Whitefish

[gonfishn]

Times here are tough. the water in the area creeks and river is so low that the trout are really hiding out.
So i've resorted to targeting whitefish.Man what a blast on a 3wt. they fight like a trout twice their size and they really make you pay attention to what your fly is doing.I swear they can inhale and spit out a fly faster than I can blink. the best part? I've got 20 of them coming out of the smoker in about an hour.

[Panman]

And I thought I was the only whitefish nut The whitefish is one of my favorite fish. They have saved the day on more than one occassion.

Tim

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

One of my favorite things is a whitefish /potatoe pancake. It looks like those hash browns you get at Mc donalds only with whitefish and egg mixed in with the taters.
a Japanese lady in our neighbourhood would make us up a batch if we brought her some fish. yum.

[Lew]

Try mixing some diced,smoked whitefish in with equal parts sour cream and cream cheese. Add some diced onions, diced garlic, diced red peppers, diced pepperoncini, diced dill pickles, with a bit of the juice tossed in. Add some cajun seasoning to heat it up a bit if you want hot, and anything else that looks good to you. Great dip, or on a bagel.

[Mike Thomas]

Hi I've never seen a whitefish, how about posting a picture. They sound like fun, and you can eat them!? cool.
All the best
Mike

[JeffHamm]

Hi Gnu Bee Flyer,

That sort of sounds like fishcakes, which my grandmother use to make with Atlantic cod rather than whitefish (so they would be worth their weight in gold now I suppose). Anyway, she would use left over potatoes, left over cod, and add in diced onions, egg, and milk. Make that into patties, and cook in a fry pan in lots of butter. They would go golden brown and crunchy on one side, then flip, and cook the other until the same. Season with a dash of salt and pepper, and you were away. Making me hungry just thinking about them.

- Jeff

[flyandtie]

Never caught whitefish before...

But mike, You wanted a picture...you can see the whitefish[url=http://hww.ca/~Content/363/Images/full_atlanticWhitefish_2.jpg:ea051]Here[/url:ea051]

[ducksterman]

Some more info....

http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/ ... tefish.pdf

[gonfishn]

More whitefish info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_whitefish

[Panman]

This thread has became quite interesting to me. I did a little fishing around the web and found that there are quite a few different sub-species of the whitefish. The ones I catch in Oregon are different than the ones I caught in Utah or Montana and the biggest one I ever caught was in the Unalakleet River in Alaska which is again another sub-species.

If this subject causes somebody to give whitefish a try for the first time I have had my best luck finding them in the deeper pools or runs of a river in the slower water. I prefer using a nymph type fly in size 14 to 18 fished quite close to the bottom. I have a 9 foot 3 weight which I really like. Like Gonfishn said they are a blast. In addition they are quite active in the winter, escpecially after they spawn (November to January).

As far as eating, the whitefish is a cousin of the trout and has the same bone structure. Their meat is white and sweet, but too oily for some. The wife and I are on low sodium diets which eliminate smoked whitefish which are real tasty so we either 1. Scale the fish, bread it and fry like a trout or 2. Can the fish and take the canned fish and make fish pattties out of them.

This is an under fished and under utilized species in many waters and well worth consideration.

Tim