Whitefish/Tullibee spawn?

[MNBIGBEAR]

Just curious if you guys know when the whitefish/tullibee tend to start moving shallow in the fall.

[RK]

Hiya -

I think you can start to see staging-type movement pretty early on in fall, although those are pretty spradic and short, to the point where it's not much to hangyour hat on as far as fishing goes. But once lakes turn over you seem to start seeing pronounced migrations of fish to the edges of basin areas. You get groups of ciscoes running the breaks along summer habitat basins and sometimes moving up into shallow water.

Actual spawn occurs right at ice up apparently, and mostly at night.

One kind of interesting thing I learned a few years back was where they actually spawn. For years I'd thought they spawned on rock and gravel. I'd read that for years in articles, and repeated it in my own. Turns out that's not always the case. From someone who's netted ciscoes for years in the fall, I learned that they really aren't picky about substrate, and a lot of the actually spawn over sandgrass in pretty shallow water - almost right on shore. He's a scuba diver too, and he dives areas where he nets. He said the bottom will be carpeted with cisco spawn. Some ciscoes are even open water spawners. What he did say too is that they use the same spawning areas year after year, so if you find them, you're on to something. I know from finding them on a couple lakes that you can go through the area during the day and see chewed up ciscoes all over the bottom. So they get beat up on pretty good by muskies, pike, and big walleyes...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[MNBIGBEAR]

Thanks for the awesome reply. I have only been out once where I saw pieces of whitefish on the bottom and top of the water. Looked like they were run through a meat grinder. Hoping with the cooler temps that I might have a chance of getting in on the cisco bite before deer season rolls around!

[hhguide]

I dont know if I'm correct but in the central minnesota area (alexandria) I see them every year on this one lake when the water temps hit 42 41 40. Those temperatures is when I seem to see them. like Rob said this area is filling with sand and sand grass and you can see some of them chewed in half when you go up their during the day! Good luck!

[tonkapat]

HH your temps are about right on. Usually late october and into november. I have snagged many ciscos with musky lures, they also swim(follow) the lure all the way to the boat. Are they trying to spawn with the lure? Good luck

[solbes]

Awesome info here. I don't fish muskies, but I do like to chase the big pike gals on the lake we fish in the Walker area. This lake also has a great cisco population.

I've heard that they usually spawn during night on full moon periods? If true, that would put it either Oct 21-24 or Nov 18-21st. I will be up north for sure Oct 22-24, it's MEA weekend. But the November slot is getting pretty cold. I suppose if I don't see any in October, I should man up and hit the November. Is it always on full moon cycles? I'd hate to drive up there and find out the show was over.

[AWH]

Whitefish will spawn before tullibee if you're dealing with a lake that has both species. I could be wrong, but I believe it's a common misconception that they spawn around the full moon. They very well could. But it's going to be more dictated by the weather and water temps.

Aaron