Yet, although I've caught them incidentally for more than 25 years, only during the last seven have I come to respect this aggressive, challenging, tasty, silver bullet as a gamefish. They've been a popular winter fish in a few large lakes like Simcoe in southern Ontario for decades, but like most northern-Ontario anglers, in my area around Thunder Bay many still ignore this untapped fishery. Those who do pursue them have stumbled onto non-standard techniques, which should work anywhere. Standard whitefish tactics include chumming an area several days before fishing it. Salted or fresh minnows, chopped fish or meat, cooked rice, barley, sago, or wheat have all been used effectively.
Chum attracts and holds whitefish in an area.
Current drift can present problems placing chum precisely in deep water below an ice hole, but anglers have designed methods using funnels and bait cans. On big lakes in southern and central Ontario, anglers have long used ice huts and chum for winter whitefish. On northern-Ontario lakes, chumming,let alone even fishing for whitefish, is the exception, rather than the rule. And an ice hut is a rare sight. I first realized the potential of the north's winter whitefish during a fall walleye trip.