Whitefish

[7mmfan]

One of my favorite whitefish flies. Fished below a stonefly nymph. They are really drawn to shiny things so I always try to fish a fly with a brass or gold bead head. When I guided fly fishing trips on the Yakima, the winter time trips were often comprised of large amounts of whitefish.

[MeepDog]

Anyone have advice on targeting Lake Whitefish on the Columbia? I pick them up sometimes walleye fishing, but their mouths are so small. They'll hit spinner rigs that they have zero chance of being able to eat. You could barely fit a pea in their mouth, yet they're like 3+ lbs.

Is there even a viable fishery to target on the mid Columbia? I've never caught more than 2 in a day.

[Southpole]

We're talking two different kinds of whitefish here. Lake whitefish and Mountain whitefish which are smaller and found in western streams.

Mountain whitefish are in about every stream in the state. Some eastside streams have special winter whitefish seasons with special gear rules. When streams are open during 'regular' seasons, whitefish are typically legal under "other gamefish" rules. Daily limit is 15. You can catch them all year, but in winter they school up and are probably easier to catch in numbers.

They can be caught incidentally on about everything you can throw in a river, but small flies tipped with maggots is the standard when targeting them. 'Hellgrammites' ie stonefly larva are probably the ultimate effective bait.

Thanks for pointing this out. The lake whitefish are bigger, easier to catch and the mountain whitefish are a bit smaller and might be a bit more challenging to catch… from what I read anyways. I fished for the mountain whitefish a million years ago in kettle river out of Curlew. Excellent eating from what I recall. To the original poster, did you get any takers to go on the fishing trip?

[Southpole]

Anyone have advice on targeting Lake Whitefish on the Columbia? I pick them up sometimes walleye fishing, but their mouths are so small. They'll hit spinner rigs that they have zero chance of being able to eat. You could barely fit a pea in their mouth, yet they're like 3+ lbs.

Is there even a viable fishery to target on the mid Columbia? I've never caught more than 2 in a day.

Same experience for me as well. There’s a few videos on YouTube from wdfw that explain where and how to catch lake whitefish. Another one on YouTube Tyler Hicks is catching them on different sizes of blade baits.

[boneaddict]

I used to catch the hell out of them on the Methow this time of year.   No idea if that is still a thing.  I used flies.   Friends liked maggots

[metlhead]

Moses and Potholes have great numbers of the larger lake variety. WDFW made a YouTube video on it to get more folks out there.

[Ridgeratt]

I fished for the mountain whitefish a million years ago in kettle river out of Curlew. Excellent eating from what I recall. To the original poster, did you get any takers to go on the fishing trip?

A million years ago? 

Back when I was in my youtf and the Orient Bridge was a wooden structure we fished for them with a single hook and a red salmon egg.

I have not seen anyone fish them since walleyes were introduced into Roosevelt at the bridge.

[Big6bull]

Steelhead beads work well for these too

[addicted1]

Banks lake is a very popular place to catch them, lots of Russians targeting them there. You’ll get the big fat whitefish in the 2-4 pound range out there too.

I believe they’re Ukrainian, but yeah they love Banks.

[Skyvalhunter]

Anyone have a good canned pickled whitefish recipe?

[nwwanderer]

Any good pics of the two species?  Have not seen any for years.  Thanks

[Bullkllr]

Any good pics of the two species?  Have not seen any for years.  Thanks

Interesting article on the differences.

http://northwestfishingreports.com/Articles/Details/769

 Lake variety

[Bullkllr]

Mountain

[GWP]

For any smoked fish with many small bones;

Clean or fillet. Brine for 24 hours. Pressure cook for 45 min using high pressure. Remove from cooker (carefully) and put on smoker racks. Smoke normally, drop temp and dry for a few hours, or to your preference.
The small bones will dissolve.

[nwwanderer]

Thanks Bullkllr, perfect!!