Most agressive fish I've seen

Caught my first tullibee, cisco, lake herring whatever you prefer to call them today. Fishing a small 15-20acre lake that gets 55-60ft deep. Fishing in roughly 20ft of water for some crappies and gills when this mark appears at like 12ft down. I reel up to it and the chase was on from 12ft down till about a foot under the ice when he finally nabbed it. I had no idea these were in the lake I was fishing definitely a cool surprise and holy smokes was it willing to chase.

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Cool! Especially on a small lake like that. I remember the first time I ran into smelt while ice fishing on Lake Superior. Those things would chase so fast that you’d have to snap the bait to get separation on the Marcum. I’ve always guessed since that pelagic fish are just crazy like that.

They are crazy like that, had a tullie on Leech that swam up my hole (there was like 3 feet of ice) and set the hook and brought it topside in one fell swoop. lol

Tullibees are in the salmon/trout family and it’s no wonder where that aggressiveness comes from.

I’m guessing you’ve never caught a lake trout through the ice? They’ll chase a bait from 150′ all the way up to the bottom of the ice.

Btw, that fish in your hand is candy for pike, lake trout and walleyes.

Biggill, I do most of my summer fishing on a lake that has large schools of tullibee. Apparently the bigger walleyes in the lake are caught by targeting them under these large schools of baitfish while theyre active and feeding. Any idea where I could begin to look to find these schools?

Nope never fished lakers, that is definitely on the list of things I want to try, but I don’t have the poles for it yet. I know the lake I was on has pike, but I don’t believe it has much if anything for a walleye population.

Anybody ever eat tullibee? They compare them to whitefish a lot I guess.

tbro16 wrote:

Biggill, I do most of my summer fishing on a lake that has large schools of tullibee. Apparently the bigger walleyes in the lake are caught by targeting them under these large schools of baitfish while theyre active and feeding. Any idea where I could begin to look to find these schools?

I wish I could help but I’ve never done that myself. I’ve attempted it with smelt and laketrout but with limited success. I guess you get near the school and fish slightly below them. One rule of thumb for lures is to match the hatch. But never, ever get stuck on it. It’s amazing sometimes how you know fish are eating one thing but never bite something you think replicates it.

Nic Barker wrote:

Anybody ever eat tullibee? They compare them to whitefish a lot I guess.

Yes but only smoked. They are good fare for smoking. I have never had whitefish other than smoked but I have heard the meat is nothing like tullibee.

Tullibe I was told tends to be oily and dense and whitefish I hear is lighter but still slightly oily.