Whitefish help.

Fishing for walleye and I came across a mess of whitefish at 33ft. They were suspended throughout the column. I dropped down every wire worm I had, little puppet minnows, small spoons, nymphs and I had some maggots I tipped the west works with. They would fly into my flasher and look at all my offerings and no takers.

The lake I fish is pretty clear, max depth is 50ft. the Bottom I was fishing was sandy mud, it was off a fairly steep drop off.

Was looking for some tips and what they might be feeding on.

Cheers.

Do you have a camera to confirm they arent smelt or something like that? If they are whitefish, you did everything I would have.

Yeah, one of the first things I did was drop down the camera. They drive me nuts, they taste so good and can be a nightmare to catch. Haha.

Sounds like tullibee to me.

No tullibee in the lake.

I love fishing for whitefish. They are great sportfish and great tablefare.

Tips? Can’t offer much except for some personal insights. You were doing the right things in the right spots IMO. Whitefish love the deep mud and seem to slowly patrol along deep edges in search of forage or just seeking comfort. Whitefish are weird though, compared to more familiar gamefish. I’ve fished for them in Northern MN pretty extensively using Livescope both in the summer and on ice. I’ve seen big schools of them slowly swim by my presentation and do absolutely nothing. Then, for whatever reason, one will just decide to swim over and eat. Doesn’t seem to matter what presentation is used – and we’ve tried lots. The fish decide when they will light you up. The vast majority will reject your offering. When they decide to eat, just about anything they can fit in their mouth is going to get bit. Day in and day out though, we’ve found a small gold slender spoon tipped with a pink Gulp crappie nibble or plastic larvae to be about as good as anything.

What do they feed on? We’ve kept a number of whitties for the table over the years and always make a point to check stomach contents. All but one have been full of mayfly larvae. One that we caught on early ice was full of fish eggs, presumably cisco eggs. Interestingly, mayfly larvae imitation lures haven’t been ‘the deal’ when it comes to getting more bites. Small shiny flutter spoons have outproduced them consistently.

I’ve not fished whitties anywhere besides a large shield lake in northern MN. So, these observations may be unique to that fishery. Hope this helps in some way though.

Great insight Brian, Much appreciated. Will try out the slender spoon and pink larvae this coming weekend.

Do you ever use a deadstick approach or a jaw jacker for them. I personally hate jaw jackers but could see them coming in handy for whites.

Like a small silver vmc tumbler with a piece of minnow or worm?

Could try bouncing your offering on the bottom, raise some silt as long as you are throwing everything at them.

If they are lake whitefish, I would use panfish gear. 2 lb test high quality fluoro. and small tungsten jigs tipped with a single waxie, spikes, or any panfish plastics. Is this a lake in MN?

TOM wrote:

If they are lake whitefish, I would use panfish gear. 2 lb test high quality fluoro. and small tungsten jigs tipped with a single waxie, spikes, or any <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>panfish plastics. Is this a lake in MN?

It’s in Alberta. I had 5lb Fluor leader. Might drop that down to 4lb and finess the hell out of them. As long as they are there next week.

As you and others have noted, Whitefish are jerks. I’ve fished them with an underwater camera and watched different fish in the same school respond differently to the same baits (or some respond and others don’t at all). You are using the same kind of things I’ve used.

Maybe play around with bigger/smaller versions of the same things? I’m a huge fan of having a small wireworm a foot or so above a small spoon or jigging rap so I’ve got 2 presentations at once. A panfish jig is always worth trying too. A tiny minnow is worth a shot too

Maybe check nearby for more cooperative individuals? I’d probably start with checking the nearest shallower flat to where those fish are. Even if there are fewer Whitefish, if they are more active it will probably be more productive.

Good luck, I know how maddening they are

My go to setup for tullibee or white fish when they wont seem to hit anything else is a Sweedish Pimple or a castmaster with a dropper line to a real small ice jig. Tip the ice jig with several euro larva. After several aggressive jerks to get the fishes attention I often just let it rest followed but a slight quiver. Most often the bite will come as soon at it comes to a rest or just after you start to quiver it. Don’t know why, but this technique has often caught them when nothing else would.

Great advice. Much appreciated. Look forward to putting some on the ice this weekend.

Funny, when fly fishing for trout out west sometimes it seems you can’t keep them off the line.
They’ll grab your fly before it can get to a feeding trout!

If these were Rocky Mountain whitefish I would limit out on them in an hour. Lol. Fly fishing our local streams is one of the most reliable fish. These lake whitefish are a different monster. Haha.