Bear Lake fishing report for 12/10/2024

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Fished Bear Lake from 0800 to about 1300.  Were only after whitefish.  Caught 12 WF but surprisingly, no cutthroat this trip.  Last week we really did well on some really nice sized cutts.  We tried the state park marina (2 WF here), Gus Rich Point (1 WF here), and 2nd Point (9 WF here).  The WF are in really shallow water this year.  We were literally catching WF in 3-4' of water!  We anchored up in about 7-8' (you can easily see the bottom in this depth) and casted shallower.  Used 1/8 tube jigs and 1/8oz roadrunner jigs tipped with Gulp earthworms.  Also tried regular nightcrawlers.  Caught fish on both.  If we wanted cutthroat, I think we could have caught them in slightly deeper water.  We saw one other boat catch a few cutthroat in the deeper water.  Very little pressure this year.  Cold weather this morning and it was breezy until about 0900, then nice and calm the rest of the day.  Caught some females today that were running ripe, so the spawn is peaking and should last at least through the weekend. Good luck.

[dubob]

Never having fished for or caught and kept any whitefish out of Bear Lake, what is the appeal for seeking them?  Lake whitefish are speared at night from the bow of a boat in Michigan using a submersed light to highlight them and then mostly smoked for eating.  I have caught and smoked a few whitefish caught in the Weber River back in the 70s.  I didn't care for them that much, so I quit fishing for them.  Are the Bear Lake versions better eating than the Weber River versions?

[Kent]

Scott, maybe 15-20 years ago, I first fished for whitefish at Bear Lake. In those days, we caught numerous whitefish almost every trip and even on our worst trips we caught several whitefish. It seems these days the quantity being caught, even by the experienced anglers, is just a few whitefish. Has the fishery changed or does my memory fail me?

[BoatBallast]

I have the same question. Are numbers down? If this is the peak of the spawn, it seems like it's pretty small. But, I don't have the experience to say either way.

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Bob,
The fascination with the Bonneville WF is for several reasons: They fight like hell. They taste excellent fresh or smoked. This is the time of year that they are concentrated, and you can catch a bunch of them and target them specifically using shallow water jigging or from shore (a rarity for Bear Lake). Finally, the Bonneville WF you catch in Bear Lake is quite different from Mountain WF you find in rivers and other lakes in Utah. The Bonneville WF is endemic to Bear Lake and exists only in the lake. Therefore, the fish is not fighting current its entire life and the Y-bones are not nearly as developed as the Mountain WF. The diet of Bonneville WF after they reach about 12" is mainly other fish (and fish eggs) whereas the Mountain WF is an insect eater. The Bonneville WF have a large mouth and willingly take lures (spinners, small spoons and jigs) whereas it's cousin, the Moutain WF, have a comparatively small mouth and would likely not eat fish of any type. As for the Lake WF, I grew up in Michigan fishing for Lake WF. The native tribes can spear them, but 99% of them are gill-netted by the tribes. Spearing by the public is not legal and never has been, at least in my lifetime. There are several species of WF in the Great Lakes (pygmy, Lake, Round (also called menominee), and several deep water varieties too). The most targeted is the Lake WF. These can grow to over 10lbs! Most are 1-5 lbs. They can be caught in the winter and early spring back there with small hooks and pieces of worm. It is a fun time and I've done it for many years. They are wonderful table fare in the Great Lake and Canada and are on the menu in many fine restaurants.

Kent,
I think the WF population has been very stable. I have said this before, but anglers who are fishing for Bonneville WF are relying on spot-lock trolling motors which did not exist back then. The motors scare the fish away in the shallow, clear waters found in Bear Lake. Secondly, people just are quick to forget where these fish are spawning. We fished no deeper than 8' yesterday. In the last several years I haven't seen anyone fishing less than 10' of water. Don't ask me why, but I think when people can look down and see the bottom, they inherently think they are fishing too shallow?? I went back and watched a show I did with Doug Miller in the early 2000's. We fished in 8' of water back then too. Same with another show I did with Adam Eakle. Yesterday we were casting from where we were anchored into 2-3' of water and catching fish in that shallow water. There was a shore angler and he was doing pretty good from shore in the shallow water. He even mentioned he was doing better than the boat anglers and I suspect this was the reason why. Finally, I spoke with Emily, the new biologist at Bear Lake, and she said the WF population is really increasing right now. Highest catches in gill-net sampling in about 20 years (and yes, many of those are smaller fish). This type of long-term population fluctuation is actually normal for WF in other parts of the world where they are not exploited (i.e. no commercial fishing). In Canada the Lake WF population cycled on an approximate 30 year rotation. No one has a good answer as to why. Hope that helps. I definitely don't have all the answers, but it seems like the last 2-3 years there just has been fewer and fewer anglers willing to brave the cold conditions and open water of Bear Lake. (I think I just said that us anglers are getting older and less tolerable of the cold conditions AND there are no younger anglers willing to do it either).

[Redrebel]

Bob,
The fascination with the Bonneville WF is for several reasons:  They fight like hell.  They taste excellent fresh or smoked.  This is the time of year that they are concentrated, and you can catch a bunch of them and target them specifically using shallow water jigging or from shore (a rarity for Bear Lake).  Finally, the Bonneville WF you catch in Bear Lake is quite different from Mountain WF you find in rivers and other lakes in Utah.  The Bonneville WF is endemic to Bear Lake and exists only in the lake.  Therefore, the fish is not fighting current its entire life and the Y-bones are not nearly as developed as the Mountain WF.  The diet of Bonneville WF after they reach about 12" is mainly other fish (and fish eggs) whereas the Mountain WF is an insect eater.  The Bonneville WF have a large mouth and willingly take lures (spinners, small spoons and jigs) whereas it's cousin, the Moutain WF, have a comparatively small mouth and would likely not eat fish of any type.  As for the Lake WF, I grew up in Michigan fishing for Lake WF.  The native tribes can spear them, but 99% of them are gill-netted by the tribes.  Spearing by the public is not legal and never has been, at least in my lifetime.  There are several species of WF in the Great Lakes (pygmy, Lake, Round (also called menominee), and several deep water varieties too).  The most targeted is the Lake WF.  These can grow to over 10lbs!  Most are 1-5 lbs.  They can be caught in the winter and early spring back there with small hooks and pieces of worm.  It is a fun time and I've done it for many years.  They are wonderful table fare in the Great Lake and Canada and are on the menu in many fine restaurants. 

Kent,
I think the WF population has been very stable.  I have said this before, but anglers who are fishing for Bonneville WF are relying on spot-lock trolling motors which did not exist back then.  The motors scare the fish away in the shallow, clear waters found in Bear Lake.  Secondly, people just are quick to forget where these fish are spawning.  We fished no deeper than 8' yesterday.  In the last several years I haven't seen anyone fishing less than 10' of water.  Don't ask me why, but I think when people can look down and see the bottom, they inherently think they are fishing too shallow??  I went back and watched a show I did with Doug Miller in the early 2000's.  We fished in 8' of water back then too.  Same with another show I did with Adam Eakle.  Yesterday we were casting from where we were anchored into 2-3' of water and catching fish in that shallow water.  There was a shore angler and he was doing pretty good from shore in the shallow water.  He even mentioned he was doing better than the boat anglers and I suspect this was the reason why.  Finally, I spoke with Emily, the new biologist at Bear Lake, and she said the WF population is really increasing right now.  Highest catches in gill-net sampling in about 20 years (and yes, many of those are smaller fish).  This type of long-term population fluctuation is actually normal for WF in other parts of the world where they are not exploited (i.e. no commercial fishing).  In Canada the Lake WF population cycled on an approximate 30 year rotation.  No one has a good answer as to why.    Hope that helps.  I definitely don't have all the answers, but it seems like the last 2-3 years there just has been fewer and fewer anglers willing to brave the cold conditions and open water of Bear Lake.  (I think I just said that us anglers are getting older and less tolerable of the cold conditions AND there are no younger anglers willing to do it either).

Was this you Scott?

[Kent]

Thanks Scott. I guess I have just lost my touch, assuming that I ever had it in the first place.

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I think that is us in the boat. Pretty blurry. But if it was on the east side yesterday, it was us. Who is this anyway? Dave? Dakota?

[dubob]

Spearing by the public is not legal and never has been, at least in my lifetime.

Spearing whitefish from a boat using an ice shanty pike spear is 100% legal in Michigan and is very popular on Crystal Lake (Frankfort, MI) in November/December.  Mostly done from the bow of a v-bottom tin boat.  Always done at night and a 12-volt waterproof light is lowered into the water to highlight them as the boat is trolled at a slow speed.  Maybe you were thinking scuba divers spearing them.  I don't know if that is legal or not.  My Frankfort friend has been spearing whitefish from a boat since before I met him in 1975.

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Spearing by the public is not legal and never has been, at least in my lifetime.

Spearing whitefish from a boat using an ice shanty pike spear is 100% legal in Michigan and is very popular on Crystal Lake (Frankfort, MI) in November/December.  Mostly done from the bow of a v-bottom tin boat.  Always done at night and a 12-volt waterproof light is lowered into the water to highlight them as the boat is trolled at a slow speed.  Maybe you were thinking scuba divers spearing them.  I don't know if that is legal or not.  My Frankfort friend has been spearing whitefish from a boat since before I met him in 1975.

Yes, I thought you meant underwater spearfishing using SCUBA equipment.  I have lot of friends who spearfish from their ice shacks in the winter for pike and I did that all through high school and college too.  I saw a guy get a ticket for using SCUBA equipment trying to spearfish.  At that time I was told by the CO that they can underwater spearfish but not use SCUBA equipment to do so (i.e. only using a mask/snorkel).  Maybe those regs have changed since that was 30+ years ago?  Also, Michigan has the "Designated Trout" waters rules which really complicates everything so you have to carry regs with you.  I have several good friends who are fish biologists back in Michigan and they agree the "designated trout" waters makes things overly complicated unless you are looking up the regs for each water.   If anyone thinks Utah fishing regs are complicated, then you have never been to Michigan that has trout stamps, designated trout waters for both streams and lake as well as 3-4 classifications of each designated trout lake or stream and different limits on waters when they were "inland" or "Great Lakes".  They had lots of closed seasons for different species for both inland or Great Lakes/connecting waters, and different opening days for each species depending on what part of the state you were in.  I was in college and had to study the regs every time we wanted to try another stream for steelhead/salmon or whether we could catch/keep walleye at a particular water or during a particular time of the year.

[dubob]

I saw a guy get a ticket for using SCUBA equipment trying to spearfish.  At that time I was told by the CO that they can underwater spearfish but not use SCUBA equipment to do so (i.e. only using a mask/snorkel).  Maybe those regs have changed since that was 30+ years ago?

My search through the 2024 Michigan Regulations shows that UNDERWATER spearing of any fish with ANY type of underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA diving) is still illegal.  And just like the regs in Utah, the Michigan regs require some legal expertise in determining what is or is not permitted while in pursuit of piscis.