White fish.

[Dinikin]

Never fished for them but know that they are around.
Where do you find them? Columbia, tribs? What time of year?
Just curious, hear it tasted fine. Any tips.

[portlandstatekid]

oh yeah, a friend of mine was fishing for those out of scapoose the other day. don't know much else :shrug:

[Hunt'nFish]

Whitefish out of Scapposse Bay?....sure we're talking about the same "whitefish"? I've never caught or seen any caught this low in the system. Typically they are found higher up in the river system.
Peamouths look similar but are not whitefish, peamouths are common here though.
Hunt'nFish

[BigFishFever]

Used to fish for whitefish all the time in the winter months...not on this side of the Mountains however (I am sure they are around)

Winter months were always the best for eating them...in the summer they got scarce and when you did catch em they were soft and the meat was really mushy.

Extremely soft mouthed...used an ultra light rod, with small bobber, and a red fly...top the fly with a maggot...and drift it through the holes..(they dont allow bait where I used to fish for em anymore so check the regs where you are going to fish)

If there wasnt ice floating down the river, it wasnt worth fishing for em yet...

As for eatin' the only way we could eat em was to smoke em up and gobble em up....extremely tasty, but also extremely bony...

[Dave Smith]

There are TROPHY sized whitefish in Wickiup and it's tributaries, but one of the most consistent places that I know of for numbers (10 to 16") is the good ole Deschutes. Any time of year but especially January and february. They really are a neat fish- closely related to grayling- very pretty and take a fly well. Not the greatest fighters- never have eaten one. Dave

[alanmikkelsen]

There are two kinds here in Montana. Mountain whitefish (native) and Lake Superior whitefish (introduced). The native whitefish are mostly in streams and we used to fish for them in deep holes in the winter, with a long cane rod and fly and maggots. We always smoked them.

Lake Superior whitefish are common on Flathead Lake. They average 3+ pounds. The limit is 100 per day. Beginning the end of July and continuing until the end of September on the Flathead River upstream, it's easy to catch a cooler full. They're great eating. The lake whitefish don't seem to have as many bones as the river variety. I fillet them out (one fish feeds my wife and I amply), roll them in flour and fry in butter. We really like them. They have some small bones in the fillet that somehow seem to disolve when you cook them. At least we've never had a trouble with them.

[Hunt'nFish]

One of my fondest fishing memories was flyfishing the Jefferson Rvr just outside of Dillon. (We had just finished fishing the Madison over at Ennis and I found the fishing to be difficult there.) We pulled into this little RV park on the banks of the Jeff at about 6pm. I quickly set up camp and lit the BBQ and grabbed a rod and hit the river. As I walked across the pasture to the river, three fellow campers were just pulling thier pontoon boats out and I asked how it'd been. "NOT WORTH A DARN! We floated nearly 10miles and only caught a handful of fish." It had been 90F for nearly 2-3 weeks, the Big Hole was running low of dissolved O2 and had been shut down. Didn't sound good for the fishing, but I tied on an Elk Hair Caddis w/ a Prince Nymph dropper. Fished the head of this one little riff for about an hour and picked up a couple 12" rainbow. The sun had dropped behind the hills as I dropped down a bit into the head of this deeper hole when I saw a handfull of fish break water, immediately hooked a nice 14" Whitefish. Boy did he fight! Never broke water once but went from one side of the river to the next and back again. Landed him and looked up to make another cast. BOY HOWDY, the water was churning with fish breaking the water.....all whitefish! I love catching whitefish, they are tough little fighters.
It looked like someone had just turned in the feeders at the fish hatchery..hundreds of fish breaking the water, all at the same time. I proceeded to catch untold numbers of these white fish. All about the same size 14-16". I wore out 2-3 Prince Nymphs and had started using some old nymphs, didn't matter what nymph it was, they hammered it. I broke out the video camera and laid it on the rocks and started rolling tape. Fish after fish, until at last I stopped caring if I caught another. I got bored with these whitefish, I must've caught a hundred or more in a couple hrs. And then the feed stopped as fast as it had started.

SO I dopped down a bit lower in the hole mainly to get out of whitefish territory and picked up a brown trout. A nice 16" fatty. Cast to the same spot an picked up another, this one little smaller, and another only this one was BIG! After a couple minutes I landed an real NICE 18" Brown...a real beauty. I fished past 10pm, finally running out of light and was going by feel. A couple more fish and I simply had to give up.
Went back to camp to a very PI$$ED OFF wife, kids were long since in bed and she couldn't get the lantern lit. She was sitting the in the truck reading a book by doom light. NOT HAPPY.
Needless to say, I got the cold shoulder that night. However I slept like a baby and had pleasant dreams.

Daylight couldn't come soon enough, I was off w/o making a sound. Sure enough, they started to feed a couple hours after light and I again caught Whitefish until I didn't care anymore, a few more browns and it was time to pack up camp and head on down the road for Darby or Hamilton and the Bitteroot.

Yep ya gotta love white fish on the fly. In fact I'm going to dig that tape out and watch it tonight.
Hunt'nFish

[Mr. Sturgeon14]

i have caught them in the deshutes alot and kelly creek in idaho, but the ones in the deshutes are fun andd plentiful i like trout better

[FelonFinder]

We catch dozens of them in Burley, Idaho some crossing the 16" length. A little bitty of worm on the bottom in slow water in spring and fall does the trick, and I have never got the hunger to eat one. But I hear they are only good smoked from cold water. The meat looks good when I have cut them up for catfish bait. They smell awful. Consequently, they are good catfish bait.

[happybrew]

I've caught them incidentally in the McKenzie, both forks of the Santiam, and at Big Cliff Reservoir. The only place I've been able to figure out where to target them is Big Cliff. It's the reservoir just below Detroit. When they drop it for power production, they become very active in the upper river as the water level drops, and can be targeted with single salmon eggs or flies. But it is a ways to drive from Portland.

happybrew

[Big Arm]

Going to be at Flathead Lake in July and August. Any suggestions on how to catch them. I ate some last year that someone else caught and they were very good. We will be by Big Arm and I hear that is a hot spot.

[alanmikkelsen]

Going to be at Flathead Lake in July and August. Any suggestions on how to catch them. I ate some last year that someone else caught and they were very good. We will be by Big Arm and I hear that is a hot spot.



Big Arm State Park is indeed the place to start. They'll be in 45-55' water. This bite will start around the third week of July normally and pickup all the way into the third week of August, and can still be going strong into September. If you've got a good fish finder, look for a place with hard bottom instead of weeds. There will probably be an anchor line, though, that will tip you off to where you need to be. Jig a Rattle d'saster tipped with maggots. Some people use a couple of flies above the jig, but I don't feel it's worth it. Make sure you have a net available, and plenty of ice in a cooler or a good live well. Fish will average 3+ pounds. :smash: :smash: :smash: Rattle d'zasters are locally produced by Zimmer Tackle in Pablo, MT. Dick Zimmer is the Flathead Lake guru and will share his knowledge with anyone. His phone number is 406-675-0068.

[Big Arm]

Thanks for the information. I have seen Zimmer Tackle along 93.

[bassfishingnw]

We used to fish for them on the upper Cowlitz using Helgrimites (sp) around December. It seamed they went in four year cycles as far as size.

Fun but cold!!!

[bassexterminator]

i catch a few at roslyn lake every time i fish where the creek flows in

[topwaterfly]

Smoked lake whitefish are fished commercially and sold in most of the deli departments at Whole Foods, New Seasons, Zupan's etc. Smoked whitefish is very popular on the East coast and the Midwest. They are very different from the whities found in our western streams. I tried smoking a few I caught in the Deschutes......Yuk! No comparison.

Geo

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All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of youth that doth not grow stale with age.

[Pelhament]

On the McKenzie if you can find a spawning salmon, there will always be a huge pod of whitefish behind it. I caught a ton of whitefish last year using this tactic to target steelhead on the fly.