The whitefish of fall

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Mike B
Mike B's picture
The whitefish of fall
<p>I thought I&#39;d post one final report before winter turns out the lights on this year&#39;s open water campaign. A good run overall despite horrendous forest fire smoke most of the summer and extremely low water conditions in the Northwest Territories. Fall has brought rain and lots of it, yet the weather has remained remarkable mild and pleasant for fishing. It&#39;s not uncommon to have a foot of snow by now so I will take the good weather while it lasts.</p> <p>The last few weeks have been all about the lake whitefish, which are stacking up in riverine areas fattening up on chironomids and other insect larvae before the spawn. The whitefish fishing has been exceptionally good yet again this year. I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if this year&#39;s numbers surpassed my total for northern pike, which is hard to do if you spend any time fishing around Yellowknife where pike can be a pest when targeting other species of fish -- maybe 200 or so whitefish. I really have no idea but I&#39;ve been catching quite a few the last few trips.</p> <p>Casting a home made bead and wire hook hung under a float and small split shot weight is the go-to lure 85 per cent of time. This method of fishing has been adopted from anglers of Filipino ancestry. For me, there is really nothing more cathartic after a long, somewhat bullshitty week than to stand along the edge of the Yellowknife River when you got it all by yourself and cast beads to whitefish. The river carries the float gently past you toward the riffle below. Sometimes it passes unmolested afloat, sometimes it wobbles as a whitefish nibbles the bead, sometimes it plunges straight down as a hungry whitefish slurps it down and runs. Then it&#39;s time to shake away the daydreams and carefully, oh so carefully, play the charging torpedo the whitefish becomes once it feels the resistance of the line. Either way, it&#39;s a great way to spend the day, providing the river bank doesn&#39;t get too crowded, which it often does if you don&#39;t come early enough.</p> <p>I&#39;ve been doing quite a lot of experimenting with my bead hooks this year and it&#39;s been paying off. A couple people here have asked me about this method so I took some pics to show how I make them.</p> <p>First you need to go to a craft or decorating store. Wal-mart may have what you need too but is often picked over where I am (I&#39;m not the only one making these hooks). Avoid the flyfishing gear stores. Most of their stuff is bull-ish and costs too much money.</p> <p>The package of 24 gage mixed beading wire is ideal. A lot of people here just use the red or bronze color but I&#39;ve found all the colors work depending on conditions and time of day. Glass beads you can string on a size 9 hook are perfect. I like one black one, and one clear red one but other colors work too.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1150945_zpsee3bf17a.jpg" /></p> <p>I start by wrapping wire tightly around the shaft near the eye. After a few wraps, I skewer on a bead and then continue wrapping wire beneath it. I slip on another bead, wrap wire down to the bend of the hook, then dab on some nail polish remover (I got that idea from Yk Gordo). Helps keep everything in place.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1150943_zps86523009.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 656px;" /></p> <p>Finished hook<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1150944_zps94ae1f84.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 589px;" /></p> <p>It was still dark when Steve and I reached the river Saturday at about 7 a.m. It&#39;s cisco harvesting season so there was already a boat or two around but we still got our spot. It consists of a gravel beach at the top of some rapids. The water depth goes gradually from about 10 feet to three feet before reaching the lip of the rapids. Whitefish are found all through this area. If you don&#39;t come early you&#39;re fighting for a good spot to cast. If you come early this happens...<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160004_zps10f0884e.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 591px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160008_zps878bfe46.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 609px;" /></p> <p>The stinky pinky seems to be a good color in low light. More natural colors (green, brown, black) of wire seem to work better when it&#39;s sunny.<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160012_zpsa4607a4a.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 557px;" /></p> <p>You gotta be careful when the whitefish does take the bead. Half the time it pops out and flies right back at your face or wraps around your rod and becomes hopelessly entangled. I use a four-pound test fluro leader tied onto 6-lbs braid. Whitefish have excellent vision so the lighter line gets more bites but it is also more likely to break when the fish runs. Whitefish have a habit of smashing into rocks along the bottom which frays the line very quickly. Lots of head shakes too, even some tail-walking.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160030_zps08c0118e.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 582px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160032_zpsd826cb81.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 615px;" /></p> <p>I even got a bonus lake cisco. Everyone was really surprised by that. They seem to be completely turned off from feeding once in spawning mode. I&#39;ve never known anybody to catch one on rod and reel during the spawning run and there are hundreds of thousands going through here. This is the second different species I&#39;ve caught with the beads other than whitefish.<br /> <img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160044_zps6cd7f224.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 656px;" /></p> <p>A great day of fishing. We caught our limit and released many others. Cheers<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/whitefish/P1160041_zpsc8aa33ff.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 800px;" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>
Corey
Corey's picture
Great Fish

Thanks for the detailed tactics. It will help me. And that is  still the most awesome hat in the world. Nunavut knit cap for the win.

andy
andy's picture
Wire worm tactics

Awesome whitefish action!  I would love some day to find open water success for whitefish, and when I try I will give your "stinky pinky" wire worm a try first.  Thanks for sharing your success, Mike B!

Corey
Corey's picture
Tempura?

I had Lake Superior Herring (Cisco) Tempura last weekend in Lutsen, MN -  it was pretty good - that might be a way to try whitefish. Pretty much deep fried. Personally, I think whitefish are good baked whole with lemon, but they are so good smoked that it's hard not to save them for the smoker. I'm sure Mike has more than a few ways to prepare them.

andy
andy's picture
Pickled Whitefish

If you like pickled fish at all, you owe it yourself to pickle up a whitefish or two.  Delicious!  There really isn't a bad way to cook them, though - it's all good.

Mike B
Mike B's picture
Thanks for the comments guys.

Thanks for the comments guys. I really ought to try pickling them Andy. I imagine that would taste fantastic. Tempura is good too. There are really no end to the whitefish possibilities or recipes.

A couple nights ago I made a dill cream sauce by reducing chicken broth, dill and pepper, then added whole milk, flour and margarine mixed togeth as a rue. I poured it over some whitefish fried in flour, some shrimp and asparagus and baked it in the oven. That's my latest favourite.

Bryan, smoking is ideal for whitefish. I use a simple brine of soy sauce, brown sugar (or maple syrup) and water. I know what you mean about the fishy taste.  Whitefish go mushy fairly quickly so I usually kill them right away, bleed them, and keep them cool. Mountain whitefish, I find, is a superior meal but I would have to drive at least five hours to get them. Lake whitefish do keep well in the freezer though so they're a perfect fish to stock up on if your area has generous catch limits (in most bodies of water in the NWT it's five per day and 10 in possession).

 

 

 

mike b

andy
andy's picture
Dill sauce -

I recently made a great new dill sauce with plain yogurt, chopped fresh dill, black pepper and lime juice.  It was really tasty on grilled steelhead, and I think it will be great on a lot of other fish - 

Cast_and_Blast
Cast_and_Blast's picture
Them are some tasty fish you

Them are some tasty fish you got there.

 

I wonder how that fly would work down here through the ice?

TonyS
TonyS's picture
Dill sauce is good on Redhors

Dill sauce is good on Redhorse Cakes.  

 

With whitefish I usually go simple, baked is awesome.  Next time I'm saving one for the grill, that would have to be awesome!

 

I've used flies similar to that through the ice successfully several times. 

Mike B
Mike B's picture
I've given up trying to use t

I've given up trying to use the beads under ice. Doesn't work for me. They only seem to work if the water is moving .I should point out not all runs of whitefish will bite them either. There are good piles of whitefish at some of my giant pike spots where they basically get no angling pressure at all. At one place, very similar in appearance to the Yellowknife River, the whitefish bite fairly large spinners and jigs cast for walleye but try as I might I can't get them to bite the beads. I can only imagine this population of whitefish is more piscavarious and less likely to eat chironomids and mosquito larvae. Another population won't eat the beads or spinners. I'm guessing these guys are mainly plankton eaters. I don't know, whitefish are very weird.

mike b

Eli
Eli's picture
Good fishin, Mike!

Good fishin, Mike!

Eli

 

 

TonyS
TonyS's picture
Lake Whitefish are super weir

Lake Whitefish are super weird.  When we cleaned the ones from Lake Michigan they had the following in their stomaches: largeish baitfish (gobies), tiny midge larve, quagga mussels, and unidentifiable goo.  Most the time it seemed like one of those items, not a combination.  On top of that, we'd watch them on the camera.  Some would bomb a jigging rap without hesitation, others would timidly tap a small fly.  

 


The ones I caught on wire worms were rigged as sliders above jigging raps or swedish pimples.  The two bait rig is deadly on Lake Michigan, I think mostly because these fish are so weird.  I'm going back to one rod with three baits on it next time...

Mike B
Mike B's picture
I've tried the slidiing rig b

I've tried the slidiing rig but without success Tony. Doesn't mean it won't work here but more experimentation is likely needed. I'm with you on the individual-specific eating habits. I've seen that too. A biologist friend of mine who dead setting whole ciscoes for burbot through the ice caught a whitefish with one. The cisco was six inches long.

There's a great spot that's easy to get to. I'll be dropping a camera down there this winter and see what they do. So far, panfish jigs seem to be the best lure. Sometimes nothing works at all and all you see are whitefish swimming around without a care in the world.

mike b

Gunnar
Gunnar's picture
Corey beat me to it, but I st

Corey beat me to it, but I still love that Nunavut hat.

 

Redhorse ID cheatsheets, gars, suckers: moxostoma.com


2020: 10 days fishing 11 species 0 lifers. 2019: 34/45/13 2018: 39/40/5

MichaelAngelo
MichaelAngelo's picture
Wow Mike!  I'm pretty much in

Wow Mike!  I'm pretty much in love with this particular species of fish for some reason.  I guess it's one I spent the most time trying to add to the lifelist.

Love the wire hooks with beads.  Have you guys tried just regular dry flies or nymphs?

 

Hengelaar
Hengelaar's picture
Wow!

Cool stuff, as always, Mike!

Man, all whitefish species are just so cool looking. Sure would love to get to see some up close sometime...

Fishn sure is neat

Mike B
Mike B's picture
Hey Michael, Yk Gordo and I b

Hey Michael, Yk Gordo and I both flyfish and target lake whitefish a lot, particularly in the spring. But the wire worm is much more effective in the fall in this particular location because I can cast it farther out and better control its speed and depth. The feeding whitefish are swimming at mid-depth about five feet down. I usually have the bead about two and half feet down from the float but I tinker around with that a lot until I start getting more bites.

I broke out the fly rod last weekend and tied on a variety of nymphs -- some of them very similar in appearance to the bead -- but didn't get anything. There were a lot of visible fish stacked up in shallower water but they weren't biting.

 

mike b

MichaelAngelo
MichaelAngelo's picture
Thanks for the reply Mike.  I

Thanks for the reply Mike.  I wonder if these guys would be interested in larger forage like small shiners?

Mike B
Mike B's picture
Hey Michael, I donèt see why

Hey Michael, I donèt see why not. I have caught lots of whitefish on frozen shiners left on the bottom with a weight.

mike b