(12-08-2022, 02:53 PM)SkunkedAgain Wrote: 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

(12-08-2022, 03:13 PM)TubeDude Wrote: Fishing is overrated anyway.

(12-09-2022, 01:49 PM)Lundboy54 Wrote:

(12-08-2022, 02:53 PM)SkunkedAgain Wrote: 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

(12-09-2022, 03:32 PM)Piscophilic Wrote: 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!