Cisco Fishing at Bear Lake

Bonneville Cisco are a small fish found only in Bear Lake, and fishing for them with dip nets is done nowhere else in the world.  I left home in the dark this morning for the 45 minute drive to Cisco Beach in Utah.  It was snowing lightly, so the light was not very good for photography.

There were quite a few people there when we
arrived.  Cisco can only be caught for a couple of weeks around January when they gather around the shoreline rocks to spawn.

The lake is frozen this year so we needed to chop holes with an ax.  Years when the lake doesn't freeze, people wear boots or waders and stand in the lake with their dip nets.

In this photo, my friend Bill watches his son, Ben, catch some fish.  In back, my neighbor, Dan, brings more fish onto the ice.  The ice was thin where we cut our holes because it had shifted around, opening cracks which then refroze.  The lake ice was still roaring and cracking as it continued to move with the wind and currents..

We all caught our limits of 30 fish.  I cleaned half of them to eat, and the other half will be used for bait to catch lake trout.  Cisco don't taste as good as trout to me, but aren't bad battered and fried.

I was glad to have the chance to participate in this unique activity.