(11-25-2020, 01:58 AM)Springbuck1 Wrote: TD, last time I tried (without success), I did exactly as your guide says, retrieving at the "five seconds per crank". I lost my rig on every single cast for 15 casts in a row, got no bites, and quit because I couldn't tie any more knots with frozen fingers and eyeballs. To be fair, we were forced to fish from shore, wading out as far as we could and then casting.All suggestions should serve merely as a place to begin. Water depth, bottom contour, fish activity levels and other factors make it important to be able to work out individual techniques "under fire". A little faster speed will keep you out of the rocks better...but probably will not cost you any fish. You gotta experiment and it really pays to have sensitive gear and to be in tune with what is going on at the other end.
Surely there must be another technique that'll work? Some way to do something other than snag up?
Why wouldn't the old fly and bubble work if you put your plastics on a regular hook and sunk your bubble? Couldn't you figure some sort of dropper rig to bounce a little unweighted jig along the bottom? A slip bobber and stop? Is a boat mandatory?
As far as fishing from shore...there are a lot of the more successful whitieologists who fish ONLY from shore. The area around second point is especially popular. The fish sometimes come in so close to shore you hardly have to cast to them. But it always pays to fan cast around until you find them.
I can verify that a bubble and fly will work...but works much better with a piece of worm on the fly. Not purist but those fish want meat...and whatever jig, plastic or fly you present is nothing more than a BDS...bait delivery system. That's not to say they won't hit "unsweetened" lures or flies. They will. But adding some good stuff improves the odds. Oh yeah, Gulp minnows and other goodies have definitely passed the whitefish gourmet test. Some of the regulars on Bear Lake use nothing but Gulp minnows. I'm betting that a gulp minnow on an unweighted hook...3 feet behind a water filled bubble...will get bit. Just be sure the line runs through the bubble so you can feel the take.