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How do you catch those big white fish?
#1
I am basically a trout fisherman, but I have on occasion caught some whitefish on a spinner but very rarely. I was fishing logan river, above first dam and saw tons of large whitefish. I could't get them excited about my spinner. I would love to tangle with some of them even if I had to put a worm on a hook or drag out the fly rod. Any advice from you experienced fisherman?
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#2
I always caught them on a Fly rod,using the same stuff as trout.You have to get down to them with split shot
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#3
whitefish have small mouths so traditional things for trout dont work as well. nymphs are your best bet on either a bobber on spin gear or flyrod. ice flies work well in the winter. they will occasionally hit small jigs but again hard to get a hook set because of there small mouths. try very small flies right on bottom sometimes you cant keep them off the hook.
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#4
[#0000ff][size 3]OK, I'll bite what is an "ICE FLY"[/size][/#0000ff]
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#5
Basically an ice fly is a very small jig.

I catch alot of white fish on size 18 or 20 flies, midge patterns,disco's work great. You could put a sinker ahead of them and use the spin rod but fly rods are more effective.
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#6
I made some imitation rock rollers (I call them). Black Dubbing on a # 10 hook with lots of raps of the thread. use a couple split shot to get down to them & and fish in the current. You should be able to pick a couple out of each run. white fish are fun because you normally get them in the current and they look like brown trout from the top until you get them out of the water. Good Luck.......
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#7
I've caught numbers of big whitefish (16-19") on the Logan and Blacksmith using #16-20 pheasant tails, hares ear, and Yong specials (midge). I sight fish them by finding a feeder and just watch his movements when the fly goes by him. If he moves up/down or sideways I set the hook and about 70% of the time he's eaten my fly. The only reason I use a strike indicator it to see the approximate location of my nymph.
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#8
[#ff0000]In Montana we used whitefish flies. You ask what's a whitefish fly? It's a wet fly usually in the 12 - 18 size, plain floss body, red seemed to be the best ticket, hackle tail, with another hackle wrapped like a candy cane down the length of it instead of just around the eyelet. The hackle wrapped around the body is then trimmed stubby short. We had our best luck fishing them three feet behind a water bobber casting way above them in the river and letting the set up float by. We would use colored bobbers as you usually would see your bobber doing something "weird" in the current instead of feeling a strike, your signal to set the hook. I've seen them and caught a few in the Logan River but never really targeted them there. Ever since my friends mom made raw pickled whitefish and I was young and dumb enough to try it they haven't set well with me ever since.[Tongue] They are an interesting looking fish and fun to catch. [/#ff0000]
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#9
i guess i should have clarified what a ice fly was since the way i said it made no sense haha. the small jigs i use dont look anything like a icefly therefore small jigs dont work on whitefish. but the ice flies work great. i guess that made sense.
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#10
I've heard that if they are prepared correctly they are okay for eating, but I've never tried them. I don't want to keep any, but they looked big enough to give a pretty good fight. I think I'll give them a shot saturday and see if I can coax one into a battle. Thanks for the advice.
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#11
hey chicken another side note is they are excellent eating. and generally a huge population of them live in most of our rivers. wouldnt hurt to keep some either. im a C and R guy but given the numbers in the rivers i fish i usually keep all that i catch within limits of course.
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#12
White fish are great smoked (i know,hard too find papers big enough)If you can get a smoker to do it.I may have one I can get you when I get back from St George.
Mike
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#13
If you want to catch whitefish just head to the Weber River. Went fishing on Weds. and was catching a ratio of at least 8-10 whiteys to every 1 trout. The best nymph for whiteys I've seen is either a scud or a prince, right now they are also eating glo-bugs. However I was catching them on the surface, found a section where they were rising and tied on a size 20 Trico. Catching them on a dry made it somewhat fun because they have such a small mouth and it is tough to get the timing on the hook set right, which makes for good practice. The few browns I did catch were in deeper holes and I caught them on a red serendipity and also something I tie up I call a "Candy Cane".


Always fishing...Barbless.
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#14
I have a smoker, but I don't use it much since I don't usually keep many fish. There are definitely alot of white fish in the rivers in northern utah. During the heat of summer, it seems like there are more of them in the deeper pools. I am going to sneak out saturday and try my luck at them with some of the flies that have been suggested. chicken
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