2022/2023 Ice Challenge - joatmon

[joatmon]

Curious what differences between the two whitefish your research turned up? I had the thought earlier this year but, I haven't taken the time to look into it very deeply.

I looked at a few different resources, none very definitive and no actual photos I could find. Most, including the Utah fishing guidebook, says the Bear Lake strain doesn’t get longer than 10 inches.  From there, it seems there was contradicting information about if they have spots (at all or only up to 10 inches), or if they can even be distinguished. Some say the BL strain has a little more of a Roman nose, and they never have spots along the sides. However, I also read that it is difficult to differentiate them absolutely unless you catch a BL whitefish during its spawn (with eggs?).  IDK, but that fish looked different than the others - more of a split tail and the fins were lighter color. I just don’t have enough experience with them yet.