Happy as a clam I played him in only to find out it was a 8 inch Cisco! Well I guess I officially "caught" a cisco instead of snagging one.

We sat around with the heaters on while the snow started flying. I caught a cutthroat trout and decided to have mercy on FFL and give him a bucktail jig of mine. He had a bite and the fish went for my set up instead.


With the wind howling we were not going to go on a whitefish hunt so we moved to 60 feet of water. Bad move, it resulted in no more fish for the day. On the way out I broke through at the shore up to my knees. FFL is skinny so he was fine but a guy that was rather husky broke through 5 times getting off the ice. He had ice in his jacket pockets!

We endured the long drive home that took about 4 hours. Sure enough in Evanston Wy an old man hit the back of FFL's car on a bridge. We exchanged info and carried on. It was snow slick all the way to SLC.
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Great post as always. I have never fished for Cisco. I am guessing you snag them? I thought people dip netted for them.

So what was the crack and whoosh of water? What happened?
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Good going on the trout. We fished at 70 on the Rockpile and may not have been deep enough. In my post Friday I reported the ice at Cisco as questionable. Don't know if its weak at the edges or from everyone in the world chopping holes. I am attempting to attach a video of the camera from you tube at 50' on the Rockpile. I also have a video of Jeanine netting Cisco that is fairly entertaing. To bad about the Berry I will wait till after the full moon to hit it. Love your post they are the best.
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It was more of a challenge snagging them then netting them as well we didn't want too spend the money just for a net too use one time this year basically. It was tons of fun snagging them [].
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There's tons of bit huge illegal size holes so close to each other. As well the sunday snow and rain storm made it really weak that a few people fell.

I thought the legal ice size is 18" not 3'. ha ha ha. Pretty sure that's why everyone is falling through the ice this year because their too close too each other and they are 3'.
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[quote fmrusmc]Great post as always. I have never fished for Cisco. I am guessing you snag them? I thought people dip netted for them.

So what was the crack and whoosh of water? What happened?[/quote]
Thanks. Cisco is something I would recommend to everyone in Utah. It is such a different stlye of fishing that really expands your mind in a way.

Dipnetting has appeal because you don't tear up the fish for later use. At the same time the whole sport of snagging is something else. There are certainly "old indian tricks" to it! Because I was running fast enough I didn't get wet.
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The ice you stand on near shore might have been a cisco hole 2 days ago. There was a pressure ridge at 115 feet of water and there appeared to be a 2 leg sized hole at that pressure ridge. The ice looked different on the other side of the ridge too. All the tracks ended there.

The way off the ice that day was not pleasent but I am sure that the overnight temps built it right back up again.
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