The lake whitefish is one of the most common fish species across Northwest Ontario. Many of our lakes host them but they do a pretty good job at evading anglers. One of the most popular fish for commercial fisherman, whitefish are excellent eating. While they are more common to catch during the winter, most of the whitefish that I’ve caught in open water have been incidental, often while targeting lake trout.
The first thing to know about whitefish is that they are generally aggressive by nature, as far as being in the mood to eat. They will chase minnow imitating baits and they’ll eat baits off the bottom, which is where they find a lot of their forage. Upon closer inspection of the mouth of a whitefish, you’ll see that it is slightly turned down, helping their ability to eat invertebrates as they rise out of the soft lake bottom.
Fishing quite a bit over the past couple of weeks I have run into whitefish multiple times while I’ve been chasing smallmouths and walleyes. I caught some near Kenora on Lake of the Woods on a flat in 14-16 feet of water. I could see them crawling around on the bottom on my forward-facing sonar. I casted a green pumpkin New Rig to them, one of my top walleye and smallmouth baits, and they jumped on it almost immediately. Evidently, they were in the shallower water to eat.
A few days later I was out on the Winnipeg River and noticed several groups of fish swimming along suspended throughout the day. These were groups of three to six fish and you could tell on the screen that they were of good size. I threw a small 3.5” Scented Z-Man Jerk ShadZ bait rigged up on a ¼ ounce Smeltinater jig at these fish and got several of them to bite, again, almost immediately. Throughout the day, these fish were suspended between the surface and 20 feet down, over 20 to 40 feet of water.
If it was a school of fish swimming along, they would be whitefish and then if it was just a single fish cruising along suspended in the same upper part of the water column, it would be a large walleye or a pike. All of these fish are out there looking around for suspended balls of bait to feed on.
Whitefish prefer cold water so during the warmer summer months they are going to slide out in the deeper water, spending a lot of their time around the thermocline. Over the years I’ve caught quite a few jigging for lake trout. If you notice schools of fish suspended over deeper water through the summer months, they’ll often be whitefish, they just seem to like going out over the basin, versus setting up on structure like a lot of the other fish that we target do.
When it comes to catching them, you need to consider that they have a smaller mouth. I have seen their stomachs filled with smelt in the past so they will obviously spend some time chasing bait in open water. I’ve also seen their stomachs filled with small bugs and crayfish, so they’re opportunistic feeders.
My mindset for choosing baits is to choose minnow imitators for use in open water and a bottom bait like the Ned rig for fish on the bottom. Choose baits that are heavy enough to get down in the water column but smaller in size. Another bait option that I have had good luck with for whitefish through the ice is a smaller, heavier spoon with a short section of line attached where the hook would go (remove the treble hook), to a small fly about six to ten inches from the spoon. The spoon gets their attention, then when they get closer and see the fly, they eat it. I’ve heard reports from friends that this rig works well in open water as well.
Whitefish have a y-bone, similar to a trout or pike, so they’re a little more of a project to clean than a walleye or perch but they are really good to eat. They are popular as a smoked fish, but you can do well to bake them in the oven and if you batter them and fry them, they might be better than walleye. If you’re looking for a different challenge in the boat this summer, try and track down a whitefish.
