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Lloyd, Ira and I hit Bear Lake yesterday. I wanted to make sure that Lloyd caught some fish -- he had been skunked on four previous trips up there. Following BearLakeGuy's advice, as to where to fish to catch whitefish, we fished the rockpile in 31.5 feet of water. Lloyd caught 33, I caught 32, and not sure how many Ira caught but he sure had a knack for catching the larger ones. I started out really slow, but with Ira's help, and the use of a strike indicator, I came on strong in the afternoon. Ira would watch my jig through my AquaVu and tell me to reel up, let my jig down, jig, let it sit, when to set the hook, and what the size and species of fish that I was reeling in! It was not uncommon to see 10 to 20 whitefish on the AquaVu monitor at one time. The whitefish responded to active jigging. The bite is extremely light and I found a strike indicator a tremendous help. The camera also showed many cutthroats and even several macks (macks came through later in the day) but we couldn't get the cutts or macks interested in anything that we had to offer. Fun outing and great company.
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OK nice report but what were you using? Tube jigs tipped with cisco? What colors, white? What else? I think I'd like to get up ther again. How thick is the ice?
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Because whitefish have small mouths, small ice flies (Ratfinkee type lures in chartreuse glow worked well) tipped with a meal or wax worm, or a salmon egg works well. I tried using a uni-knot and putting a Kastmaster or a Swedish Pimple lower than the ice fly, but I found it worked better to tie the Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple above and then tie the ice fly to them. If I were to do it again, I would try the drop shot method and not use any attractor, or maybe use an attractor (without a hook attached) in place of the lead and drop shot them.
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What about ice thinkness? I get lazy and don't like drilling thru 3 feet of ice by hand
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I didn't measure the ice, and Ira has a power auger, but I would estimate it to be around 14 inches thick (give or take an inch or two).
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Kent, Did I read something in the regs for BL about drop shotting? It almost seem that you had to have a hook below the weight to be legal! If someone could clarify this, I would like to know.
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The Proclamation reads regarding Bear Lake:
"A person may not possess a multipoint hook with a weight permanently or rigidly attached directly to the shank; or a weight suspended below any hook unless the hook is on an un-weighted dropper line that is at least three inches long."
To be legal it appears that the dropper line would have to be at least three inches long. This regulation is to prevent snagging. I seriously doubt that you would receive a ticket for using an ice fly on a short dropper line, but then again I have been wrong about some other things!
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We were on the rockpile Saturday and the ice is at least 14 inches thick. All clear and hardest ice I've ever drilled through. Power auger is the way to go.
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I really hate poorly worded regs! I'm with you I don't think you would be ticketed, but then again who knows?
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Did you guys fish anywhere deeper than the Rockpile? How about the temps in the morning, were they a little cool? WH2
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nice report. It sounds like the ice has doubled since I was out there 2 weeks ago.
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We never moved from the Rockpile. It wasn't terribly cold in the morning, and we also immediately put up our ice shacks and got inside. It was shirt-sleave weather inside of the ice shacks most of the day, with the sun shining on them.
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