White Fish

[Tosh]

I was fishing the highwood today and in the middle of a snow storm white fish were surfacing everywhere? At least i am 99.9% they were white fish and i am at a loss, were they eating?(i could not get any takes). I might be mistaken but i thought they were bottom feeders only?. I cannot get outwitted by white fish and now its a pride thing. any advise is apriciated

[brewingup]

i used to almost exclusively catch whities on drys when i was a kid (bow in banff).

 

As to what they were rising for, hmmm probably snow flakes the dummies

[trailhead]

I think they were probably taking midges of some type, I have seen the same thing on the Crowsnest in winter.

[trailhead]

Oh and I caught a 18 inch whitefish on a size 8 hopper at the beginning September on the Highwood.

[TerryH]

I was fishing the highwood today and in the middle of a snow storm white fish were surfacing everywhere? At least i am 99.9% they were white fish and i am at a loss, were they eating?(i could not get any takes). I might be mistaken but i thought they were bottom feeders only?. I cannot get outwitted by white fish and now its a pride thing. any advise is apriciated

I was fishing the St. Mary River in BC in mid-September using a big foam hopper/stone dryfly. I kept getting hits but no hookups, and some from decent sized fish. So I went to something smaller, and still no hookups. Then smaller again, and finally a hookup. To my surprise, it was a nice rocky. I kept fishing, and in that particular run, I kept hooking rockies, and all on a dryfly. It was a first for me, but I guess there's always something new if you spend enough time on the water. Terry

 

[agbff]

They may have been chowin right under the surface on emergers... You have to decide what type of rise it is. If its a big splashy rise and you see the snout first or the whole fish come out of the water, chances are they are feeding on the top. If you see only dorsal fin or a dorsal and a tail then they might be eating right under the surface. If you can't get them on a certain pattern you think they are feeding on, switch it up or try something smaller.

[SilverDoctor]

I was fishing the highwood today and in the middle of a snow storm white fish were surfacing everywhere? At least i am 99.9% they were white fish and i am at a loss, were they eating?(i could not get any takes). I might be mistaken but i thought they were bottom feeders only?. I cannot get outwitted by white fish and now its a pride thing. any advise is apriciated

 

They tend to be more actively in the system as the water cools. They certainly will feed on or more particularly just under the surface in the meniscus layer, as opposed to insects laying on the surface layer. often following emergers up as flyon said. They can be a lot of fun.