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Bear Lake Report 12/2/2003
#1
BEAR LAKE FISHING REPORT 12/2/2003

The Bonneville whitefish are spawning at this time and the fishing has been good. Best spots to fish for whitefish are along rocky shoreline, however, with the lake being extremely low most of the rock is out of the water. One of the few spots with rock is along Cisco Beach. Anglers are fishing for whitefish using small jigs in the 1/16 to 1/8 ounce size. Color doesn’t seem to matter as much as keeping the jig close to the bottom, however, more popular colors are white, yellow and black. Cutthroat and lake trout will follow the whitefish in to feed on both them and their eggs and several nice trout are being taken along with the whitefish. Bonneville whitefish put up a scrappy fight and can run up to about 3 pounds, but average about 1 pound. The whitefish meat makes excellent eating either fried or baked or you can even smoke whitefish for a great holiday treat. The limit on whitefish is 10 fish, don’t feel guilty about keeping a few to make a good meal. Finally, if you are fishing from a boat and there are shore fishermen present, be courteous and give them enough room to make their casts. Boats are a lot more mobile than anglers fishing from shore.

Fishing for both cutthroat and lake trout is still good, and at times excellent. Some of the more popular places to try include the rockpile area. Another good spot is directly east of Gus Rich Point. On the east side of the lake try fishing off the drop-offs around 1st and 2nd points and off the mouth of South Eden and North Eden canyons. The trout have seemed to have moved off the top of the rockpile, so try fishing in the 60-70 foot depths to the north and east of the rockpile. The weather has moderated somewhat from the bitter cold we had last week and it looks like this weekend could be fairly mild too. The current water temperature is about 42 degrees. The most successful lure has been large (4-5”) tube jigs tipped with cisco or sucker meat jigged right on the bottom. Everyone seems to have a favorite color, but using white is a good choice to start with. Experiment with different colors until you find one that works the best.

There haven’t been many anglers trolling this past week, but those who have can still catch fish. Try the slowest speed you can get your motor down to or use a drift sock pulled behind the boat to slow your boat down even more. Sometime using rapalas will work better during the colder weather since they have a more passive action, but don’t overlook the standby lures of flatfish and spoons.

Fishing from shore using both spinning and fly tackle can be good for both whitefish and trout. Most the whitefish will be in water less than 10 feet deep. For spin fishing you can use small jigs, small spinners or even small spoons. Try tipping your lure with a piece of night crawler. For fly fishing, use a sinking fly line with a weighted wooly bugger fished close to the bottom and pulled in with shore strips. It pays to watch your line since many of the hits occur during the pause between strips. Cisco Beach or off the State Park marina dikes are likely the best places to fish from shore.

The Utah State Park will not be plowing the boat ramp at the marina since it is too steep for the plow. You may consider bringing some rock salt or sand just in case you cannot get your truck and boat back up a snowy or icy ramp. The State Park has de-icers running in the marina and the boat ramp is open for all sizes of boats. Smaller boats may be launched off the shore at several points around the lake, however, a 4-wheeled drive vehicle is recommended. The new “low water only” concrete launching ramp along South Cisco Beach has been a good spot to launch smaller boats in that area.
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#2
Thanks for the report BLFG, I know there are two different types of whitefish in bear lake, does one taste better than the other? WH2
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#3
Scott, thanks for keeping these reports coming. I can't wait to get up there on Saturday. Do the whitefish spawn at all on the rockpile, or is it too deep for them?
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#4
Kent,Im pretty sure they do spawn on the rockpile,I think Doug Miller dose that special about every year!! Good luck Saturday hope to see you over there!!M.H.
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#5
You're right there are two types of whitefish in the Bear. The Bonneville are the ones that spawn now. They grow large (state record is over 4 lbs.) and they readily eat fish for their diet once they reach adult size. The other whitefish is the Bear Lake whitefish. These fish spawn in late February or March and rarely reach 9", therefore they are not really sought after by fishermen to eat. They can be caught on small "ice flies" but most people might snag one while fishing for cisco. Remember all foul-hooked whitefish must be released (unlike the cisco) or you can get a pricey ticket. It is difficult to tell the two species apart outside of the spawning times or when they are juveniles. We have to subsample our whitefish catch of fish less than about 10 inches and then count scales both above and along the lateral line to separate the two species at the small sizes.

I'm sure both species use the "rockpile" for spawning, as does the cisco. However, when the lake is at higher elevations and more rock in in the water then the Bonneville will use the rocky shorelines. Bear Lake whitefish spawn in the rocky depths off Cisco Beach and the Rockpile. There is some evidence that both species may also use shell-substrate or even weed beds to spawn over. A grad student at USU will be working to more definitively answer these questions the next two years.
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#6
With the whitefish spawning in water depths of 10 feet or less, can they be caught all day long, or is it best before and after daylight?
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#7
I'm no expert but I do have a few years experience catching the bonneville whitefish. From my experience earlier (before 9:00 am) has been faster more productive fishing but I have caught them through the day (never fished late afternoon). When we went last weekend we got a late start and had to drift/troll and we caught plenty of them til 11:30 when we left cuz my kids were cold. We were fishing in 4.5 - 10 ft and caught fish from right under the boat back to about 15 ft. Go after them, they are alot of fun on light tackle. I also suggest using a barbless hook if you want to release them because I've had many swallow my jigs deep. I was using an 1/8 oz. foxy jig tipped with a worm and set the hook immediately and still hooked deep, they hammer it!
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#8
Technically, the Bonneville cisco is a whitefish too. The mountain whitefish, which is not endemic to Bear lake, can occasionally even be caught at Bear Lake.

Bonneville cisco (Prosopium gemmifer)
Bear Lake whitefish (Prosopium abyssicola)
Bonneville whitefish (Prosopium spilonotus)
mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni)

I think the DWR should extend the foul hooked Cisco exception to all species of whitefish at Bear Lake. On the Rock Pile during the cisco run I've seen so many dead whitefish floating on the surface you'd think you could walk on top of them over to the next boat. What a waste. And it's because by law anglers have to release all foul hooked fish other then cisco. On the Rock Pile during the cisco run it's not uncommon to foul hook a whitefish for every couple foul hooked cisco you get. After being skewered clean through by a barb, I'm sure most don't live after release.
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#9
[size 2]It is too bad that the whitefish, that are hooked during the cisco run, can't be kept and used as bait for the macks.[/size]

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#10
Thanks for all of the wonderful info. I hope those headed up this weekend have a great trip!
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#11
How long does the fishing for the whitefish stay like this? I have had two trips planned to get up there and try for them, but emergencies keep popping up. Now I'm getting into finals week and I'm loaded. Are they typically still active by like the 13th?
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#12
I would bet the whitefish will still be "on" by the 13th. They will usually start around Turkey Day and go until about the 20th of December. Cisco Beach has been fishing well this week. I fished Monday and today (with Reece Stein) and we caught fish. Most were males, which tells me that the run is still on the upswing. Once you start catching females that are dripping eggs the run is about at its peak. Then the fishing will slowly taper off.
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