Cisco Run is ON!

Photo Courtesy Phil Douglass

The cisco run is officially "ON" at Bear Lake. Some anglers were standing on the ice, 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. http://www.bearlake.org/

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.