11-29-2005, 07:03 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][/black][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][/black][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][black]The Bonneville whitefish are beginning their spawning run on Bear Lake and the fishing for cutthroat trout and lake trout has been good. The Bonneville whitefish are just staging for spawning and the fishing is fair-good right now over rocky shoreline areas. Fishermen should use small spoons, 1/8 oz. or smaller jigs, or spinners in the 0-1 size. You can catch whitefish either from a boat or shore. It is best to wear either hip boots or chest waders if fishing from shore to keep dry from waves along the shoreline. Cast out and try to let you lure come as close to bottom as you can without snagging. Whitefish are aggressive at this time of year and will hit your lure hard. Pound for pound they fight as good or better than the trout. They also make excellent table fare and are much better tasting than their cousins, the mountain whitefish, that are typically found in streams and some reservoirs in the state. Since the Bonneville whitefish spend their entire life in the lake, they do not develop the strong intra-muscular (Y-bones) that the mountain whitefish do. The Bonneville whitefish can be filleted and then either deep fried, baked, or smoked (leave the skin on for smoking). Good spots to try for whitefish are off of Cisco Beach, 2nd Point, the Utah State Park Marina, or the rockpiles just north of the marina. The whitefish fishing should stay good until just before Christmas. The limit on whitefish is 10 fish, so please only take what you will eat fresh since whitefish flesh does not freeze well.[/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Fishing for both cutthroat and lake trout has also been good. Anglers along the east side of the lake are doing better trolling and the anglers fishing the west side of the lake are doing better jigging. However, you may want to try both methods on any given day and sometimes one will work much better than the other. Try using rapalas, flatfish, and small spoons while trolling. Tube jigs tipped with cisco are the best bet for jigging in ½ to ¾ oz. sizes. Try different colors until you find one that works the best. White and green are popular colors to start with. Also, using "superlines" such as Spiderwire and Fireline when jigging will allow you to feel soft bites a lot easier in deeper water. Most fish are still coming out of deeper water (50-80 feet) but as the water temperatures continue to cool off, the fish will move in shallower and could be in as little as 10 feet of water.[/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] The UDWR has completed a project of placing four piles of rock into the lake to improve fish habitat. These piles are located approximately 200 yards apart starting just north of the Utah State Park Marina. The rock was placed at approximately 30 feet in depth (the same depth as the top of the existing "rockpile" off of Gus Rick Point). You may notice several buoys on the new rockpiles off the marina as well as rockpile area north of Gus Rich Point and along Cisco Beach. These buoys are connected to egg sampling traps and habitat productivity devices. Please try to avoid fishing immediately around these sampling areas so that you avoid snagging the buoy lines. [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]The Cisco Beach boat ramp is available for launching all sizes of boats, but you need to make sure you keep an eye on the weather since there is no protection from the wind if you choose to launch at Cisco Beach. The State Park marina has plenty of depth and is open to launching all sizes of boats. Beach launching smaller boats is going to be difficult this year due to the increased water levels. The water has inundated the shallow shelf along the western Bear Lake shoreline and it is difficult to beach-launch boats this year. [/black][/font]
[signature]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Fishing for both cutthroat and lake trout has also been good. Anglers along the east side of the lake are doing better trolling and the anglers fishing the west side of the lake are doing better jigging. However, you may want to try both methods on any given day and sometimes one will work much better than the other. Try using rapalas, flatfish, and small spoons while trolling. Tube jigs tipped with cisco are the best bet for jigging in ½ to ¾ oz. sizes. Try different colors until you find one that works the best. White and green are popular colors to start with. Also, using "superlines" such as Spiderwire and Fireline when jigging will allow you to feel soft bites a lot easier in deeper water. Most fish are still coming out of deeper water (50-80 feet) but as the water temperatures continue to cool off, the fish will move in shallower and could be in as little as 10 feet of water.[/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] The UDWR has completed a project of placing four piles of rock into the lake to improve fish habitat. These piles are located approximately 200 yards apart starting just north of the Utah State Park Marina. The rock was placed at approximately 30 feet in depth (the same depth as the top of the existing "rockpile" off of Gus Rick Point). You may notice several buoys on the new rockpiles off the marina as well as rockpile area north of Gus Rich Point and along Cisco Beach. These buoys are connected to egg sampling traps and habitat productivity devices. Please try to avoid fishing immediately around these sampling areas so that you avoid snagging the buoy lines. [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black] [/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black]The Cisco Beach boat ramp is available for launching all sizes of boats, but you need to make sure you keep an eye on the weather since there is no protection from the wind if you choose to launch at Cisco Beach. The State Park marina has plenty of depth and is open to launching all sizes of boats. Beach launching smaller boats is going to be difficult this year due to the increased water levels. The water has inundated the shallow shelf along the western Bear Lake shoreline and it is difficult to beach-launch boats this year. [/black][/font]
[signature]