Whitefish

So since Whitefish and cisco don't got there own thread, going to troll in the trout forum since they close to the salmonid fam. Any advise info on whitefish and cisco on inland lakes in the northern highlands of Wisconsin. Looking for others tips and tactics and general discussion.

Big score at local L and M store. Old timers swear by this bait! Not to mention its caught a few for me!

 I saw that Kevin had luck downsizing on the Bay.....  Got me thinking that I may try that on the new panfish rod that I got.  Should get the bait down easier than my typical setup.

I'm for sure going to try it this weekend when I'm up there.

This was the result last time.  Caught 36.  Kept 15.  (One was hiding on me.) We ate a ton of fish and still couldn't get to all of them, so I had to freeze some.  Hopefully I can find 10 keepers this Saturday.

Carpio that what I did with small ones. The ones over 17 inch I fillet and smoke that way. Ends up with such more flavor from brine and smoke. Wife likes that better than smalls.

Griz.    Perfect smoking size!   Take the gills out but leave the head on. This will keep the juices from running out. Lake Michigan chubs are smoked that way.   CARPIO 

Vegas 492 I'm fishing inland lake. Had to downsize to catch fish last Sunday. Different beast than lake Michigan. Also only fishing 60 fow. The ones I caught were smaller. 13 to 15inch range. Some days are just different than others.

I've found that the smaller whities love the slider jig.  Bigger ones like that whitefish jig on the bottom with some meat on it.

Also found that the deeper water fish tend to eat more.

Very interesting about downsizing.  I would try it, but I've got no issues getting big whities to bite and not just drive by.  And...it would take forever to get a little jig down there.  Maybe I'll try that this weekend on my panfish rod and see how it goes.

Only Monday and I want to go fishing! Hate this thing called work! Errrrr! Smoking whitefish again tonight!

Kvan.   It definitely will dry them out. I smoke 30 or so a year and smoke the small ones whole with the head on. The others I’ll chunk in 3 pieces. Also I never scale them.I do smoke Lakers,cats,salmon,carp that have been filleted.I don’t scale any of them.    CARPIO 

This weekend's take-away - fished the east shore of green bay Saturday and started out with the standard rigs, gobie colored jigging rap with a slider rig ~12" up. Had a few lookers but no takers right off the bat as did a few others in our group so I whipped out my panfish rod. Had a 4mm orange and striped tungsten jig, tipped it with a waxie and they started to hammer it. It wasn't fast and furious, but very few came through without hitting the jig.

I hear a lot of guys report "caught most on the slider rig this weekend" - to me that says its time to down-size and try something different. I think this technique isn't utilized as much as it should on the big pond as it seems to work for inland lakes from what I've seen.

Griz another question for you: you said you caught one dead-sticking, was that on a minnow or waxie?