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Big Sandy Tullibee


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Just wondering if the Tullibee (Cisco)are biting? If so, where abouts and what time of the day? I went a couple times last year but had no luck.

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Late March to early April is the time...later the better.

The whole north side of the upper main lake is where I'd look.

Keep an eye open for me,I'll be there.

HPIM1589.jpg

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Thanks a bunch. If I make it out (which i really hope I do) I'll look for you.

I'll have a Marcum hat on this time around and red/black Artic Armor.

Running Strike Master now too.I really gotta change my avatar.

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They are a blast. I've been up a couple times, one time we really got into 'em, got about 50. Most were in the 1 1/2-3lb range, but we got a couple monsters over 3 1/2. I think they're the most fun fish to catch through the ice. They bite on light tackle and fight as good or better than any freshwater fish.

I did figure out that they bite alot better on mayflies than anything else. We were catching a few here and there, then one puked up a bunch of mayfly larvae, so we put one on and the fish just went crazy over 'em.

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Small jigs and waxies or you can cut open the belly and let the mayflies pour out.Some will still be alive.

Fish about 17 feet down.

If you have a flasher then you can see them come in really suspended high.

Just get the bait in front of them and lift a foot or 2.

They are normally pretty aggresive and green all of the way to the hole.

What a blast!!!

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ck, are those larvae in the lake year round, or do they just have a big hatch at iceout? I'd imagine the fishing would be alot easier earlier in the year when there isn't unlimited forage

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No....we were all over the lake.I got way more pics,but the fish are laying on the ice.

We caught a burbot,sucker,tullibees,gills,perch,crappies,pike,walleye

and rock bass.

I think we hit 6 spots.

We ended up taking 10 crappies...released 4...8 tullies for the smoker and 1 gill,1 burbot for the broiler.

Here's the bigest tullie of the day.

02222009_tullibee03.jpg

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Just tullibees. My Grandfather used to net the lake for them in the fall to smoke/pickle. He calls them whitefish, but he doens't know the difference. Actually, alot of people don't know the difference. The easiest way to tell is from the mouth. Tullibees lower jaw sticks out slightly farther than the upper. Whitefish are the opposite.

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Whitefish and tullibees in Big Sandy, I net every fall. More Tullies then white's. I can get as many tullies as I want, a lot of work but boy do they taste good in the smoker. I just smoked up a batch on saturday.

Catch ya on the ice,

Bart

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That looks like a big tullie....must have been fun if you were using lite tackle. smile

You know they are a blast.

5 feet to 18 feet down and head shaking ,drag smoking action all the way to the hole.

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Whitefish and tullibees in Big Sandy, I net every fall. More Tullies then white's. I can get as many tullies as I want, a lot of work but boy do they taste good in the smoker. I just smoked up a batch on saturday.

Catch ya on the ice,

Bart

What do you use for a brine?

I'm looking for a good one.

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CK, its a mixture of salts, spices, and sugar. Let sit in brine for 24 hours. I've been told it's some of the best smoked fish people have had. What's your e-mail, I suppose I can send ya a copy.

Bart

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Whitefish and tullibees in Big Sandy, I net every fall. More Tullies then white's. I can get as many tullies as I want, a lot of work but boy do they taste good in the smoker. I just smoked up a batch on saturday.

Catch ya on the ice,

Bart

I could have this backwards, but do the Whitefish have significantly larger scales and are the Tullibees the ones that have a Green smell to them??? confused

And Care to post the Brine Recipe on here...thank you...

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They were spotty at best ,but we did find a few...

Sunday was another tough day.A tullie can be one of the hardest fish out there to locate and catch.

They just seem to be all over.No schools , just 1 at a time for the most part.

Boy did Mallard get a ration of shizite last night from Mark & yours truely for going skunked on tullies and by the hind hair he caught a slab at the end of the day.

Well today was a different story.He started off with 2 in the 1st spot.

08iceseason532.jpg

08iceseason536.jpg

Mark and I were not marking any fish and things mellowed for Mallard too so we made a move to another 40 foot hole from the 28 fow by the flat we had been working the last few weeks.

There was nothing there that got usa wanting to set up so we made another move.

The last move as it turned out.We went back to where we had made the second move yesterday.

Nothing in the 1st few holes working a breakline ,but then we marked fish in 3 holes at the end of our hole line.We punched a few more around where we saw those fish up high in the water column which were in our minds....tullies.

08iceseason528.jpg

It did not take long for Mallard to strike again and again.

08iceseason535.jpg

Mark was working hard for those tullies today and as the day wore on he made a run for Mallards totals.

08iceseason548.jpg

08iceseason537.jpg

Although the big ones are fun they do not smoke up near as good as the smaller ones do.

08iceseason556.jpg

You can't toss them back so you keep them anyway ,but these lil guys are what you really want.

08iceseason540.jpg

These are too big for good smokers.

08iceseason558.jpg

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18 on Sunday,12 on Saturday.

They are stuffed on mayfly larva.

It's looking like a good time to get out there with the temps warming up.

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