WHITEFISH OPENER

Love WF...catch and eat. Happy to be in an area where the limit is much higher than Simcoe's 2 so I can try to catch more fish. After my successful fall fishing, it hasn't changed my decision on moving on after I catch what I plan to keep. I think I only released one WF in the fall on purpose and that fish looked pristine and was released boat side being hooked by one barb (so easy release). The others I landed and kept all had bulging bellies (from the depressurization)...I was usually fishing between 45 and 60 FOW (so not unexpected). Lots of burping but still the bellies don't disappear fast enough for me to think that they have pressurized fully. Have seen dead WF under the ice when I use to ice fish in Oro-Medonte waters and know others who have as well (the heads had the hemorrhage that people talk about)...of course, there is no way for me to know for sure if it was barotrauma or poor handling but either way WF are pretty sensitive fish so it's easy to injure them just by looking at them the wrong way.
Anyway, those are my experiences and my decisions on what to do when fishing for WF.
RE the video. I see that you also missed a few hits....I seem to get that alot with the vibrado as well. They seem to do a wonderful job bringing the fish in and they often take a swipe at them but there are days when I seem to lose more hits than I land. And I agree that one really good thing about the vibrado is that you can easily tell if the lure is tangled up on itself and that snapping it up and down a bit will usually make it disentangle itself which saves alot of time bringing the lure back up to make it sit right again. Other lures, it can be more difficult to know if they are tangled up and you can lose alot of bites and not know why

Spent a lot of time sitting in a shack, watching a vexilar, fishing lakers and whitefish over 48-52 feet of water. Had them follow from bottom, to all depths, chasing, turning back, hitting the lure, chasing quickly, following slowly, striking at all depths, up to within 6feet of the ice. Both species. Even burbot too, the notorious bottom feeder, I’ve watched chase jigs, up, up, biting, missing, up, up way shallower than I previously believed they would ever chase food. I can’t imagine the fish would willingly chase food to the point of self inflicted internal damage.

I’m guessing my 50 feet isn’t “deep water” and is too shallow for barotrauma. Does the varying barometric pressure affect them differently day by day? The fish I see turning back away from my jig at mid/upper column and heading back down to bottom - would they chase up closer to the ice if the pressure was different that day? …. I don’t know. Not a scientist.

What I do know, is I’ve never seen or had any issues, never had any trouble releasing any, and I don’t intentionally take my time fighting them or anything. I do experience issues with the odd incidental perch & rockbass at similar depth. For whities and lakers, they’re fine.

Though written a time ago, I trust the source.

A good writeup of barotrauma and fizzing...

Barotrauma and Fizzing

I have no expectations that the opinions in my replies will be accepted by all that take the time to read them. Everyone will form their own opinion of any topic that is presented. The mortality rate for many species of fish in deeper water starts between 25ft. to 35ft. and deeper. This is the opinion of the many who have published an article on the subject. Gord Pyzer is a great example of an angler who has done the work and research on many fishing topics, including Barotrauma. There are many studies and articles on Barotrauma going back decades. All these studies, articles and opinions have one thing in common. Many fish get Barotrauma when wrenched from deeper water on the end of a fishing line. These fish can swim and change depths on their own because this is the way they were created. Add to this the stress of fighting for their life on the end of a fishing line, and being snatched from their natural environment has consequences. An angler can't see an internal injury to a fish. Internal injuries caused by multiple factors increases the chance that the fish will not survive. The fish may not be able to feed properly and die many days after being caught. The fish may not be able to breathe properly and die hours later. I am not saying don't catch fish, or that fishing is bad or cruel. We all fish on this Fishing Forum, that's why we enjoy reading the stories and seeing the pictures. Maybe picking up some good advice, or passing some good advice on to another member. All I am saying is that we should be careful of our opinions and our own knowledge of catching and releasing fish from deep water. You can actually teach an old dog a new trick. And you can actually change the way you fish, that will protect the fish and fishery for years to come. Catch and release, handling of fish, selective harvest etc. etc. Tons of research out there to help us all protect the fish better. But you have to take the time to read it, learn it, and practice it.

I have read several studies on Barrow Trauma and one thing is constant. You absolutely cannot reduce it by reeling up slowly. You can not feel up slowly enough. Their is in fact a study that studied reeling up fast vs slow for fish caught is deep water. The study showed that reeling up fast is better as the fish has more energy to descend quickly and fight the effects of barotrauma by getting back to the bottom as fast as possible. The more energy of fish has to do this the better the chances of the fish making it to the bottom back to compress depths.

https://www.sharetheoutdoors.com/2024/01/23...auma-in-f-is-h/

Yep definitely miss fish with the vibrato! Alot of the time they just bump into your line and it feels like a hit so when you set the hook there is a chance of accidentally snagging them! Which is why you lose them often, I also know alot of guys rip the vibrato much higher and more aggressive than I do as a part of their cadence, I do not like this because alot of the fish get snagged. You can imagine ripping a vibrato with those extremely sharp hooks in a school of 100 whitefish, you are bound to snag one. So I keep my snaps short and close to bottom when the fish are on the screen just to get their attention and then I do my tap on bottom which is when they usually hit the vibrato or rise for the top hook bait. And yes its great you can tell its tangled! Saves you from wasting your time when working the bait and a quick snap to untangle is extremely helpful when you dont have to drop back down in 100+ FOW.

Yes I’ve had very similar experiences, especially with lakers, they have no trouble getting back to the deep water but you also see them releasing ALOT of air, I can see it with my livescope and you can see all the massive bubbles coming up through your ice hole. So I am no where near worried about deep lake trout because they never come up bloated and always release alot of air and have no issues going back down. On the other hand whitefish is what concerns me, they do burp but I am afraid it may not be enough to help, and they do at times come up very stiff in the belly, which tells me theres significant internal pressure, even though they seem to get down without issues. Catching them deep to keep and then moving to the shallows seems to be the best option to prevent the issue altogether.

Yup I’ve read this! But have never attempted to fizz a whitie! I have my own suspicions around it like the risk of infection as mentioned in the article, or the healing process after fizzing? How long does it take the bladder heal? Does the bladder function properly after fizzing? Does fizzing mean the fish is restricted to the lake bottom until the bladder heals? Too many unanswered questions for me albeit I have not looked into research papers enough to be able to answer them. This is something id have to look into further.

Thanks for sharing that study – I agree that reeling in slowly for fish that do not have pneumatic ducts like walleye, bass, perch etc does absolutely nothing, it takes SIGNIFICANTLY more time for these fish to depressurize. I can definitely agree reeling the fish up slowly could tire them out, but from my experience with lakers, fighting them at a normal pace seems to help. They burp a lot during the fight, and I rarely see bloating unless I horse them in too fast. The one time I did have a laker die on me was exactly that – drag was too tight, and I brought it up way too quickly. It couldn’t descend, so I gave it to a cottage owner nearby who was happy to take it. With whitefish, I think you’re right – it does feel like a different story. Their pneumatic duct seems less effective during the fight compared to lakers. I’ve noticed that some whitefish don’t burp nearly as much and occasionally come up with a stiff belly, which probably signals pressure issues. It’s not every time, but it happens enough to make me cautious, even though they do get down to the bottom! I fear that the pressure in their stomachs could have already been enough to cause permanent damage even if they can swim back down to bottom. Basically reeling in slowly for fish that have no ducts I would say is useless, but for those that do, you are giving them a chance to release that air while reducing the rate of depth change for them, less tension on the fish and less upwards force I would think maybe keeps them a little less focused on the fight between it and the angler and more so on potentially burping out some air. It sure does work with lakers just unsure if its effective enough for whities.
Tight lines!

For clarity, fishing for any fish that does not have a pneumatic duct in more than 30FOW is not something I do because it definitely causes barotrauma but for fish with ducts that can burp the story of barotrauma is different, these should be considered 2 very different cases/ scenarios. Even when comparing 2 fish that both have these ducts the situation can be different like the previously mentioned lake trout vs whitefish.

I am glad everyone here is sharing their knowledge, at the end of the day I know far from everything about fish, to know everything about them I think youd have to become one yourself! So I appreciate everyone sharing what they’ve learnt over the years. I may know alot about catching certain fish but I am constantly learning as well, whether it be new techniques, how to target new species, or even just fish handling!

Great topic...I will put in my observations

lake trout.........winter or summer As many have stated you can see lakers chasing baits all over the water column multiple times...As for oligotrophic lakes, I typically fish for lakers anywhere from 9 to 50 down over humps. when I hook up I do not horse the fish in but rather play it out on a moderate cadence.....all of these ones will begin to burp air in large quantities at around the 10-15 foot mark and I let them do that then bring them to the boat and either pop the hook out while in the water...if netting, I keep the net in the water and same release.........they all shoot off and down quite readily Do I know they survive.......no, but it is the best I can do


Whitefish.......I was involved with a whitefish study on Simcoe some 16 years ago with a /university and this took place over a 2 day fishing outing where we landed some 26 whitefish in ?June in 76 Fow

all fish were released and we tries fast to slow retrieves to the surface......unhooking in the water and from a net...minimal handling on every fish.........3 fish died from simple bouncing around the boat and injuring their gills.......most of the other went back down with some help and 7 did not go down at all........over the course of the 2 days all but 5 of the whitefish popped back up to the surface within an average of 40 minutes.....we were lucky it was almost dead flat water in order to see that........gulls were on them very quickly and took out the eyes first

was a learning experience for me.........unfortunatly the 10 day study was never published and I have often wondered why


It may be a tad different in the winter with much colder water, but not really imo

All great information to take in. I agree WF and lakers are very different in their ability to pressurize/depressurize (lakers appear to be better...and maybe why they are a bit more capable of chasing deep to shallow, etc....although WF can as well, they don't seem to do it as fast as lakers and I always assumed it was more that the lakers are "more" predatory than WF but maybe the reason is they are less capable of fast depth changes as lakers). It seems like we are all mostly talking about barotrauma effects that are very easily visible like the swim bladder expansion, lots of air burping out, etc., etc. But there are lots of effects that are not easily visible so at the end of the day, it's whether or not the released fish die (short and longer term) which is the only measure that really counts. For this, we will only know from the studies that have been done. Longshank's experience with the study is interesting and too bad not published for whatever reason. There are some pretty well known barotrauma researchers in Canada (I think Carleton Univ. and out in Regina, I believe)....good to know there are experts working on more of these issues and also on the best way to release. It seems fizzing is not that good and idea as it can cause a whole bunch of other problems for the fish....and I can't imagine fizzing as sensitive as WF will be too successful for most people who have little experience with fizzing and how many people actually catch WF on a consistent basis to be familiar enough with handling them gently while they thrash around...they are definitely bleeders.

Yep definitely miss fish with the vibrato! Alot of the time they just bump into your line and it feels like a hit so when you set the hook there is a chance of accidentally snagging them! Which is why you lose them often, I also know alot of guys rip the vibrato much higher and more aggressive than I do as a part of their cadence, I do not like this because alot of the fish get snagged. You can imagine ripping a vibrato with those extremely sharp hooks in a school of 100 whitefish, you are bound to snag one. So I keep my snaps short and close to bottom when the fish are on the screen just to get their attention and then I do my tap on bottom which is when they usually hit the vibrato or rise for the top hook bait. And yes its great you can tell its tangled! Saves you from wasting your time when working the bait and a quick snap to untangle is extremely helpful when you dont have to drop back down in 100+ FOW.

Sometimes, I do feel like they bump the line but other times, I think they may be hitting the lure in the middle of the body and so when you go to set the hook, the hook may not land on a good part of the mouth and only hook it for a short while before it pops out (I would love to see some video one day of missed hits and short hook ups to see if this is right).
I've never seen that many fish under me so have no idea. But videos of people fishing in the US on piers in the fall for WF running into the rivers show alot of snagged fish because of how they snap their lures (like what you have said) so for sure that happens. It was how some people snagged Simcoe WF during ice fishing using the William's half/half hammered jigging spoons with side hooks not removed...you can tell that was what they were trying to do. My best fishing for Simcoe WF using the same lure has always been very light taps after a few larger yo-yo-ing motions to draw them in. Like with the vibrado, they usually hit during the light taps or if I am slowly raising the spoon away from them. Saw many snagged fish with the violent snapping jiggers.
Top hook. I stopped using them - too much trouble. But now after seeing what you said in the video about having it much higher, I may try it again - I always had that issue of not knowing which bait the fish was interested and caused some problems with how I moved my line because I wasn't sure which bait it was looking at. So the larger separation makes sense so I may give it a try again.
So glad I don't have to fish in waters deeper than about 50 or 60' (takes far too long to get the lure down no spot lock....but my pedaling kayak doesn't do too badly if it's not too windy out there

Sorry for creating such a stir, but at least the feedback on your post was positive. Kind of feel that I took the focus off your great, cold adventure on the water. Look forward to watching your next video. Stay safe.