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<p>About a month from now, it appears that I am going to be moving on back to MN, more specifically the Bemidji area. Of all the fish in MN that can be caught through the ice, the only ones I have not caught are Lake Whitefish and Burbot. I feel that Burbot will not that big of a problem since leech lake is right there, but any tips on lakes closer to Bemidji would be nice. According to the DNR, practically every deep lake in the area has them (Including Movil, which my grandmother lives on), but I am not so sure about how true that is.</p>
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<p>The bigger problem is whitefish. I don't have enough cash laying around to take a trip all the way to the great lakes and information is pretty spotty around various forums. This seems largely because a lot of the walleye folks can't seem to tell the difference between a cisco and a whitefish <img alt="wink" height="20" src="http://roughfish.com/sites/all/modules/ckeditor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.gif" title="wink" width="20" /></p>
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<p>So, can anybody provide a tip-off on lakes near the bemidji area for lake whitefish where I will not have to deal with the cisco scourge or at least will have a pretty good chance at a whitefish? Cisco can be fun at times, but they are just downright frustrating while trying to get at a whitefish. Also, I read the guide on the site saying to fish up shallow, but a lot of guides in other places say they will be down deep. As somebody without a flasher, the shallow water is obviously a lot more of an attractive proposition, but if they are not there they are not there. Is there a reason for the information descrepancy or are they just found in all depths?</p>
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<p>Sort of feel bad about posting this without having any real content to add to the forum, but it just seems that there is no real information around for MN whitefish and I am getting a bit desperate. Thanks for any help!</p>
Welcome aboard! Whitefish really go where the food is; that can mean 100 feet of water or 2 feet of water. I think a lot of people don't ever try for them in water less than 10 feet deep so they miss out on those fish. Trouble is, in really shallow water like that, electronics are useless for locating fish, so the guys who have to see the fish on the screen before they drop their line are totally out of luck. If I were you, I would try for them shallow first because in deep water you really need a sonar.
You can use the DNR Fish Mapper to find the lakes with whitefish in them: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/fom/mapper.html I haven't fished any of the lakes around there, so it's tough to recommend any. Ten Mile Lake might be even best - there are lots of whitefish. Cisco don't show up in the survey but they are there. The closest I've fished to there is whitefish lake where I caught them several different times on crappie minnows in 8 feet of water. That's a long ways south of you though. Good luck.
Mike - how deep do you usually fish them? Structure?
Well, funny you mention shallow Corey because most of last winter and last week has been fishing in less than 10 feet of water -- even with five feet of ice. I have caught them lots in deep water at various depths but they're more scattered in deeper water. It seems to me the less structure the better -- at least under ice. They're basically like cattle grazing the bottom muck.
If you got an underwater camera you can see why they're so attracted to these mud bottom areas. The bottom is literally crawling with leeches, caddisfly larvae, and minnows. I start my presentation by lightly bouncing my jig off the bottom, creating little puffs of bottom muck. If the water is clear you can see the whitefish come charging in to investigate. I got quite the show last weekend. It was very instructive.
I'm mostly using little panfish jigs with tungsten heads by the way. White or translucent seem to be the best colour.
mike b
Great information from both of you. First of all, I have not actually seen the fish mapper thing despite spending a long time on lakefinder and the like.
WastedWisely used about an hour just messing around on it, it is pretty amazing. Regarding their depth and the like, that is absolutely great to hear. It is always a pain to fish deep and it is a blast ice fishing shallow water in a clear lake and being able to see the fish. Even with a camera, there is something special about seeing a fish come by while watching from above. Interesting hearing that they feed on the bug larvae and other stuff sitting in the bottom. Makes me thing that dropping a fly fishing nymph down might work well. Out here in CO we have found it effective to have one guy using something flashy such as a jigging spoon and one guy using a nymph. A lot of times, a group of trout will come speeding in after the spoon, circle around a bit, then ignore the spoon and take the nymph. This seems to work especially well on heavily fished lakes. I actually caught my CO PB fish with that method, had to specify CO because normal trout cannot hope to compare to the monsters in the Garrison Dam Tailrace.Thanks for all the info. A month or two from now I will be sure to drop by and provide an update on whether I manage to catch a few. It seems at this point the main challenge is finding a lake with a decent population of them. It would be nice if it turns out that they are pretty thick in any lake that has them and I just don't hear of it because people are too busy with pike and walleye
Funny you mention nymphs and spoons for trout because the very best rig for Whitefish in the Great Lakes involves both, on the same line. Absolutely deadly as some of the fish are more aggressive and will smoke a jigging rap or swedish pimple. Others will only respond to a wax worm on a hook or a nymph or a small jig. This video explains it pretty well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8gg0QM7vxo
Flashers help a lot but I agree without one you can be fairly successful in shallow. I've caught them in less than 5' of water, at those depths you sometimes don't see the mark until the fish is inhaling your bait anyway. Try to find the food, they are adaptable fish so that could be almost anything. With the slider rig, bang the spoon on bottom regularly to call the fish in. Mud bottoms are good but sand bottoms hold them too. The fish move in circles alot, so I'm never sure if the angler moving helps or hurts...
They're uncatchable.
Don't bother.
Eli
I live in Fergus Falls and have some ideas of some lakes I will be hitting in the coming weeks in the Bemidji area specifically targeting Burbot. PM me as I likely have room in my ice tent. However, just a heads up, I intend to eat any Burbot I catch.
try using a trout magnet jig head with a northland impulse minnow. the trout magnet jig heads are perfectly balanced and stay perfectly level, and the northland impulse minnow is a very lifelike bait perfect for fooling those titchy bastards.