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.

P.S.- YaYa on that smoked whitefish

I wonder the same question as Kvandehei33. I've fished the Bay of Green Bay and Lake Michigan for Whitefish for years and these fish have been feeding on round gobies. I've caught them on the rocks in 20-40 feet of water and in 70 to 90 feet of water but with the deeper water always at least fairly close to structure. My brother lives in Algoma so I fish Michigan a lot and we head north towards Baileys Harbor and jig for Whitefish, They are suspended but once again they are close to structure and I believe they float around until they feed on the structure-gobies. If you look in the stomach of deep water fish you'll find digested gobies and on the rocks you'll find em full of fresh gobies so long story short gobies are the primary food for whitefish and they inhabit the rocks. I've caught them on plastics when they are aggressive but my go to is a black and gold jigging rap 5 or 7(remove bottom hook due to quagga mussels) with a barrel swivel 18 inches above and a 8or10 eagle claw octopus above the swivel. I just use maggots as bait and have had days when your slider in the go to lure when other days it's the rap but I believe it's the pounding of the bottom to get interest and then they show what they want. I've fished with guides that tell you to leave electronics home because it's all about the cadence of your jigging that triggers the strike and there is something to that. So to end my bloviating, Gobies are the key to whitefish on the Greatlakes but they gotta eat so it's about food source and that should dictate depth/structure I'm guessing. I got some good help from a fellow ll'er and will post what I do and how I did it. Any advice or help is always appreciated... 

The more research I do on whitefish the more it seems to point towards using waxies or a similar presentation rather than minnows. Do you guys have similar experiences? I find that odd as we typically use a jigging rap with a minnow slider, both presenting as a bait fish, and have had good luck on the bay. I've also read that they suspend over deep water but I haven't seen this at all.

Do the whitefish on the Bay act differently than whitefish in inland lakes?

That smoked whitefish makes my mouth water

Smoked Whitefish is so good! Just does not last. No morsel wasted!

Smoke is a rollin!

Mud pounder this jig works for me.

Anything with an adipose fin should go here. Not everyone knows whitefish are in the trout family. I can't remember where the inland whitefish thread ended up but there were only a handful of lakes that still had some in Wisconsin. I had a friend come up from Portage to fish Green Bay. They had the best luck on their last day of three. I saw many swim by my baits, a few bit, those that hit shook the hook before I could get them thru the hole. Small jigging Raps or spoons, waxies, or minnow heads are the usual approach. Some swear by slider hooks but dropping the bait to the bottom seems to work at times too.