Whitefish

Hi there. I've been fishing lake Nipissing in the winter time, since i moved to North any 6 years ago. I have always heard their are whitefish in the lake but i've never caught one. I have caught plenty of herring but never a whitefish. are they really in there? is there a trick to catching them?

Welcome aboard ClarkA, yes there are definitely whitefish in Nip. Try going old school with a tip up, the trick is to watch for the end of the tip up to come up instead of moving down. Good luck and let us know how you make out

Would you fish them in the same places you fish perch and walleyes? i used to fish whitefish all the time in simcoe, doesn't seem to be as popular as up here

We are usually in 30 feet of water when we fish up there and we do catch perch, walleye and pike at that depth as well. We used to fish with an operator up there that was a master at catching whitefish, there is a knack to catching them. We have a board member, Longshank, who does well catching whitefish as well, I am sure he will have some input for you when he see's this post.

Definitely whitefish are present in the lake.
The overall catch numbers are relatively low compared to other species in the lake. Both Whitefish and Cisco (Lake Herring) are cold water species and as such the health of both their populations are highly dependent on water temperatures.....so with Nipissing, for the most part, being a relatively shallow lake (other than for a few isolated areas).........the warmer water temperatures and lower lake oxygen levels can have a significant effect on their populations. According to surveys....Whitefish catch numbers have been 'pretty' stable over the last 5 or so years but apparently the L. Herring numbers have declined fairly substantially from 15-20 years ago. The changing environment in the lake and alterations to the lakes food chain may also be having some impact on their numbers. L. Herring, in particular, are said to be a bell weather species.....a key indicator of a lakes health.

http://lnsbr.nipissingu.ca/wp-content/uplo...e-Nipissing.pdf

Hey grumpa wouldn't all the netting that what's going on in Lake Nipissing, wouldn't that affect the other types of fish in the system as well.I have heard when they pull their nets there's lots of other fish dead in the nets as well..

Possibly fishmagnet.
The lakes 2013 walleye study indicated commercial harvest numbers above what was recommended or at least thought to be sustainable given the walleye population present in the lake during the study period.
There certainly is fish byproduct from the commercial harvest. How much of that would be lake Herring or Whitefish is unknown. Generally in the summer the whitefish and herring would be deeper looking for their preferred temperature and dissolved oxygen zones. Other than what information has been basically provided by the First Nations.....very little has been done to specifically study the whitefish and L. herring populations on their own. The MNRF has done preliminary data collection for their Lake basin management plan but because both species don't form a 'huge' portion of the fish caught (or even targeted) on the lake by sport or commercial fishermen...... it's not likely much time will be dedicated to the study of either species.

Thanks grumpa ... Just very happy that the netting has stopped on nippising for now..

You and me both fishmagnet.

Based on my own personal experience, the whitefish were more plentiful 20 years ago than what I'm seeing now. That is true also of pike.
When the lake makes a full recovery I'm sure those numbers will improve.

I thought the netting was suspended only until spring?

The nets are non-selective so the by-product catch will vary. It seems that even if fish are released alive, assuming the owner of the net checks their catch regularly, the gills may be too far gone for survival. These "released" fish become meals for other fish, birds, eventually crabs. It can be a high % of by product dumped back.

The huge, increasing demand for seafood is staggering. I don't think that our demand for seafood can keep up what the earth can give us. A huge balancing act.

I thought the netting was suspended only until spring?

The nets are non-selective so the by-product catch will vary. It seems that even if fish are released alive, assuming the owner of the net checks their catch regularly, the gills may be too far gone for survival. These "released" fish become meals for other fish, birds, eventually crabs. It can be a high % of by product dumped back.

That's correct tuna.
A very few news reports did indicate an indefinite ban. However, as I recall, the original announcement from Chief McLeod, I believe last August, was that the current suspension would carry through to the 2016 spring fishing moratorium. Effectively reducing the commercial netting season from 7 to 3 months when it came into effect (which, I guess would have been June through to last August). Nothing definite beyond that was originally indicated. However, I think everyone was hoping that perhaps the ban might be continued/extended or reintroduced in some form should the most recent netting survey results indicate continued stress within the walleye population.

And buddy it's interesting that your observation has been that the northern pike numbers are also possibly down. As I recall, the MNRF's lake basin study made the same observation as well. I honestly can't recall what the study said about the whitefish numbers (will have to look at it again).

Grumpa, I took your lead and searched for the MNRF's lake basin study. That is quite an interesting report. To my shock it shows that although the whitefish population is relatively low, it has also been very stable throughout the study years.
Perhaps due to the normal low harvest levels my perception has been skewed.
I think that others might like to see this also so I'm adding the link.
https://dr6j45jk9xcmk.cloudfront.net/docume...val-2014-09.pdf

We have not been doing that well for past 4 maybe 6 years for whitefish. I believe that's because of 2 reasons.

First is location

2nd is just not targetting them like we used to.

I know of a few spots that we would be quite optomistic in getting WF, but we just don't travel there anymore.

having said that we still get incidentals now and then and most have been just under the ice or 3- 5 feet down with mid size perch minnow on a single hook.

That's all I can offer for whitefish.

I have not fished Nip without geting whities... if you would like when we have good ice you can join me on an outing