Hunting Washington Forum
Other Activities => Fishing => Topic started by: JeffRaines on January 02, 2018, 10:55:51 AM
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Hey guys
I normally just fish for trout out of state, and it’s typically catch and release however I do enjoy eating fish and I’ve heard that mountain whitefish are great eating and abundant in some areas. Plus I’d love a reason to get out of the house this winter and have a fish dinner or two. Any chance I could get some pointers and maybe pointed in the right direction on these? I live in Puyallup so anywhere within an hour or so would be great.
Thanks!
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I use to catch white fish accidentally when fishing for trout/steelhead with salmon eggs or night crawlers in many local rivers. Snoqualmie has a lot of white fish. I do not know anyone who has eaten one, we never kept them and considered them garbage fish?
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I've seen articles about smoking and canning online.
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We fished the Kettle River for them when I was a kid, it was a hoot. We used a couple of splt shot about 12-15" above a small baitholder hook (#12, I think) and a couple of maggots.
Then we'd pickle them.
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Whitefished since I was a kid. We mostly smoke them and my mom used to pickle can them. Yeas they are boney and should be scaled if fried. I fish for them on the Sky river, they do quite well for them in Duvall. Use maggots, grubs, dig for hellgrammites. Depending on the area you can use 2 hooks and doesn't have to be barbless but check the regulations for the area.
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Used to slay them in NW MT years ago. They are great smoking fish.
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I fished for them in the past at Flaming Geyser park and at the old Whitney bridge.
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Learn something every day!
Never knew they were good to eat.
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Mountain whitefish are delish and a lot of fun. Lake whitefish too (would occasionally catch one while bladebaiting for walleye in the Big C).
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How do the gulp products work with these guys? Would love to pick up a couple of jars and have some left for the next few weeks.
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The Naches and Yakima rivers are great waters for whitefish. Every year about this time I would read local articles in the paper suggesting this under utilized, tasty resource. Big bag limits too. A small hook tipped with a maggot.
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there's tons of them in the cowlitz, and they can get huge(i've caught a couple in the 3lb range). seem to catch one every couple trips, but never have targeted them. i've been saying this for a few years now, but i might have to make a drive down there to try and catch a few intentionally with how lousy the steelhead fishing has been.
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If you live in Puyallup - a good bet would be the White / Stuck River between Enumclaw and Greenwater. That stretch of river used to be famous for winter whitefishing back in the day. Check the regs first though - no matter where you go. The best of luck.
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How do the gulp products work with these guys? Would love to pick up a couple of jars and have some left for the next few weeks.
Never tried the Gulp products on them. I have caught them on eggs. I was once stopped by a LEO who wanted to give me a ticket for fishing for bait. He said I couldn't until I pointed out the part about if you were fishing for whitefish you could use bait. So like said before check the regs
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I fly fished the Sultan River years ago and used beads for whitefish. Had split shot on the leader also to get the bead to sweep along the bottom. I missed bunches of strikes until I determined the whitefish were also hitting the splitshot. Anything down on the bottom will attract them if whitefish are there.
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This thread got me interested in trying it for the first time. I just tried looking at the regs for the yakima, what a mess. I have no clue if it is open or not!
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I have never fished the Yak for whitefish but heard they catch some dandies there. There are also a fair amount of them in the spill way of Banks Lake. That's where they busted some Russians catching more than their share.
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WHITEFISH Dec. 1-Jan. 31 No min. size. Daily limit 15 WHITEFISH only. Whitefish gear rules. This applies to fishing on the Yakima river from Sunnyside to Roza dam, and the Naches river from Selah to Naches.
Whitefish Gear Rules Fishing gear is restricted to one single-point hook, maximum hook size 3/16" point to shank (hook size 14), and bait is allowed
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We use to fish for whitefish when I was in high school on the Green River in Auburn and we would use a piece speedometer cable for weight and set up 3 small flys and tip with a maggot. We would use different color body flys until we found out what color they would like that day and switch to that color and get up to 3 fish a drift. The limit was 15 back then and my friends Grandpa would smoke them or pickle them. If I was to go whitefishing now I think it would be the Cowlitz. I have caught some big whitefish while steelheading that river. Go below Barrier Dam and fish the fast water and you should do just fine.
