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Friday, December 19, 2025
Bear Lake Watch
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Garden City Fire District
Reporter: Randall Knight
The Public Hearing meeting started on time
with all board members present by phone or in person.
Tiffany Wahlberg and Chief Mike Wahlberg were also present.
After approving the agenda and minutes the 2025 & 2026 Budget Public Hearing meeting was opened with no public attendance. We waited a few minutes for someone from the public to show up.
When No one from the public showed up the meeting was closed.
The Dec 15th meeting was opened and the agenda was followed. The main news to report was Randall Knight reported a possible culvert clog to UDOT where a ditch goes under Hwy 30 just east of Bear Lake Rental. They reported back they are not responsible for clogged culverts. So he needs to find out who owns that property and let them know about the clogging.
Chief Wahlberg
reported the volunteer firefighters had a good time at the Christmas Party and
appreciated the recognition by the board members. After several years of support Andy Stokes
was awarded the Fireman of the Year award for his dedicated support, training
attendance record and passing that knowledge onto the new volunteers.
Randall attended the County Commissioners Meeting and submitted Samantha Coontz as well as renewing Michael Lasswell for acceptance to the board. The commissioners accepted all three members.
Jayne Davis resigned her position because of too many conflicts with other responsibilities she has in the community in junction with planned trips. Samantha, Michael and Randall were all sworn in as board members. Samantha for the 2 years left for Jayne’s term while the Michael and Randall’s term is 4 years. Jayne was then released from the board.
The 2025 Amended Budget was accepted with no changes. The 2026 Budget was accepted with a few minor adjustments.
Larsen Apparatus has still not completed the new Brush truck after several months of delays, so Chief Mike will meet with them to discuss the issue. All other equipment is running well. Due to the warm weather the Fire Department boat is still in the water at the marina.
Call outs were: 1 car
fire, 1 search & rescue, 6 medicals, 12 business inspections, 3 fire
permits, 200+ short-term rental inspections, 3 fire alarms, 1 possible propane
leak
Monday, December 15, 2025
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Cisco Sonar
Cisco Sonar
Whitefish of Bear Lake
A little background on this unique family of fish, Coregonus, “whitefish” is probably needed. There are many species of whitefish and cisco. They are primarily found in the northern latitudes including Alaska, Canada, Great Lakes, Scandinavia, Russia and from the Arctic Ocean south to Bear Lake, the furthest south and highest elevation of any population.
If you grew up in the western U.S. and fished cold, clear streams in the mountains you may have heard of whitefish or maybe you called them “herring”. They had a tiny mouth and were hard to catch, except during spawning. If you did accidentally catch one on a fly, you may have thrown it back in disgust because they had scales larger than trout and they were “bony”. What you were catching were mountain whitefish, a stream dwelling form that feed on small, aquatic insects.
Three endemic species are found in Bear Lake. The Bonneville cisco, Bonneville whitefish and Bear Lake whitefish. They all evolved from a common ancestor that probably rode the ice sheets down during the ice ages and established in Bear Lake. After thousands of years of isolation, three distinct species have evolved.
The Bonneville whitefish is the largest of the three species. It feeds on bottom for invertebrates, oligochaetes and Bear Lake sculpin. They begin spawning around the early part of December and are being caught by fishermen now. They are distributed throughout the lake near the bottom in the cold water. They are popular sport fish that are harvested during spawning and when they are feeding on cisco eggs during the winter through the ice.
The Bonneville cisco is a pelagic, open water, schooling fish that feeds on small zooplankton. They usually spawn the last half of January off the east shore of the lake but can be found in various habitats lake wide. They can also be harvested with jigging off the rock pile as they congregate out there to spawn. Dip netting has been the most popular method to catch cisco, but it has been difficult in last few years due to various factors. There is a lot of speculation but no answers for sure.
The Bear Lake whitefish is a dwarf form rarely getting over 10 inches long. They spend most of their time in water over 100 feet deep and feed on ostracods, small crustaceans about the size of a grain rice. They move into shallower water, although it's very cold, to spawn in February where they attach their eggs to rocks. They are rarely caught by anglers.
The fate of the millions of whitefish eggs spawned is
basically an unknown in Bear Lake. In other lakes they sink to the bottom substrate
where they spend up to 100 days before they hatch due to the cold water. During this time, they are eaten by all types
of fish, invertebrates, crustaceans and covered in silt. The few surviving
larval fish may be picked up by lake currents and distributed throughout the
lake. Probably less than 1% ever survive
to adulthood after this first year of life.
I wish I knew more about what happened to them because we never see any
small fish so where they go, how fast grow and many other factors are still a mystery.
Bonneville Cisco
Rich School District
