Cisco Run Update Mon 1/18/2010

[BearLakeFishGuy]

The cisco run is officially "ON" at Bear Lake. Some anglers were standing on the ice (about 2" thick), others were chopping big holes and were standing in the water in their waders. The run is just beginning and the schools of fish have been small (2-5 fish or so), but I talked to several anglers this morning who dipped their limits. Those anglers working in tandem were doing better. On person was "jigging" a lure in the hole to attract the cisco and other other person dipnetted the fish. There is still a lot of open water on Bear Lake and therefore, no one is ice fishing since the ice is very "iffy". Several boats were still being launched this morning just south of Gus Rich Point. They were attempting to fish over the rockpile. Not sure if anyone made it over there or not due to sheets of ice floating around. Fishing has been good off the weed beds south of Gus Rich Point in water about 25-35' deep from a boat. Best luck is for cutthroat, whitefish, and the occasional lake trout. Tubes and castmasters tipped with cisco have worked for the trout and small lures tipped with meal worms or salmon eggs are working for whitefish. We estimate the cisco run will peak next weekend. The Cisco Disco is on Saturday, January 23rd. The Garden City Chamber of Commerce and the BL State Park are sponsoring some events including a "Bear Lake Monster Plunge", snow sculpture building, a 5K "fun ski" and an actual 5K race for those who are competitive. So if you come up to dip cisco in the morning, don't forget to pack a swim suit so you can jump into the water at the State Park Marina at noon. Donations are going to Primary Children's Hospital. The Bear Lake Chamber has all the details. [url "http://www.bearlake.org/"]www.bearlake.org[/url]

Remember the cisco daily and possession limit is 30 fish. Please be careful and count your fish carefully or you risk being ticketed for over limit. Also, it is only legal to dip net your own limit of cisco. It is NOT legal to dip net fish for another person.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

Ok guys, I surrender. I am getting way too many PM's and there is no way I can answer them all! Many of your questions are general in nature and can easily be answered by reading the reports I'm posting. That is the reason I am posting in the first place. Please DO NOT send me any PM's regarding Bear Lake fishing conditions. I cannot predit what the weather will do 3 days from now, nor do I want to. My advice is to bring up whatever you think you need. If you don't use it fine, but its nice to have with you just in case. Use common sense. Thanks.
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[Fishdude]

I went to Bear Lake today with my girls to dip some cisco. We got a late start and didn't get there until about 10:00 AM, but we did manage to get about 20. We didn't see any fish after noon, and left at about 12:30.

There was ice at Cisco Beach, but it wasn't great. It was anywhere from 2 - 4 inches depending on where you were standing. I personally would not have gone out on it any further than the hole that I cut because it wasn't good ice, it was just pieces that had frozen together.

By the time we left, there was water on top of most of the ice, it was warm, and the wind was blowing. Those aren't great conditions for ice, so I hope it lasts for those of you who want to get over there. A good chunk of the lake was frozen, but there is a good amount of open water too. It will be interesting to see what this storm does.






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[wiperhunter2]

Cute kid Fishdude, looks like you had fun with the kids.
We were up there today also, it was a little slow but we managed to dip our limit of cisco in two hours. I wish the ice was a little thicker, would have been nice to go out into the deeper water and jig for the bigger fish.
WH2
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[FishingWaters]

[font "Times New Roman"]I headed up to Bear Lake this morning with a friend and my son. After a 2 hour and 45 minute ride through the two canyon snow pack roads we arrive a little late at 7:45 and found large chunks of ice flowing around the shore line. It didn’t look like the photos above anymore.(Guest I won’t need the auger or ax I’ll get out the waders.) I did manage to net a few Cisco in between the ice chunks from shore while I waited for my son to get the waders on. By the time we left at 10:30 the run was over and the wind was blowing and the waves were picking up and the ice chunks had melted or washed up on shore. The 3 of us catch just half our limit by 9:30 and it was over, it would have been easier if we could have seen the fish though the waves.[/font]
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