02-28-2007, 09:28 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Two of us fished Bear Lake this morning (Wednesday Feb 28, 2007) The object of the trip was to collect some Bear Lake whitefish for a genetics study being done at BYU. We started off at 8:00am and the temperature at Ideal Beach was -16 (below zero)! VERY COLD, but clear. A low cloud hovered over the lake making it look even colder. There is now about 8" of snow on top of the ice making it ideal for travel by snowmobile. We drilled a couple of holes and dropped down on top the rock pile in 41' of water. Bang! A 4.5lb cutthroat within 10 seconds and the other rod wasn't even down yet! Once we got situated again, bang! A large Bonneville whitefish. Then it was non-stop for almost two straight hours. We caught about 8 Bear Lake whitefish, about 30 Bonneville whitefish (of which I kept a limit for a "palatability check" that will be conducted at breakfast tomorrow morning (Fish1on you're invited!). We also picked up another cutthroat trout about 2.5lbs. Some of the whitefish were as big as I have seen in a long time. The biggest was measured at 19.75" and weighed 3.3 lbs. The pic attached shows the 10 whitefish and the smaller cutthroat. My buddy made off with the larger cutthroat for dinner before I took the picture.[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]We used jigging spoons (see pic) tipped with a salmon egg and jigged right on the bottom. No cisco were used in the collection of these fish! The cutts smacked the jigging spoon hard! We also picked up a couple of Utah suckers to top off the morning.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]One limit of large whitefish + one cutt. The whitefish at the top weighed 3.3 lbs and was almost 20" long.[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][black] [inline "Fish caught 2_28_07 small.jpg"][/black][/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]The lures that were used, note bent treble hooks from hanging up on the rocks. I will replace these before I fish again!(recognize these lures??? Thanks Pat!)[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][black] [inline "jigging spoons 2_28_07.jpg"][/black][/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]We used jigging spoons (see pic) tipped with a salmon egg and jigged right on the bottom. No cisco were used in the collection of these fish! The cutts smacked the jigging spoon hard! We also picked up a couple of Utah suckers to top off the morning.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]One limit of large whitefish + one cutt. The whitefish at the top weighed 3.3 lbs and was almost 20" long.[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][black] [inline "Fish caught 2_28_07 small.jpg"][/black][/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]The lures that were used, note bent treble hooks from hanging up on the rocks. I will replace these before I fish again!(recognize these lures??? Thanks Pat!)[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][black] [inline "jigging spoons 2_28_07.jpg"][/black][/size][/font]
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