# White Fish Tactics HELP



## Skeeter (Dec 8, 2000)

Could anyone out there tell me the best way to catch White Fish? Do you chum the hole? If so with what. Small Treble hook or tear drop. Any color better than others? I have been seeing several white fish but have only been lucky enough to catch one. Thanks for the help.


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## Tom22 (Jan 11, 2001)

Skeeter, when I lived in the U.P.. we would use a single salmon egg with slip sinker and a spring bobber, Yes, chum the hole...I know of guys who use waxworms and wigglers on teardrops also....

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## Nick (Jan 3, 2001)

Here's a good article on icefishing for ******, good chum ideas, too.
http://www.fishontario.com/ice-fishing/articles/whitefish/index.html 

We catch 'em at Higgins while fishing for lakers jigging spoons baited with walleye size minnows. Big presentation, but they hit it, and so much for the "tiny-mouth" theory. They're mouth is small but their eyes are big, just like a kid at the dinner table. Sweedish Pimples, Kastmasters, Cleos, all will work. Baited with whole minnow, just the head, or just the tail. Waxies work, too. They seem to be fond of the color pink, like a pink jighead with waxies.

Chuming is done days before and don't forget to mark the hole so you can return to the exact spot. It get's them feeding below your hole. Put your chum mixture in a paper bag with a rock added, lower the bag to the bottom with a heavy string, let the bag weaken, then yank the cord up quickly. The contents of the bag will be concentrated below your hole.

Good luck, Nick


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## Skeeter (Dec 8, 2000)

I am ready for those white fish now. Will let you know how I do.


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## fishctchr (Dec 3, 2000)

The best way is to sit on the pier at St. Joe or in a boat at the Cook plant (which by the way is running at 100%) and fish single eggs or small chunks of skein spawn, you can really slaughter them. But that is a few weeks away as the ice is pretty bad on the lakeshore. Will keep you posted.
fishctchr


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## Fishbomb (Nov 21, 2000)

Wigglers are good too. It's one of their main prey.


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## RACKnGILLS (Feb 4, 2001)

I set out a dead pole with a red number 6 gamigatsy ( Don't know about the spelling ), and 2 nuber 7 split shot up about 6-8 inches from hook. Put on a live walleye minnow, hook in tail. Let split shot lay on bottom. I tried this for the first time last week, cought my first white fish. Me and buddy caught 5 white fish that night plus I cought a 8 1/2lb walleye on it also. Good luck hope this helps.. Dan


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## Skeeter (Dec 8, 2000)

Got skunked on the whitefish will try harder next time.


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## Skeeter (Dec 8, 2000)

Tried the wigglers to now avail YET. Will try again if the ice holds.


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## phredru (Mar 22, 2005)

Is it true or is it a myth that chumming Whitefish with corn kills them? If it is true then why do so many people do it????


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## stinger63 (Nov 25, 2003)

Its not fatal to them but fish can not digest corn.It comes out the sameway it goes in :yikes: I know this because I raised a trout in an aquarium and fed it kernel corn for a while till I got tired of cleaning it out of the fish tank.


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## 2tundras (Jan 11, 2005)

Skeeter, Depends where your fishing. The White's will feed on a lot of different things. You really need to get a grasp of what it is they have in their bellly. For instance, if you have a heavy diporiaha (sp?) population in your area, you'll want to go with a feed bed (barley, rice, noodles, corn, mixed with some salmon or trout roe. Fish over this a small presentation of wigs or a veryyyyy small hook with a single egg on it. Lay the egg right on the bottom. Do not pierce the egg with the hook, keep the point burried. This year I ghave been playinf around with a rig that looks a lot like a perch rig. Gotta a egg weight on the bottom, then 4 three way swivels on up the line. Off of each swivel I placed a 5 inch leader, two with really small hook with an egg, two with larger tera drops with wigs. Fish it tight. Seems to work pretty good. But its hard to drink beer with that kinda fishing.

If the Whites are feeding on larger forage like shad, you can start to step up the size of the lures. Like someone up top said *you can* take Whites on a big presentation. Last weekend we were off of Paradise taking whites in 120 feet with #6 pimples baited with Whites bellies. Actually looking for lakers, but they nailed it. But for that to work you have to have 4 pound and up fish. The problem with big baits is that you will miss a ton of fish. They bite so soft most of the time that they will feel and taste the lure before you know what's going on. 

Best bet, go small and light first, then work your way up. Get a bait bed out know. After you catch a few cut their bellies.

Lastly, one of our spots up here is spitting out whitefish faster than Monica Luinsky can polish a falg pole. If you don't mind being way out on big water come on up.


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## harve (Mar 10, 2001)

where Do I go to? I would love to catch whitefish faster than monica can?!*% well do her thing but petoskey is slow and way over chummed with noodles.


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## 2tundras (Jan 11, 2005)

Emerson Bay (southwest corner of Whitefish Bay, Superior, some maps acall it Tahquamemon Bay). Been killing em steady for a while and it'll only get better. I'll be out there tomorrow till Sunday, come on up. They are really starting to get thick, I mena you gotta bring a gunny sack to carry em off the ice in. No chummin either, wigs.

Head north on 123, go through Strongs Corners, when you pass the Silver Creek Bar your gettin close. About a mile before the Tahquamemon River there is an access road on your right. Cant miss the trucks and all that. Fishing is good in the whole bay, you can really get em anywhere but you gotta move a lot to find em. 

If you see a white Toyota Tundra when you hit the ice look for a Ski-doo Tundra (thus my name on this site, fancy aint I) with a 88 sticker (Jarrett) and a green "SPARTY ON" sticker the windshield. Small black pop up home made shack with a walleye shaped window on one end. 

Bring beer.


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## harve (Mar 10, 2001)

was not able to make it with the easter weekend thing going on. I would like to come on up and try this weekend. the ice still going to hold and howd ya do last weekend.


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## 2tundras (Jan 11, 2005)

Ice is getting slopy but its there is still a ton of it. Didn't fish it last weekend, fished further east, but I'm hearing good things. Headin out this weekend for sure, as long as this rain doesn;t kill it.


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## spuds (Dec 21, 2003)

Bring a bag to Emerson bay to take out trash with you. There are a bunch of pigs that fish there that litter up the parking area and throw stuff out of there shacks and leave it there. Propane tanks and juice bottles mostly. They have been doing it for years, and I am sick of it. Seeing that the road is in the Taquamenon Falls state park boundry and is plowed by the county just for the fishermen when it isn't suppose to be plowed at all, if the littering dosn't stop, I will recomend that it should not be plowed anymore. Then we can park on the highway.


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## harve (Mar 10, 2001)

anybody still fishing there or is the ice to bad now? Do they fish there in boats when the ice goes out? I will clean up all my trash and then some. Always leave it better than you found it...


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