Whitefish Chain

[JP Z]

Firsttime, this is for the Whitefish Chain of lakes in Crosslake. I would post your question in the Garrison/Mille Lacs forum.

[quijibo]

Whitefish is going to be busier then usual this Saturday with the Crosslake Lions Fishing tourney going on. I think they have around 70-80 boats right now.

I guess I picked the wrong two weeks to go on vacation, I hate trying to fish after a tournament. It's hard enough to catch a decent fish on the chain without them being spooked.

[quijibo]

But there are lake trout in the Chain so seeing pictures of them would make sense...

Yes, but you sure don't see them anymore.

My point is that there are Musky in the chain.

Is there a site for the Lion's Tournament?

[anchor man]

Even with the tournament going on, it doesn't seem too crowded out there, plenty of room and places to fish away from it all. It helps that it's multi-species so not everyone is piled onto just the walleye or bass spots at the same time. I'll be out there Sat evening trying to catch a walleye.

[ozzie]

the tournament is hardly noticable with all the other traffic out there...at least in the past fishing or cruising during the tourny you see the flags on the front of the boats if you are looking but it's only 70 boats added to a 14 lake system....

we hear of musky but alot of hearsay....lake trout on the other hand are definatley out there.....good luck and hopefully you have great weather and good fishing on your vacation Quijibo

[quijibo]

Thanks, I will, it's always special when I can get back there. Hopefully my brothers haven't left me a bunch of repairs to do, being a Carpenter isn't always great.

[Moses2531]

There are Muskies in the chain given the river coming in, but not the fishery there could be if they stocked them. Some nice fish came in from that tourny Saturday! Nice to see some guys found some, but bringing them in from the entire chain and having them all released in Cross!? Thats no fun for us Upper Whitefish guys! haha!

[anchor man]

Moses, how did the walleye catches look? anyone with some good number?

[Ybone]

The river coming in is the Pine and there are few fish in it above Whitefish and certainly not muskies and the few small lakes upstream are not muskie lakes either. Fish can't come from downstream because of the dam. I've heard rumors of an occasional muskie but have never seen one and most turn out to be northerns with unusual color.

[mnspearingguide]

talked to the local C.O. about this last year. there has been a few muskies spotted in the chain over the last couple years, nothing confirmed by the c.o., however he said chances are that people are personally catching them in other lakes and trying to get them in the chain. So basically there are a few individuals out there that think they can manage, create, or want to alter the fisheries in the lake to there like'n. Unfortunatly we have to put up with this, everyone has there own opinion and honestly allot of them make sense for certain things, but overall, not to sure. We did confirm that there is Carp in the lake this past winter. I am guessing they are not native here. but I can't say for sure.

[ozzie]

the DNR said 4 years ago that the common carp was not present in the chain...so that would tell me if there are carp out there it is new to the system

[Moses2531]

Anchor I was actually happy to see some nice walleyes were weighed in considering the tourny doesnt run during the ideal walleye hours. I believe an 8lb won it and there were 2 more around 7. The numbers turned in were up as well, not that it was a huge acheivement because if I remember right only 5 boats weighed them in last year! haha! Not sure on the total weighed in this year but watching the second and third flights come in Id say at least 10 boats had some eyes. We found a few that morning but nothing worth weighing in.

[B420]

mnspearing guide, why would it be unfortunate to have muskies in the chain? Plenty of little pike, and tons and tons of ciscos to eat. Sounds like a perfect match to me.

[ozzie]

probably b unfortunate as if there were muskies then they feel the need to protect them from the guys that spear in the winter and spearing is common on the chain. I really don't care if muskies are stocked in the chain but I don't want them introduced and then they say there is no more spearing out there...

[B420]

Ozzie,

When the DNR stocks new muskie waters they don't ban spearing anymore. That was done long ago to 20 lakes if I recall and simply doesn't happen anymore ie. Lake Roosevelt in Outing. So if the chain was stocked spearing would not be impacted at all.

[bigred84]

They do close the waters to spearing if they stock muskies. That was the big argument w/the stocking of the south long lakes.

[Dan L]

Any new waters that are stocked with muskies are not banned from spearing. It is on the DNR web site under the "Long Range Musky and Pike Managemnet Plan". I don't musky fish but it would sure be cool to see muskies stocked in the Whitefish Chain. I don't think it could do anything but good to have muskies in the chain.

[B420]

Bigred84,

I don't know where you are getting your information from, but you are completely wrong. Did you happen to attend any of the public input meetings for the South Longs? I was at all of them and it was made perfectly clear there would be no additional spearing bans on newly stocked waters.

I did a quick check of the MNDNR's long range pike/musky management plan and it clearly states in Objective 8, Stragety 8.1 " Do not implement any NEW spearing bans as part of expanding trophy muskellunge fishing opportunities".

[mnspearingguide]

Why introduce another population of fish into something that isn't broken. Yes there is allot of small pike, but there is also allot of big pike. this time of year the big pike are down deep, 30+ feet and as the summer continues, probably even deeper. The difference between summer fishing, and winter fishing - water temps...... Pike like cold water. the young pike stay shallow (less than 30 fow)for survival, and the easy food source like minnows. I like to fish muskie too, but I sure don't think they need to be in every big lake, its kinda like the krispy kreme, when there was only a couple in the state, it was a treat, now they are everywhere I don't have a appeal to them. We all could go round and round on this subject AGAIN. But why. lets enjoy what we have.

[B420]

The pike fishing on the chain could definetely be classified as broken! I am very aware that the pike are out deep all summer, thats where we fish them. Still very rare to get anything in the 10lb range. Have you seen the DNR numbers for the pike? In whitefish they netted 451 pike with only 3 over 30". Only 9% of the pike were over 24", that doesn't sound like a healthy pike fishery to me. Cross was a tad bit better with 11% over 24".

[mnspearingguide]

Take there netting survey for what you want. summer time netting? shallow water? deep water? sand? weeds? breaks? don't know!! I can argue the size of pike, sitting in a dark house, we will see an average of 2-3 pike over the 10lb range in a 2-3 day sit. My OPINION is that the chain is not broken. We see plenty of nice pike, but here is the difference, what does a person call perfect?????? Everyone enjoys different things. so it will never be perfect no matter what happens.

[ff15]

Whitefish would probably be a great lake for muskies, and i love to musky fish. but, whitefish doesn't need them, leave the lake alone. if you are not catching big pike there, you are probably fishing the wrong areas. i have recently started fishing this lake and see plenty of nice fish. try different strategies and go deeper.

[anchor man]

what are some of the tactics to going after those bigger pike on the chain down deep? I'm thinking I'd like to spend a bit less time trying to catch a walleye and go after pike more often. You talking sucker minnows, trolling 3-ways with big baits down deep?

[ozzie]

My buddies and I troll slip bobbers with heavy egg sinkers with suckers and I think that would work setting the depth in the 30ft range and then just pulling it over 50+ ft of water....think I have something to try this weekend

[Moses2531]

Could you imagine the size Musky WFC could grow?? Its exciting I think. I hear the arguments about not fixing what's broken, and I know that the age class shows the Pike population is healthy but I really cant believe that some guys out here think that there isnt an issue with the size of the pike. 50ft, 5ft.. suckers, leeches, raps.. if you set the hook there is an overwhelming chance that its a pike between 18-24 inches.

And also it wouldnt really be "Fixing" anything. We all know how elusive Musky can be and I hardly think that anyone would really even notice if there were some more Muskies swimming around out there other than maybe losing a snake pike or walleye boatside if a Musky follows it up. Itd be nice to have another species to target out there, one that could increase the sizes of other species, and take care of some of the bountiful baitfish to get those walleyes hungrier! Dont see the negatives of putting them in a body of water, especially this one that has real trophy potential.

[ff15]

if you want to musky fish go to leech, mille lacs, or one of the other well known musky lakes. putting a slot on the lake would help get this lake to a trophy lake. it is getting to the point to where people want muskys in just about every lake and would take away the adventure to trying to get one.

[ff15]

three-ways would probably be your best bet, but i wouldn't use sucker minnows. i would get a 6-8 inch deep diver that is cisco colored, (grandmas, jakes, or a depth raider). they also make a pike colored as well that would do good on the lake. also something with a little red in it. watch your graph and find where the bait fish are schooling up. dont be afraid to open water troll, alot of the big fish like to wander

[anchor man]

Ozzie, are you trolling with the bobberes at a good pace pulling the suckers, or letting the bobber sit and then slowly creeping down the line. I have a few areas in mind I'd like to try this weekend on WF.

Thanks

[ozzie]

the method we use is a strong leader with a 3/0 red circle hook above that we use a egg sinker with a large foam slip bobber above that...slip bobbers pull behind the boat better and if they are weighted slip bobber better yet...we pull these rigs up to 1 mph.

I will be on the chain this weekend in the pontoon and will be giving this a try. Good Luck this weekend

[BOUNCED]

Stock the WFC with Muskies....Really?

I thought the state was on a mission to stop the spread of invasive species?

There is nothing wrong with the Pike size and population on Whitefish I can show you first hand in the winter. The numbers stated above from the DNR's website were taken on 8/01/11. How many big pike do you expect to show up in an August netting in the heat of summer? Here are the numbers for Whitefish and Leech for comparison in 2011:

(20-24) (25-29) (30+)

121 23 5 Leech

144 24 3 Whitefish

It doesn't appear that the presence of Muskies in Leech has done anything to increase the size of the Pike. Plus if you were to introduce Muskies in the chain you'd have a chain of lakes by the name of Whitefish with no whitefish left? You'd have to rename Big Trout to Big Muskie. Although they'd probably just increase the stocking to 5 times the current levels to maintain decent looking numbers.