Favorite Whitefish Fly?

[Fishnfool]

What's your favorite fly & size for Mountian Whitefish in the fall (Oct/Nov)?

Thanks,
John G.

[Tyro]

Although not specifically targeting Whitefish I've had them take almost any nymph that you would normally use fishing for trout.

Prince nymphs seem to work well.

[Panman]

When I fish just for whitefish I use a #14 scud pattern. I think about any of the scud patterns you find on the net would work but size is important because of the small mouth.

Here is a neat pattern that would work if tied in a larger size (lol): http://www.danica.com/flytier/jgordo...ge_emerger.htm

Tim

[JohnScott]

John -

The South Fork of the Snake in Idaho holds a lot of whitefish and provides great whitefish fishing. Great winter sport when the trouts are holding in the slow and deep pools that are difficult for the wade fisherman to reach. I'm really missing it since moving up here to the Missoula area.

The best whitefish fishing I had down there, and I did a lot of it, was with a tandem of weighted size 6 4XL dark brown rubber legs stonefly ( salmonfly ) nymphs. I also fished a smaller version of that pattern in a lighter color as golden stone nymphs.

Lots of folks think that whitefish can not or will not take a large nymph pattern like this because of their small mouth. While it may be true that in some places whitefish will not take large nymph patterns, my experience on the South Fork is quite to the contrary.

They will also take decent sized streamers. I had several 20" whitefish on my PSC, which is approximately 2" long, on the South Fork. They don't seem to chase streamers, but they will take one that is hanging in the current at the end of the drift - at least that is what happened on the ones I caught.

Jimmy, who runs Jimmy's All Seasons Angler in Idaho Falls, told me that when he was in college, he and a friend were studying whitefish for his friend's fisheries biology course project. They found numerous whitefish on the South Fork that had eaten 4-5" sculpins.

John

[sagefisher]

John,

As a rule, if you are going to target Whitefish, which is a great trout to catch by the way, a smaller sized nymph with a little white on it is a good fly. However, as indicated by the other messages, those guys will take just about anything they want to, when they want to. I even caught one on a size 2 Mustad English bait hook that I had tied up into a Gaff fly, like a San Juan Worm on steroids.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[Panman]

I'd accuse John of thinking those squawfish are whitefish but I know better. As sagefisher and John said about catching them on large flies I agree. The two biggest whitefish I have caught were on Size 4 flies. But all in all if I am going to hunt the whitefish I will start with a size 14.

Tim

[ScottP]

Bead-head Prince

Regards,
Scott

[DG]

24/7/365 beadhead prince nymph. I gave up using them in Montana because I could never fight through the whitefish to get into trout.