Bear Lake White Fish Spawn

[SkunkedAgain]

Okay since no one is posting about the whitefish run this year I guess I better break the rule and post on both the main board and the premium board... But this is not the same post, only about the same trip..

I took off Tuesday and hit Bear Lake for the whitefish run and I left the boat ramp the same time Scott (BearLakeFishGuy) did, I copied his approach and tried the marina first and after monkeying around with a flig for a couple casts, i went back to my 1/8 oz curly tail jig and first cast I hooked a male 16-17" whitefish, it was a fun fish to wake me up to the fact I didn't have a net ready and I was in the front of the boat with high sides to try and get a fish over... I worked my way to the back of the boat and found a net and didn't lose this one luckily...  Rebaited and cast out a couple more times and had a solid hit that went straight to the bottom and pulled like a catfish... Ended up being a snake cutthroat... couldn't believe how much that fish had shrunk up, it had a mouth that was about 5.5" deep from nose to corner of it's mouth, but it was only  about 21" long... It must have been starving.. After several more casts I got a good solid hit and heavy pull, but it was jerky, so I could tell it was a whitefish, ended up being a big fat female about 20" and a fun fight... All this happened in about half an hour to 45 minutes and I figured it was going to be a barn burner of  a day... I figured wrong, that was my last caught fish... The day had started out really calm for Bear Lake with just glassy swales gently rocking the boat... after an hour of casting and nothing else wanting to play I decided to try the rock pile...  One other boat on the pile when I got there, he said he had caught four so far and then it went dead for him... So I anchored up and tried to jig whitefish at first, but didn't catch anything I noticed the other guy starting to pull in some nice cuts and mack, so I put my cisco on a big white tube jig and went to jigging for trout, well the next hour or so I watched the other guy catch 7 or 8 fish while I never got a hit at all, so deciding to cut my losses and go to the east side of the lake and try the whitefish off cisco beach...   Well I headed out across the lake and after a mile or so the waves started to get really rough, even though they looked smooth, the rollers were spaced just wrong and my boat would come almost out of the water and then crash down into the next swale and throw up a wall of spray... was fun at first then it started to get rough and pounding hard and I noticed it was turning more into real waves instead of rollers, so I decided to call it a day and head back to the marina, where I tried it for another hour and had one fish chase it to the boat, but never hit it... The wind started to come out of the north and was getting really cold so I decided to quit about 1:00 and call it a day...  Had a lot of fun and enjoyed the new to me boat, however, i had a lot of water  in it when I pulled the plug today, not sure where that came from, hope the waves didn't break something, it shouldn't have I didn't let it do it very many times before I turned around... but that was the first time I've seen much for water in there when I've pulled the plug after going out...  

Anyway in conclusion, I think the whitefish run is going on if I can catch some... The size was pretty good compared to what I usually  catch...  Scott didn't think it was fast enough yet to be what he calls good, they caught 3 during the same time I did and I think they had two whitefish and a trout as well...  They went around to the east side when I headed to the rock pile, don't know what they found on that side of the lake...  Later J

[TubeDude]

I got some intel this morning from one of the more successful bank-tangler/wader whitie whackers.  He has been doing well in his fave spot...but says the water levels are really low and it has had a negative effect on his normal catch rate.  In short, yes there are still whitefish in the lake...and they gotta spawn somewhere.  The key in this low water year is being able to search out the fish and then getting them to play.

Looks like I will miss out on Bear Lake all together this year.  Wife and I have both had bad colds and she goes in next Tuesday to get her second knee replaced...with me as the elected stay at home caregiver.  Oh well.  Fishing is overrated anyway.  NOT.

[SkunkedAgain]

Looks like the sickness bug is getting too many of the regular whitie whackers, talked to others that have been sick and unable to get out after the white fish yet... Oh and Scott was telling me he will be retiring later this month, so I don't know his future plans, but I hope we don't lose our Bear lake info source after he retires... At least it won't be his job to let us know how the fishing is going at Bear Lake anymore..  Didn't ask if the guy fishing with Scott the other day was his replacement or not, but maybe he is training the next Bear Lake Biologist, if so we'll have to get to know him and get him on line with us... I've been surprised Scott hasn't made a post yet, he said his boss sent him out to find out how the spawn was going so he could get a report out to encourage folks to fish Bear Lake... Maybe it was on the state park info number, I'll have to call and see if he updated it... Anyway Pat, sure hope all goes well for Deloris she's a trooper...  Good time of year for replacement parts so you can recover in time for open water... Although walking on ice with a new knee may be tricky...  Later Jeff

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Bear Lake Fish report has been updated and can be called at 435-946-8501 has good details on how to do it... J

[Lundboy54]

Okay since no one is posting about the whitefish run this year I guess I better break the rule and post on both the main board and the premium board... But this is not the same post, only about the same trip..

I took off Tuesday and hit Bear Lake for the whitefish run and I left the boat ramp the same time Scott (BearLakeFishGuy) did, I copied his approach and tried the marina first and after monkeying around with a flig for a couple casts, i went back to my 1/8 oz curly tail jig and first cast I hooked a male 16-17" whitefish, it was a fun fish to wake me up to the fact I didn't have a net ready and I was in the front of the boat with high sides to try and get a fish over... I worked my way to the back of the boat and found a net and didn't lose this one luckily...  Rebaited and cast out a couple more times and had a solid hit that went straight to the bottom and pulled like a catfish... Ended up being a snake cutthroat... couldn't believe how much that fish had shrunk up, it had a mouth that was about 5.5" deep from nose to corner of it's mouth, but it was only  about 21" long... It must have been starving.. After several more casts I got a good solid hit and heavy pull, but it was jerky, so I could tell it was a whitefish, ended up being a big fat female about 20" and a fun fight... All this happened in about half an hour to 45 minutes and I figured it was going to be a barn burner of  a day... I figured wrong, that was my last caught fish... The day had started out really calm for Bear Lake with just glassy swales gently rocking the boat... after an hour of casting and nothing else wanting to play I decided to try the rock pile...  One other boat on the pile when I got there, he said he had caught four so far and then it went dead for him... So I anchored up and tried to jig whitefish at first, but didn't catch anything I noticed the other guy starting to pull in some nice cuts and mack, so I put my cisco on a big white tube jig and went to jigging for trout, well the next hour or so I watched the other guy catch 7 or 8 fish while I never got a hit at all, so deciding to cut my losses and go to the east side of the lake and try the whitefish off cisco beach...   Well I headed out across the lake and after a mile or so the waves started to get really rough, even though they looked smooth, the rollers were spaced just wrong and my boat would come almost out of the water and then crash down into the next swale and throw up a wall of spray... was fun at first then it started to get rough and pounding hard and I noticed it was turning more into real waves instead of rollers, so I decided to call it a day and head back to the marina, where I tried it for another hour and had one fish chase it to the boat, but never hit it... The wind started to come out of the north and was getting really cold so I decided to quit about 1:00 and call it a day...  Had a lot of fun and enjoyed the new to me boat, however, i had a lot of water  in it when I pulled the plug today, not sure where that came from, hope the waves didn't break something, it shouldn't have I didn't let it do it very many times before I turned around... but that was the first time I've seen much for water in there when I've pulled the plug after going out...  

Anyway in conclusion, I think the whitefish run is going on if I can catch some... The size was pretty good compared to what I usually  catch...  Scott didn't think it was fast enough yet to be what he calls good, they caught 3 during the same time I did and I think they had two whitefish and a trout as well...  They went around to the east side when I headed to the rock pile, don't know what they found on that side of the lake...  Later J

Didn't know that was you on the pile thought you used to fish out of a tri hull

[dubob]

Fishing is overrated anyway.

[Piscophilic]

Thanks for the report Jeff. It was fun to read. I'm glad you found a few willing ones and didn't get soaked and frozen when the lake turned rough!

[SkunkedAgain]

Okay since no one is posting about the whitefish run this year I guess I better break the rule and post on both the main board and the premium board... But this is not the same post, only about the same trip..

I took off Tuesday and hit Bear Lake for the whitefish run and I left the boat ramp the same time Scott (BearLakeFishGuy) did, I copied his approach and tried the marina first and after monkeying around with a flig for a couple casts, i went back to my 1/8 oz curly tail jig and first cast I hooked a male 16-17" whitefish, it was a fun fish to wake me up to the fact I didn't have a net ready and I was in the front of the boat with high sides to try and get a fish over... I worked my way to the back of the boat and found a net and didn't lose this one luckily...  Rebaited and cast out a couple more times and had a solid hit that went straight to the bottom and pulled like a catfish... Ended up being a snake cutthroat... couldn't believe how much that fish had shrunk up, it had a mouth that was about 5.5" deep from nose to corner of it's mouth, but it was only  about 21" long... It must have been starving.. After several more casts I got a good solid hit and heavy pull, but it was jerky, so I could tell it was a whitefish, ended up being a big fat female about 20" and a fun fight... All this happened in about half an hour to 45 minutes and I figured it was going to be a barn burner of  a day... I figured wrong, that was my last caught fish... The day had started out really calm for Bear Lake with just glassy swales gently rocking the boat... after an hour of casting and nothing else wanting to play I decided to try the rock pile...  One other boat on the pile when I got there, he said he had caught four so far and then it went dead for him... So I anchored up and tried to jig whitefish at first, but didn't catch anything I noticed the other guy starting to pull in some nice cuts and mack, so I put my cisco on a big white tube jig and went to jigging for trout, well the next hour or so I watched the other guy catch 7 or 8 fish while I never got a hit at all, so deciding to cut my losses and go to the east side of the lake and try the whitefish off cisco beach...   Well I headed out across the lake and after a mile or so the waves started to get really rough, even though they looked smooth, the rollers were spaced just wrong and my boat would come almost out of the water and then crash down into the next swale and throw up a wall of spray... was fun at first then it started to get rough and pounding hard and I noticed it was turning more into real waves instead of rollers, so I decided to call it a day and head back to the marina, where I tried it for another hour and had one fish chase it to the boat, but never hit it... The wind started to come out of the north and was getting really cold so I decided to quit about 1:00 and call it a day...  Had a lot of fun and enjoyed the new to me boat, however, i had a lot of water  in it when I pulled the plug today, not sure where that came from, hope the waves didn't break something, it shouldn't have I didn't let it do it very many times before I turned around... but that was the first time I've seen much for water in there when I've pulled the plug after going out...  

Anyway in conclusion, I think the whitefish run is going on if I can catch some... The size was pretty good compared to what I usually  catch...  Scott didn't think it was fast enough yet to be what he calls good, they caught 3 during the same time I did and I think they had two whitefish and a trout as well...  They went around to the east side when I headed to the rock pile, don't know what they found on that side of the lake...  Later J

Didn't know that was you on the pile thought you used to fish out of a tri hull

Hey I didn't know that was you but I see the reason for your on line name, you have a beautiful boat... I picked up this boat last spring as a replacement for my trihull, little improvement, but a long ways from your sweet ride... man you sure had those fish dialed in...How many did you end up with... Even if you didn't think it was very good that day, I was impressed... Now I'll recognize you when I see you on the pond, thanks for posting so I know... Jeff

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Thanks for the report Jeff. It was fun to read. I'm glad you found a few willing ones and didn't get soaked and frozen when the lake turned rough!

Thanks Jim, 
Lake wasn't really very rough considering it was Bear Lake, it was just rougher than I should run at 30 mph across the waves... at least in the direction I was crossing them... I've run a lot worse with less spray, this size and angle were just wrong and wanted to blow all over me... I've been in a lot worse waves and never had any spray at all, but the combo of wind direction, speed and my path didn't make for good travel... Truth be known, I really didn't have enough time go over and fish and hope to be home on time, so that was more of the factor that turned me around... I could have slowed down to a speed that would have worked if I needed to go over, but it gave me a good reason to pull the plug... Wish I could find time to go try them again before the run ends, they are a lot of fun to catch... Have to watch and hope a window opens up so I can do it again... Later J