Whitefish Quest New Lake, Every Fish = new PB

Wow that’s epic whitefishin’! Congrats on those beauties

Very nice!

Now those are Whitefish.....Nice going Nick.

Arnie

What a great day out and good on you guys for getting together to explore a new/old lake and being rewarded with epic fishing. Enjoy the fillets.

Wow that’s some super luck!

Wow what a great day! what do you guys mean by a remnant population? Are these fish that were stocked and do not spawn? Why would there not be multiple year classes? Jusr curious?

Wow what a great day! what do you guys mean by a remnant population? Are these fish that were stocked and do not spawn? Why would there not be multiple year classes? Jusr curious?

These are all natural fish.
That’s a question for a biologist. I’m basing this on rumours of collapse in the whitefish population on the lake, from multiple sources including anglers and former surveyors of the lakes. But I’m no expert and a professional opinion I would certainly take over my assumptions.

Those are some nice looking fish! Are you jigging for them or live bait? I go up to Green stone area every August and have found out that a lake we fish for Walleye also has white fish. We tried to target them last year but did not get any. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Mike

Wow what a great day! what do you guys mean by a remnant population? Are these fish that were stocked and do not spawn? Why would there not be multiple year classes? Jusr curious?

For context, my family cottage is located on this lake and for the last 5 years or so I’ve been working on gathering any information I can find on the coldwater species. The MNRF stock the lake annually with lake trout, likely to bolster the natural population (the lake itself is just under 500ha). As Nicholas mentioned, the lake was once known for its abundant whitefish and cisco fishery but has overgone many changes since then, largely due to increased angling pressure and shoreline development. The hope is there are a variety of age classes still present although our sample size from Saturday were consistently ~25” likely fish at least 12 years or older. My goal is to find the whitefish from a younger age glass and search for other places they may be concentrated in the lake.

Thanks for the reply Mike, we were looking for them around the 30’-60’ range but passed over deeper water as well. This time of year they are likely shallower but if you’re looking for them in August they would probably be deeper. We were vertical jigging with soft plastic minnow imitations and vibratos. The majority of the fish we marked were suspended.

Wow! That's a hot bite,well done!

Thanks for the tips!

Mike

Well done gentlemen, looks like you guys had an awesome day!!!

Glad you guys found the whiteys on that lake. I passed a sign that points to that lake every week over the winter and always thought it would be good to give that lake a try someday but there is never any time. I was looking at a house in that area before ending up up here in Muskoka. That first whitey must have been a great feeling to know they are still in there and to get such large fish too! Hope you find the cisco in that lake as well. It is concerning to see only large whiteys though. Hopefully, there are younger cohorts in that lake as well.

Simply WOW