Take the whitefish challenge

By Gord Ellis

Lake whitefish are a study in contrasts. On one side of the coin you have a fish with a small, soft mouth and a reputation for being timid and a poor fighter, and which is caught mainly on small baits during winter. On the other you have a fish that thinks nothing of attacking pike-sized lures and that can literally spool an unsuspecting panfish angler. These paradoxes have kept all but a few anglers from targeting whitefish after winter ends. Yet, they're plentiful in many of Ontario's lakes and rivers and really aren't that hard to catch. In fact, if you get on a hot bunch of them with the right technique, they'll wear you right out. From spoons to spinners, dry flies to live bait, here's a rundown of some of the best tactics to catch open-water whitefish.

Spring

Like lake trout and pike, the whitefish is a cold-water animal. It spends most of its life in deep water, but ventures into the shallows from ice-out until around mid-May. The first place to look for whitefish is in shallow bays with emerging weed growth. I've seen massive schools of them in sand-bottomed bays just after ice recedes.

My favourite way to catch early-spring whitefish is with hardware. Small spoons work well, but I prefer throwing spinners in shallow water, specifically silver French-bladed spinners like the No. 3 Mepps Aglia, Blue Fox Vibrax, EGB, or Double Loon. A taste of worm on the hook helps entice reluctant fish. Whitefish tend to be spooky. From a boat or canoe, stay well back from shore and make long casts. If you're fishing from shore, cast perpendicular to the bank and stay low. Retrieve the spinner at a steady pace over the flats and tops of weeds. Whitefish hit a spinner with abandon and put up an amazing scrap in the shallows. As the water warms, the fish slide off flats and set up on the first drop in the bay or off a nearby point. Simply move out to relocate them.

You can also find whitefish in river back eddies and at rivermouths for several weeks after ice-out. It's not unusual for opening-day walleye anglers to tangle with a whitefish or two. Bucktail jigs, dead-drifted or retrieved with an undulating action, are especially deadly for them in current. When whitefish are feeding on minnows, 1/8- and 1/4-ounce white, silver, and grey bucktail jigs are the best choices.

One-quarter and 3/8-ounce silver spoons are also great on river whitefish. Cast quartering upstream and let the spoon tumble down with the current. Give the lure a jerk every so often as you retrieve. The extra flash and wobble appeals to large whitefish in particular. River anglers can also have a field day in spring with a float, split shot, No. 8 hook, and a worm or small minnow. Whitefish are adept at stealing bait, so thread one-third of a worm onto the hook and don't leave much of a tail. If the fish are in less than 6 feet of water, use a fixed float and drift the bait slowly with the current. In deeper water, use a slip-float. Whitefish pull a float down more deliberately than trout and kick in big time when they feel the hook.

Summer

Summer is the most challenging time of year to catch lake whitefish. By June, fish have usually gone deep and are more difficult to locate. In rivers, once the temperature rises above about 55 F, they either go into deep holes or vacate to the nearest lake.

Trolling is a great option at this time (see accompanying article), but you can also jig for whitefish, as you would in winter. Traditional vertical jigging spoons like the Swedish Pimple, Hopkins, or Kastmaster will take bottom-hugging fish in summer too. This technique is especially popular with anglers on Lake Simcoe, but is equally effective wherever these fish are found. Although I've caught hundreds of whitefish with jigging spoons, I'm still shocked at how hard these delicate-looking fish hit them.

Summer whitefish like to hang near humps and at the base of dropoffs. To catch them, attach a 1/2-ounce or heavier jigging spoon to a snap (no swivel) and drop the lure to bottom. Once there, snap the spoon up at least a foot and follow it with the rod tip as it flutters back down, then repeat. Pick calm days to vertical jig or anchor the boat. Keep the spoon as straight below the boat as possible.

Jigging is an undeniably effective way to catch summer whitefish, but fly fishing for them during the mayfly hatch is the most fun. Timing of the hatch varies, but it generally occurs from mid-June to mid-July, depending on how far north you are. Mayflies are associated with sheltered, soft-bottomed bays or weedbeds. Whitefish focus on mayflies during the hatch, and if you fail to give them a really good imitation, you won't get a bite. Show them what they want and all hell will break loose. A variety of grey, white, brown, and green mayfly dry patterns on No. 6 to 10 hooks should cover most situations.

I use a 7-weight rod, a weight-forward floating line, and a 9-foot leader tapering to about 6-pound test for whitefish, but you can make do with whatever fly rod you have. Don't worry if you're not an experienced fly angler. There's no need for long casts when mayflies are hatching, as whitefish lose their wariness then.

If you don't have a fly rod, you can still angle with a fly using spinning gear. Take an old plastic red and white bobber for a casting weight, fasten it on to your line about four feet above a dry fly, and you're ready to go. This set-up is crude, but effective.About an hour before dark, watch for surface activity to betray the presence of feeding fish. The tip of a forked tail or a swirl is likely all you'll see as whitefish grab emerging nymphs. Cast a fly near a boil and let it sit for a minute. Strikes on the surface are quite alarming and most people pull the fly away as a reflex action. Wait to feel the fish before snubbing the hook home. This is even more difficult to do with a big bobber on the line, so if you're spinning, expect to miss a few more fish. Once a whitefish feeding frenzy gets underway, knowing where to cast or which fly sitting on the water is yours becomes difficult. That's when the real fun begins.

Fall

As the water cools in September, whitefish venture near the surface more often. I've seen them feeding in slicks of dead insects, although they seem much less frenzied than they are in July during the mayfly hatch. You can occasionally catch cruising fall whitefish on perch-sized ball-head jigs and minnows. Toss them over humps or into insect slicks and let them sink to bottom. Whitefish can be difficult to detect when they suck in a small minnow, so be ready to strike if you feel anything odd. Jigging spoons remain good for deep fish, and I've also seen fall whitefish caught on trolled crankbaits. A few falls back, my oldest son, Devin, caught a 7-pounder on a Risto Rap as we trolled a mid-lake flat for walleye. That whitefish fought unbelievably. I was convinced Devin had hooked a big pike until the fish was in the net.

Whitefish really are strong fighters, plentiful, and good to eat. Challenge them this year and see for yourself.