whitefish fishing help...

[neil duffey]

iv never fished for whitefish. wondering how far id have to drive from chesterfield(metro det) to get into good whitefish through the ice. also what do i NEED to fish em successfuly? im a regular ice perchman on LSC w/ many traps and rods and lures. just need to know what i can to make plans for a trip this year. any help is great thanks.

[fishindude]

I've only done it at Higgins so I don't know about lakes around you. When I fished for whitefish i had 1 oz egg sinker above a bead(to stop it from hitting the barrel swivel), the barrel swivel(size=something small, what ever you feel comfortable with), then about 24" leader tied to a size 18 treble hook with either skein or spawn I've had better luck with skein. Make sure your treble hook is small so they don't feel it in their mouth. Main line i had 8 lb fireline(doesn't stretch in 100+ fow, but might freeze if the coating wears off and absorbs water), and i 6lb flouro leader. You don't need the flourocarbon but that's just what i used.

Here's the kicker, take one of those little red and white bobbers (like the size of a nickle) and use it as your strike indicator. Give it about 6-10" of slack so the fish can suck in the skein. Then make a loop, and clip the bottom clip of the bobber around the loop. This allows for the fish to take in the skein w/o feeling resistance, and when you set the hook, the line will slide off and you won't have to worry about taking it off to allow line through your guides.

I hope that made sense, it did in my head but sometimes that isn't a good thing. Anyways, good luck this winter, let us know how you do.

[TheMAIT]

BAIT???


went out near petoskey a year ago and had a some activity, but couldn't really get anything to bite....we had used a piece of corn and was rolled up in a tiny pasta shell-dyed red...."I HAVE NO IDEA"-----the guy i went with got this bait idea from a local old timer.

[DonP]

For bait for whitefish... you want to use boiled (approx. 3 minutes) single salmon eggs... steelhead skein (tighter skein is better because they can't pick off the eggs on loose skein)... wax worms... SMALL chunks of crawlers.

Now that being said... I have never fished them through the ice... but have done awful good off the pier.

You can also use from a #8 to a #12 single salmon egg hook. On the bigger hook I put on 3 eggs... but there are days where you have to downsize to the smaller hook and only use one egg!!

At times... a deadly combo can be the ol' "surf & turf"!! Take a #12 treble hook... cut off one of the hooks... put a single salmon egg on one hook (surf) and a wax worm on the other hook (turf).

Any questions... shoot me over a PM.