Erie Whitefish??

K

kevin

Well-Known Member
Ok, with all the guys who fish perch out there, there must be a few guys on here who have gotten into some whitefish. I saw an incidental one caught through the ice in the Eastern end of Erie, but only one. With the commercial netters seeing a pretty impressive catch of Erie whitefish (which can be found for sale in Sobey's), there must be a fishable population out there.

Anyone ever come across them?
 
No whities caught on my boat, have never heard of one being caught off Burwell either.

Brian (Legend Man)
 
:(not to many netted by com . guys as the price is 56 cents a pound the whitties ya see in sobeys is from the north :(
 
Well, the fish were clearly marked lake erie whitefish. Also, I've been reading up on them. Google "Aaron Mathers" and commercial whitefish on Erie. They are an operation that were running out of PA for whities, prior to the banning of gill nets in 2006. I'll see if I can dig up the article. In the article he speaks of whitefish by the "gazzillions".
 
I've talked to a guy that works on the comercial boats at the Eastern end of Erie and they have been netting lots of whitefish since they made a come back after the zebra mussels cleared the water. Aparently the lake is full of them, or at least was a few years ago. (I have not talked to him lately)
No one I know has caught one on hook and line. You would think you would get the odd one through the ice but I have not heard of it. By the same token we kill the walleyes here during open water, but you never get one through the ice. You do get the odd rainbow, but never a Lake trout.I would be interested in anyones ideas around this, it has always puzzled me.

Yellowfever
 
Here's the article I was referring to.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10273/1091470-454.stm

In it, he speaks of whitefish by the gazzillions. Clearly, there must be a fishable population out there. I'm wondering if it's just such a new rebound in the fishery, that the sports fishermen haven't developed a way of targeting them yet. I saw one caught throught the ice last year down here in the eastern end near port colborne. It's the only one I've seen.
 
I wonder if they could be caught on a calm day, out in deep water, using similar techniques as simcoe? I don't see why a jigging spoon over some deep water wouldn't work.
 
This is very interesting. The closest thing Ive seen to a whitefish in Erie is a Sheephead.

Cool to know they are out there somewhere though.

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I do remember trolling along beside Duck Soup out on the deep side of the elbow a couple of years ago and for hours on end we were marking suspended fish but not a single taker....I think we even joked on the radio about them being herring or whitefish. Could it be??

Maybe we should send Icefisherman out there, he's a whitey expert and I don't think he's seeing any action on Simcoe yet!!
 
my husband was a former comercial fisherman he can give you some tips to find them if you dare.
they would set their nets on the south side of long point in roughly 95-135 ft of water. if you follow the depth contour lines west towards the bar and from there south and around to the east again they sould be there. not really a good spot for an ice hut. they also got them east of long point on the other side of the deeper water too but again. not very ice hut friendly quote:
Originally posted by kevin

Ok, with all the guys who fish perch out there, there must be a few guys on here who have gotten into some whitefish. I saw an incidental one caught through the ice in the Eastern end of Erie, but only one. With the commercial netters seeing a pretty impressive catch of Erie whitefish (which can be found for sale in Sobey's), there must be a fishable population out there.

Anyone ever come across them?



julier
 
I'd love to hear some stories from the commercial guys about the whitefish. If there are some go-to areas out there, they should be fishable under the right conditions. Ice fishing is pretty much out of the question, even on a good year. But, on a nice calm spring day, I don't see why it couldn't be done. I mean, how often are guys going out on erie with light test, and small jigging spoons in deep water?? It could just be a matter of trying.
 
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